Volvo Estonia ORC European Champs - Final race to determine winners

by ORC on 16 Aug 2015 Another perfect sunny day in the Summer Capital of Estonia has given race managers perfect sea breeze conditions to conduct two races today, with one day and one race left at the Volvo Estonia ORC European Championship. The points total are too close to favor the current class leaders, who are only four points ahead in Class A-B and tied on points in Class C.

In a sea breeze that varied from eight to about eleven knots on windward-leeward inshore courses, the Class A-B leader has been Jaak Jögi's X-41 Forte from Estonia, the 2014 World Champion in Kiel in Class B, but their lead has been eroded down to four points by a Finnish X-41 sistership, Xini Freedom skippered by Martin Estlander, who has now won the last three races outright.

But these race victories have been close: Race five today was won by only 11 seconds over Eero Pank's Salona 38ibc Reval Café Elisa Sailing Team on an 8.2-mile course, and Race six by only 12 seconds over Forte on an 8.7-mile course.

'We had a very close racing today and Xini Freedom with two bullets is doing very well,' said Jögi. 'It's interesting to see three X-41's in the top three and it means that both the weather conditions are great for this type of boats, but also that these teams and crew members are very much competing and because of their experience the teamwork becomes better and better. We'll try to do our best tomorrow and let's see what comes out of it.'

'Today all aspects were working well for us,' said Estlander. 'We have been pushing hard to do lots of teamwork to get better and better and it pays off now. The racing here is really very close and we are happy to be on top of the fleet with other X-41 Estonian teams. We have been racing a lot in Estonia and we love to race here, the ambience is fantastic and we are looking forward to the great final day tomorrow!'

The other contender in Class A-B, yet another X-41 from Estonia - Priit Tammemägi's Premium in third place - did not have as good a day as the others with scores of four - six. In fact, the close racing today got too close for Premium, who has a hole in her bow from a collision incident at the upwind mark, resulting in a protest with Ain Pomerants's XP-44 Merion-X from Estonia.

In Class C, the 2013 European Champion Sugar 2, an Estonian NM38s skippered by Sandro Montefusco, has regained the lead from Patrik Forsgren's First 36.7 TEAM PRO4U from Sweden by discarding a seventh place in the Garmin Offshore Race and on finishes of three - one today. The Swedes had a better day, earning places of one - two, but were only discarding a fifth place in Race three, so the two teams are now tied on 10 points, with Sugar 2 winning the tie break with three wins to the Swedes' two wins.

These two teams will have a hard fight tomorrow for the title, given the seven-point margin they have on the third place contender, Samuli Leisti's X-35 Audi Ultra from Finland, who earned scores of five - three today.

'We will have to kill them tomorrow,' said a laughing Montefusco at the Tervis Hotel and Dermoshop Inshore Race prizegiving ceremony. 'No, we have all the respect for these guys, they are sailing very well, and we very much look forward to tomorrow.'

The winners of these daily inshore prizes for best combined scores for the day's racing are therefore among these three top contenders in Class C:
1. Team PRO4U
2. Sugar 2
3. Audi Ultra

In Class A-B, the daily award winners are:
1. Xini Freedom
2. Forte
3. Reval Café Elisa Sailing Team

It is worthy to note that at all ORC Championship events there are measurement controls made on the top contenders, and Forte is going through this process tonight. So, these results may be subject to change in the event there are any adjustments to ratings or penalties applied for non-compliance with the rules.

With a favorable weather forecast for a solid Northeast breeze tomorrow, racing is scheduled to resume with the final planned to start at 11:00 local time. Awards will be held at 16:00.

Results:

