Kieler Woche - Platoon, Rockall IV and Solconia German ORC Champions

by Herman Hell on 26 Jun 2014 Kieler Woche 2014 - In a series that featured a wide variety of conditions and course formats over five days of competition, the International German ORC Championship (IDM) has this year produced three worthy new champions who excelled among some tough local and international competition.

With a strong start made by earning double-bullets in the opening two offshore races, Harm Muller-Spreer's brand new Carkeek 47 Platoon then overcame a DNF setback in Race three to finish three-one-one-one in the remaining races, thereby dominating ORC Class I with the benefit of one discarded race. Being faster and longer than most of her rivals often helped in the crowded race course area that contained 64 boats from six countries spread among three classes, particularly in the light five-eight knot conditions of the last three races. Helping Muller-Spreer find the right paths was multi-class perennial German champion Markus Wieser.

In Class II Christopher Opielok's Corby 38 Rockall IV was impressive in her ORC championship debut, winning a tough class that had repeated general recalls and black flags on their inshore race starts.

Class III-IV was the largest class at 28 entries, and the most competitive considering the smallest winning points margins among its top four finishers. Max Gurgel's Salona 37 Solconia did very well to win three races outright and discard only a fifth place, but two X-332 Sports were not far behind: Axel Seehafer's Sportsfreund two points back won Silver and Jurgen Klinghardt's 2010 ORC Worlds-winning team on Patent 3, helmed by Jens Tschentscher, was only another four points back to win Bronze.

All these will join a much larger fleet that will assemble here in Kiel over the next five weeks for the ORC World Championship, with its entry count now at 176 teams from 18 countries.

Offshore:

ORC I IDM (7): 1. 'Platoon' Harm Müller-Spreer (Hamburg,1/1(13)3,5/1/1/1) Punkte 8,5; 2. 'Silva Neo' Dennis Gehrlein (Rheinhausen,6/13/1/1/3(13)2) 26; 3. 'Oxygen' Morten Ulrikkeholm (NOR,13/2/2/2(4)3/4) 26; 4. 'Desna' Sven Wackerhagen (Kiel,4/5/3/3,5(6)6/5) 26,5; 5. 'LM Hispaniola' Horst Mann (Kiel,7/3/4(13)7/4/3) 28; 6. 'IMMAC One4all' Kai Mares (Kiel,2/4(13)13/2/2/6) 29;

ORC II IDM (7): 1. 'Rockall IV/' Christopher Opielok (HKG,4/1/1/4(8)1/4) Punkte 15; 2. 'LEU' Albert Schweizer (Bremen,1/2/5/7(10)9/2) 26; 3. 'X-Day' Niels Gauter (Hamburg,6/3/7/3/3/5(13)) 27; 4. 'EL Pocko' Nils Heyde (Kiel,10/11/4/1(9)2/1) 29; 5. 'Sirena' Peter Buhl (Den,7/9/3/2/2(8)7) 30; 6. 'Veolia' Torsten Bastiansen (Flensburg,8/10/2/6/5/3(8)) 34;

ORC III/IV IDM (7): 1. 'Solconia' Max Gurgel (Kiel,1/3(5)2/4/1/1) Punkte 12; 2. 'Sportsfreund' Axel Seehafer (Heiligenhafen,3/2/1/1/3(5)4) 14; 3. 'Patent3' Jens Tschentscher (Bremen,5/1/4(7)1/2/5) 18; 4. 'Halbtrocken' Knut Freudenberg (Bad Laer,4/5(6,5)4/2/3/2) 20; 5. 'Quattro' Klaus-Peter Boock (Stellhorn,8/7/2/3/8/6(9)) 34; 6. 'Classix' Olaf Eggers (Heiligenhafen,6/6/3/5/5,5(16)11) 36,5;

Offshore, 21 to 28 June:

21. – 22. Juni: Welcome Race*: (ORC-Club I –III, ORC-Int. I-III, Albin Ballad, X-79, Multihull)
21. – 24. Juni: Kiel-Cup Foxtrott (Melges 24, J/70, Platu 25, J/80, SB 20, Albin Express)
23. – 25. Juni: Kiel-Cup Alpha (ORC-Int. I-III)*
26. – 27. Juni: Silbernes Band (ORC-Club I-III)
28. Juni: Senatspreis (ORC-Club I-III)

* IDM Offshore, 21 to 25 June: 21 to 25 June: IDM ORCi I to Event website