ÅF Offshore Race - German boat wins Big Boat Class

by Simone Felsberger on 3 Jul 2014 Varuna fastest around Gotland - but another German boat won the Big Boat class. German Varuna became the first returning boat in ÅF Offshore Race and thus took this year's 'line honor'.

Fun, but difficult with such light winds, constant trimming, patience and demanding for the crew. But more mental than physical, summarizes skipper Jens Kellinghausen of this year's competition.

The overall winner of the entire ÅF Offshore Race will not clear until Thursday. On Wednesday, it was decided only for the classic and the largest boats. The overall winner of the Big Boat became another German boat, Shakti, with lower metrics than Varuna.

We have a crew of friends and acquaintances, no pro's like Varuna. The hardest thing for us with this year's sailing was the navigation inside the archipelago. Great fun to win. A real performance given the weather conditions, says navigator Hagen Ross.

Shakti is the second smallest boat in the class. Most of the race she sailed to herself.

The larger boats were faster in the light wind. We saw the stern of them at first, but then they were gone, says Hagen Ross.

The same fate befell Ballad who won the Classic class. But for another reason.

They started 20 minutes late because of a problem before the start and therefore began long after the other boats in the class.

Last became first. It feels good, because we are for obvious reasons not happy with our start of the competition, says Staffan Salén, communications manager of the crew.

Line honor in the same class, not rounding Gotland but a buoy outside of Visby, became Bacchant with skipper Magnus Adlercreutz: We did not know we were first because we had problems with our AIS. This was a fun surprise.

This year's ocean race around Gotland, ÅF Offshore Race Round Gotland in 2014, has been characterized by cold weather, and weak, variable winds. A total of 233 boats entered at the start, of which over 180 completed the race. Almost everyone who withdrew, indicated time constraints as the reason.