Offshore Team Germany wins the new Ocean Race Europe: The "Einstein" coup: victory in the final metres

Offshore Team Germany has won the premiere of the three-part Ocean Race Europe. Second place in the final coastal race off Genoa was enough for skipper Robert Stanjek (Berlin) and his "Einstein" crew to score a coup in the prelude to The Ocean Race 2022/23. After three legs through southern European waters and two coastal races, the German-flagged team beat Charlie Enright's US team 11th Hour Racing (15 points) and the French Imoca "LinkedOut" (14 points) to win the classification of five Imoca yachts with a total of 16 points.

The decision in favour of the "Einstein" was only made in the heart-stopping final on the finish line of the last race. With better positioning and less than a boat length ahead, Stanjek, Phillip Kasüske (Berlin), Brit Annie Lush and French navigator Benjamin Dutreux narrowly won the thrilling bow-to-bow duel with Thomas Ruyant's "LinkedOut" crew (France) - which was enough for overall victory despite the Americans winning the race. The German team had started the new race as outsiders with a ten-year-old Imoca yacht. However, two fitting keys opened the door to the surprising success: firstly, the non-foiler "Einstein" benefited from some favourable weather conditions compared to the opponents with boats with the youngest Imoca foilers. Secondly, the crew led by Robert Stanjek also knew how to position themselves well time and again, making profitable decisions - as on the last leg from Alicante to Genoa with a deliberate solo run. "The winning point," says Stanjek, "was that we put together a top team and also acted as a team. The small disadvantage in the hardware hardly had any effect."

Offshore Team Germany achieved the masterpiece in the thriller final on Saturday. Just one boat length ahead was enough for victory - one boat length behind would have meant third place. Stanjek said shortly after the duel success: "I must have aged three years in the last few minutes. It could have been less exciting..." The last section to the finish was a nail-biter, not only for the sixth-placed sailor at the London Olympics, but also for all the sailors involved and the spectators watching on their screens at home: "When they come from behind at speed, it's incredibly difficult to defend. We wanted to sail low to keep clear, but the Imoca slowed us down a lot. In the end, we were able to sail our angles again. And we got into a real match-race position, luffed to get 'LinkedOut' into a bad position and turned the nose into the finish at the last moment. That worked out. I'm incredibly happy." Here is the decisive phase in three pictures:

The mood on board the VO65 yacht of the Mirpuri Foundation Racing Team was similarly cheerful. Skipper Yoann Richomme and his team were jubilant after winning the last race and celebrated their class victory ahead of Sailing Poland with Ocean Race veteran Bouwe Bekking and a very young crew, who made a strong comeback in the final and finished second behind the Portuguese class dominators. The Mirpuri team had started the predominantly light-winded southern European rally as top favourites, was the only team to contest the race with new sails and, after a slip-up at the start, got better and better. Sailing Poland and AkzoNobel finished second and third in the VO65 overall standings. After winning the first leg and suffering a few setbacks, the Austrian Ocean Race Project came fifth in the final standings behind Team Childhood I.

For Offshore Team Germany, the work continues immediately after the successful coup, as partners are still being sought for the big goal of participating in The Ocean Race 2022/23. Team boss Jens Kuphal said: "We are incredibly proud, especially of how the team has come together. Our plan to combine Olympic expertise with offshore and Imoca expertise has worked out perfectly. We were also able to survive as a non-foiler. Of course, the conditions helped us. We had prepared ourselves for these Mediterranean conditions and optimised the sails especially for them. It is a great gift, a great pleasure to be able to experience this and to be able to compete with such top opponents. We want to continue on this path until the world race next year."

Click here for the final results of the Ocean Race Europe (please click!).