2015 ORC Sportboat European Championship - A dominating lead
by ORC on 23 May 2015
Smile 22's continue to dominate ORC Sportboat Championship Hajo Magazin
The cold rainy weather affecting eastern Europe is for millions putting a damper on the start of the holiday weekend, but here on Lake Balaton the competition continues undaunted, with two inshore races held today in the ORC Sportboat European Championship. Having now completed the offshore race and two inshore races, just one more race is needed in the next two days to validate this year's event according to the ORC's championship rules (aka, the Green Book).
PRO Denis Marinov and the race committee team from the Balatonfured Yacht Club postponed the start of racing for one hour while the early morning's strong gusty conditions abated and settled enough for courses to be set for fair racing and use of Performance Curve Scoring for the results.
Coming out strong in the first race were the two Dutch-sailed Smile 22's - Bluesmile owned and sailed by Herman van Eijk, and Grijze Plaag, a sistership sailed by Martin Baas - until Bass had to drop out with a broken rudder. The team sailed ashore, picked up a spare rudder, then headed out again to win Race three, with their sistership remaining well-placed in the series lead on scores of one – one - two.
There were numerous other casualties in the day, with mostly local boats retiring from broken sails and broken gear due to the brisk 15-20 knot conditions atypical of the lake. But at the top of the fleet just behind the Smile 22's the competition remains hot: the difference in corrected time in Race three between the Polish Cors T2 Neoprofil in third place and the Turkish Farr 25 One Design Ruffles in fifth place was only 20 seconds after nearly an hour of sailing.
Tomorrow under clearing skies inshore racing will continue, with Sunday scheduled to be the final day of competition.
Top-ten standings after Races one - three:
1. Bluesmile (NED) - Smile 22 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 4 points
2. Onedesign Ruffles (TUR) Farr 25OD - 5 - 2 - 5 - 12
3. Kvartet (RUS) - O-800 - 4 - 4 - 4 - 12
4. Neoprofil (POL) - Cors T2 - 9 - 3 - 3 - 15
5. Serafina (SUI) - Saphire 27 - 6 - 5 - 7 - 18
6. Cheetah 30 (SWE) - Cheetah - 30 - 6 - 6 - 6 - 18
7. Orion (HUN) - T-Jolle - 3 - 9 - 8 - 20
8. Nomad (HUN) - Elliott 770 - 7 - 7 - 9 - 23
9. Grijze Plaag (NED) - Smile 22 - 2 - 28 - 1 - 31
10. Innov8 (HUN) - Code 8 - 12 - 8 - 12 – 32
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