From Class : ORC A To Class : ORC B

Pos	Sail nr.	Bow	Div	Yacht	Owner	Skipper	Type	1	2	3	4	5	6	Points
1	EST475	8		FORTE	Uljaste Purjetajate Ordu	Jaak Jõgi	X-41	4	2	1	3	3	2	11
2	FIN68	18		XINI FREEDOM	Martin Estlander	Martin Estlander	X-41	16	8	4	1	1	1	15
3	EST499	9		PREMIUM	Priit Tammemagi	Priit Tammemägi	X-41 OD	7	6	3	2	4	6	21
4	EST703	11	C	REVAL CAFE ELISA ST	Eero Pank	Eero Pank	Salona 38 ibc	8	17	8	7	2	4	29
5	FIN12655	17		NISSAN ARITA AIRPORT	Vesa Sarkikangas	Vesa Sarkikangas	Sinergia 40	5	7	7	5	6	8	30
6	GER4815	2	C	IMMAC ONE4ALL	Muhlenberger Segel Club	Kai Mares	J/V 49	2	4	13	9	17	3	31
7	EST463	7		OLYMPIC	MTU X41 Purjetamisklubi	Tiit Vihul	X-41 OD	13	1	12	4	5	10	32
8	GER5588	3	C	DESNA	Sven Wackerhagen	Sven Wackerhagen	Knierim 49	9	3	5	10	7.5	13.5	34.5
9	GER6888	19		EL POCKO	Andreas Achner	Thomas Jungblut	Puma 42	1	11	2	13	17	13.5	40.5
10	GER5609	4	C	TUTIMA	Tutima Uhrenfabrik GMBH	Kirsten Harmstorf	DK 46	3	5	14	12	13	12	45
11	FIN11703	16		AUDI QUATTRO	Jani Lehti	Jani Lehti	Next 37	20	9	10	8	11.5	11	49.5
12	EST550	10	C	SPIRIT	Puhas Tuul OU	Juss Ojala	Grand Soleil 42R	11	12	16	14	7.5	9	53.5
13	EST299	5		LADY BIRD	Acton Yachts Ltd	Johannes Puusepp	Akton 395	21	20	9	16	9	5	59
14	SWE4646	25	C	FOXY LADY	Rickard Bergqvist	Rickard Bergqvist	IMX 40	10	14	15	11	10	19	60
15	FIN11569	15		MARE BOS	Toni Hellman	Toni Hellman	Farr 40 OD	6	19	11	15	14	15	61
16	FIN11513	13	C	DAS BOOT	Hannu Niemela	Hannu Niemela	Salona 38 BK	14	18	19	6	22	7	64
17	SWE3939	24		VENCOM	Johan A. Gustavsson	Johan A. Gustavsson	Ker 39	26	13	6	20	11.5	18	68.5
18	SWE17585	27		BLUE PRINT	Andreas Hamrin	Andreas Hamrin	FIRST 40.7	12	28 DNF	23	17	17	17	86
19	EST710	1		MERION-X	Merion Halduse OU	Ain Pomerants	Xp-44	18	10	21	23	21	21	91
20	SWE123	23	C	STORMTROOPER	Jonas Andersson	Jonas Andersson	Farr 40 OD	15	15	24	18	24	20	92
21	SWE10004	22	C	RUSH	Hakan Forsslund	Hakan Forsslund	Sydney 40 mod.	17	16	17	21	23	24	94
22	SWE70	26	C	ALMAVIVA	Oscar Ekelund	Oscar Ekelund	First 40	22	22	18	22	19.5	16	97.5
23	FIN11329	12		BELLA DEL MARE	Tapani Sura	Tapani Sura	First 40 CR	19	24	20	19	19.5	23	100.5
24	EST408	6		TUULE	OU Ellis	Kristjan Mugra	First 44.7	25	21	22	26	15	22	105
25	FIN11540	14		MIMI	Sergei Ridal	Slava Ridal	RDL 39	24	23	26	25	27	26	124
26	POL12218	21		HOBART	Ryszard Szostak	Zemke Miroslaw	Dehler 41	23	26	27	24	28	28	128
27	LAT550	20		MONZA	SIA "PILS M"	Kristaps Remess	IMS 38	27	25	25	27	26	27	130

