The coveted Blue Riband for the fastest yacht based on the fjord went to Christoph Avenarius with his Comet 45, but the infamous "mother-in-law" almost threw a spanner in the works.
It happened at buoy six, the shoal mark at Holnis Enge, where a number of cruising and regatta sailors had already ordered "plots" because they thought they could take a shortcut. Peter Schmidt with his Evento 42 "Silva Hispaniola" gave the inward-lying "Ilvitello" no room, Avenarius had to take evasive action and leave the mark to leeward instead of to windward. In the process, the spinnaker caught on the tip of the "mother-in-law" and tore. The "Silva Hispaniola" was later disqualified, but the "Ilvitello" was still able to sail the fastest time with the heavier replacement spinnaker. It was Avenarius' third Blue Riband in a row.
The fastest foreign yacht was Dr Uwe Lebens' Reichel/Pugh 57 "Scho-Ka-Kola", which won the blue and yellow ribbon.
A total of 28 yachts took part in the ORC International classification system, 17 of which were in classification group 1 of the largest yachts. The medium-sized and smaller yachts were rather lacklustre. "We still have to analyse why the small ORC classes didn't come this year," said Claus-Otto Hansen, regatta chairman of the organising Flensburger Segel-Club, to the Flensburger Tageblatt.
Bernd Kriegel's Judel/Vrolijk 49 "Unique" won the overall ORC Int. classification. A similar picture of participants was seen in the somewhat less precise ORC Club classification. 24 starters in total, 14 of them in the large group. The overall winner was the Judel/Vrolijk 41 "Inshallah VI", with David Aisher, commodore of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, at the helm as guest helmsman.
Christopher Wuttke's Rogers 46 "Gut's n Glory" won the extra IRC classification (10 rated yachts), Andar Sundvall from Norway won the Dansk Handicap classification (19 starters) with his "More Chaos" (Swan 50 R), Falk Kaempfe's Dragonfly 800R "Nöö" won the first ever multihulls (7) and John Lange won the Swan Cup (24 starters) with his Swan 42 "Lusso Lupa.
Lars Bolle
Chief Editor Digital
