ORC World Championship gaining momentum for 2014
by Herman Hell on 28 Nov 2013
SW
The ORC World Championship to be held off Kiel in August 2014 is gaining momentum only days into the opening of the online entry system.
Within only a week’s time, almost 40 teams from eight countries have already registered, thus nourishing hopes for a racing fleet of over 100 yachts to fight on the waters of the Outer Kiel Fjord for world championship titles awarded in each of three different classes. Competitive teams from over a dozen nations are expected to come to Kiel, suggesting that this edition of the Worlds will be a high-calibre event.
Among these is Vincenzo de Blasio’s Scugnizza (Italy), the reigning ORC World Champion in Class B, and a past ORC European Class B Champion in 2012. Scugnizza will be returning to the Baltic after winning their first World championship in 2012 in Helsinki, and for 2014 they will be pursuing an unprecedented third World title.
One of the top entries amongst the larger Class A yachts is also from Italy: Girogio Martin‘s TP52 Aniene will set out to win their first World Championship title after succumbing to fellow Italian TP52 Hurakan in this year’s Worlds in Ancona. Aniene has the credentials, being the ORC European Class A Champion in 2012.
The fight for gold could well turn into a close competition of the spectacular TP52 yachts, since this year’s ORC European Class A title holder, Norwegian Trucknor Wolfpack (Thomas Nilsson) will also be in the game, and so will Sweden’s Blixt Pro Sailing (2012 Worlds Class A runner-up).
A number of other crews of World and European medal ranks are also listed among the entries, of which currently 19 are from Germany. Other teams are from Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Hong Kong.
German teams will be among the favorites to win medals when they race on home waters next summer. The current ORC German national champion, Karl Dehler’s Sporthotel from Greifswald, will be racing in Kiel, as well as the 2010 Class B World champion Patent³ (Jens Tschentschner, Lübeck). The two silver medallists from the 2010 Worlds - Veolia of Bastiansen/Christensen, Flensburg) and Friedrichsen’s Chinook (Flensburg) - will also be strong
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