Class : ORC C

Pos	Sail nr.	Bow	Div	Yacht	Owner	Skipper	Type	1	2	3	4	5	6	Points
1	EST711	49		SUGAR 2	Leitvaagen OU	Sandro Montefusco	NM 38S	7	1	1	4	3	1	10
2	SWE88	68	C	TEAM PRO4U	Patrik Forsgren	Patrik Forsgren	First 36.7 mod.	2	4	5	1	1	2	10
3	FIN210	57		AUDI ULTRA	Samuli Leisti	Samuli Leisti	X-35 OD	14	3	3	3	5	3	17
4	EST606	45	C	BRIGITTA-X	Jakari Marine OU	Aleksandr Karboinov	X-34	3	5	8	13	6	10	32
5	EST467	41	C	ADELE	Fordewind OU	Harles Liiv	First 34.7	4	9.5	11	5	10	6	34.5
6	EST379	34	C	BOSSA NOVA TARGET ONE	Bossa Sailing OU	Sven Heil	First 36.7	8	6	2	17	21	4	37
7	EST465	40	C	JAZZ	Alfa GPS OU	Viljar Sepp	First 34.7	12	9.5	6	11	2	9	37.5
8	EST462	38	C	MATILDA 3	Sabakonn OU/ Aarne Veske	Koit Pauts	First 34.7	6	7	9	6	16	16	44
9	EST406	35	C	MEREPARL	OU Rota	Alari Akermann	First 36.7	9.5	8	7	12	9	13	45.5
10	SWE334	67	C	BOXER	Mats Victorin	Mats Victorin	X-332 Sport	11	2	10	8	19	23	50
11	LTU2068	62		KETURI VEJAI	Antanas Marcelionis	Adomas Janulionis	X-35 OD	26	13.5	17	7	11	5	53.5
12	EST535	43	C	MY-CAR	X-35 OU	Andres Laul	X-35	24	22	16	2	15	8	63
13	FIN11611	54	C	RAMDATA	Sakari Laulajainen	Sakari Laulajainen	Salona 37	9.5	25	18	27	7.5	7	67
14	EST949	50		KATARIINA II	Aivar Tuulberg	Aivar Tuulberg	One Off	25	11	4	16	12	39 BFD	68
15	EST464	39	C	KATARINA JEE	MTU Uksik Puri	Mart Tamm	First 34.7	30	15	14	10	17	12	68
16	LTU1620	61	C	EXTREME	Aistis Kalanavicius	Aistis Kalanavicius	X-35 OD	16	17	23	24	4	17	77
17	FIN10362	51		XANTIPPA	Rauli Leino	Mikko Leino	X-362 Sport	5	18	39 OCS	22	22	11	78
18	EST633	46	C	CHERIE	OU Tule Purjetama	Ivar Aru	First 35	13	13.5	15	21	39 DSQ	18	80.5
19	FIN11134	52	C	RELAX	Matti Jaskari	Matti Jaskari	X-34	1	39 DSQ	39 DSQ	20	7.5	14	81.5
20	EST407	36	C	SILVA	Sampo Pank AS	Imre Marmor	First 36.7	21	26	13	9	13	39 BFD	82
21	FIN11572	53	C	BIANCO	Riski, Nyrola & Salminen	Tuomas Riski	First 35	18	27.5	20	18	14	15	85
22	EST31	30		PORT ARTUR	J. Jansson	Mihkel Kosk	X-99	15	21	27	14	18	20	88
23	EST50	42	C	MINNI	Minni JA Meeskond OU	Andres Aavik	X-35	23	24	12	15	20	27	94
24	EST678	47		VESIKAAR	OU Hardwork	Tanel Tamm	T-34	19	16	19	26	23	22	99
25	LTU1590	60		ARCTURUS	Asociacija "Gero vejo klubas"	Juozas Gordevicius	Catalina Capri 37	36	12	26	31	29	21	119
26	FIN15476	56	C	KIND OF MAGIC	Ilmari Absetz	Ilmari Absetz	IMX-38	29	31	22	25	24	19	119
27	EST571	44	C	FREYA	OU Freya Teemindus	Loone Viisut	First 36.7	17	27.5	25	30	26	24.5	120
28	EST330	31	C	MIA	Taevaluud OU	Jaanus Talp	Grand-Surprise	27	19	21	32	30	31	128
29	FIN11625	55	C	LOW	Juhani Railo	Juhani Railo	First 34.7	22	29	28	28	28	24.5	130.5
30	POL2180	64		VIHUELA	Eugeniusz Ginter	Eugeniusz Ginter	GP 33	33	30	32	19	27	26	134
31	EST453	37		RED HOT	JOD Purjetajate Selts MTU	Risto Laidla	J.O.D. 35	28	20	24	33	32	30	134
32	LAT393	59		UDACHA	Baltic Yacht SIA	Sergey Pervushkin	First 34.7	37	34	31	23	25	28	141
33	EST345	32		NORA LII	Ilmar Hage	Eino Melts	Ridas 35	20	32	30	36	35	29	146
34	GER5509	58	C	XTRA FUN	Horst Figge-Jaenke	Horst Figge-Jaenke	X-37	32	33	29	29	33	32	155
35	EST371	33	C	CENTAUR	MTU Ruantec	Rain Riim	First 31.7	34	23	34	34	31	34	156
36	POL6557	65		AQUARELLA	Andrzej Zielinski	Konrad Smolen	First Class Europe	31	35	35	38	36	36	173
37	RUS2599	66		FLAVIS	Maksim Smirnov	Aleksandr Roniashkin	Raketa 970	35	36	36	35	37	33	175
38	EST685	48		MIA MIA	Puusuusk OU	Elise Umb	First 30	38	39 DNF	33	37	34	35	177