Bodensee Rund Um: "Green Horny", "Holy Smoke" and "Orange Utan" on the podium

At the 68th Rund Um on Lake Constance, the Swiss took home the biggest trophies. Sammy Smits and his team from the Arbon Yacht Club won the popular annual Lake Constance sailing race with their catamaran "Green Horny" ahead of their club mate on Albert Schiess' "Holy Smoke". Ralph Schatz's twin-hulled "Orange Utan" took third place for the Lindau Sailing Club. The winning cat beat more than 300 competitors with a sailed time of just under seven hours, reaching the finish line at 2.27 a.m. on Saturday morning.

A curious finale characterised this year's classic, because for a long time Fritz Trippolt looked like the sure winner with a lead of several nautical miles. But shortly before the finish, last year's winner got stuck in a doldrums off Nonnenhorn. And with him, the "Orang Utan", which had been in second place in the meantime, also parked itself under land and found itself in one of the not entirely untypical Lake Constance traps. At the same time, the course chosen by the "Green Horny" crew, which was still far behind at the time, in the centre of the lake over the Rhine dam proved to be spot on. The twin-hulled boat benefited from freshening winds there and eventually overtook its stationary rivals at a speed of 14 knots.

The starting signal for the Rund Um was given in extremely calm conditions. Parts of the field had still not crossed the start line after half an hour. But a little later, a thunderstorm from the bay of Rorschach gave them a boost. "We almost stumbled," reported Sammy Smits about one of the dicey situations during the Lake Constance Marathon, "the wind came from the side with two Beaufort more. We were already on a skid and could only just throw up the mainsail." This was not the only challenge for the eventual winners: "In Lake Überlingen, we sailed like a windscreen wiper. We were always going back and forth in search of wind."

Many boats were not expected to reach the finish line of the largest sailing regatta on Lake Constance on Saturday afternoon with around 1500 participants on 312 boats. The course took the fleet over 100 kilometres from Lindau via Romanshorn, Constance and Überlingen back to the starting harbour.

Click here for the results.