Early discount entry deadlines loom ahead for ORC World Championship

by ORC Media on 31 Jan 2017 It may be winter, but boat owners are not in hibernation. After the official opening of registration in the 2017 ORC World Championship, to be held in Porto San Rocco (Trieste) from 30 June to 8 July, there has already been more than 50 entries in the event.

And for the 2017 ORC European Championship held in Gdansk, Poland over 24-29 July, the event is nearly sold out already, with 73 entries from 13 countries signed up, promising this to be the most popular European Championship yet. The event has been planning a target entry count of 75 yachts.

In accordance of the Notice of Race issued by the organising authorities of the Worlds - Yacht Club Porto San Rocco in collaboration with Yacht Club Adriaco, Triestina della Vela, Società Velica di Barcola e Grignano, Circolo della Vela Muggia, TPK Circolo Nautico Triestino Sirena, all operating under the supervision of the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC), World Sailing and the Italian Sailing Federation (FIV) - discounts are being offered for early entries received before February 1st.

On the strong early interest shown in registration, event Director Roberto Sponza is pleased: 'We worked hard to host this event in the Gulf of Trieste, an area with a high number of professional sailors, as it has never been awarded a championship of this magnitude before. Finally this dream is coming to fruition and we are reaping the benefits of our past efforts. It is our hope that the participants find this event to be of the high standards they expect both on land and at sea.'

Taking a look at the evolving list of entries in the three classes, the numbers for Classes B and C, which includes boats up to 14 meters in length, is impressive. Its not surprising that there is a strong presence of boats flying the Italian flag, but there are limits of no more 30 boats per flag for each class. The next most popular country in the entry list is neighboring Slovenia, then Austria, Croatia and Germany. Other flags joining the competition include the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Estonia and the Ukraine.

The first to register among the 32 entries now in Class C was Low Noise II, an Italia Yachts 998, owned by Giuseppe Giuffre (YC Chiavari), a four-time World Champion, and two-time European and Italian Champion. Contenders looking to deprive Low Noise II of another title include no less than 3 sisterships, such as Ott Kikkas's Sugar from Estonia, the 2016 ORC European Bronze medallist. There is also the 2016 ORC World Silver medalists, Michael Mollman's X-37 Hansen from Denmark, and the 2016 ORC European Silver medalists, Aivaar Tuulberg's Arcona 340 Katariina II from Estonia.

In Class B the first registration among the 29 current entries was by Manuel Costantin's First 40 Rebel, representing Yacht Club Adriaco, who will face the Grand Soleil 40 Alvarosky owned by UVAI President Francesco Siculiana, with Gianpaolo Maurizio Pavesi's X-41 Le Coq Hardi and the particularly fast Duvetica, the Arya 450 with Furio Benussi joining the crew captained by Paul Pinelli and Daniele Augusti...this team was the 2016 Class AB ORC European Champion.

Class A boats are not as fast to enter, but among the few already signed up are some big names: Francesco Pison's Farr 49 Brava, Sandro Paniccia's Scuderia 50 Altair 3 and Pierluigi Peresson's modified Luffe 54 Fanatic.

The Championship program is taking shape, with final registration from June 30 to July 2, the day of the test regatta. The competition will begin on 3 and 4 July with offshore races, followed by buoy racing from 5 to 8 July. According to ORC rules, to qualify for awards participants must complete at least four buoy races and one offshore race, or three races buoy race and two offshore races..

Free dockage is being offered for all registrants and is guaranteed in the comfortable quays of Porto San Rocco from 28 June to 10 July, with discounted rates for those arriving earlier or wishing to remain in Trieste for an exciting sailing season in the Fall, including Adriaco's Sailing Week and the world-famous Barcolana.

Meanwhile in the Baltic the excitement is heating up as only a few slots remain for entry and teams are already in preparation mode for the 2017 ORC Europeans. The 2015 European Class C champions, Team Pro4U from Sweden, said they are completely focused to win the Class C title again in Gdansk.

'We are working on improving keel profile and also the deck layout to allow for easier trimming,' said skipper Patrik Forsgren. 'We are working closely with North Sails in Stockholm and have also already reviewed the complete sail inventory to ensure that everything is working perfectly this summer. We are training regularly with a Personal Trainer to be fit for next summer, and we have a lot of fun together doing this as well. We have a winter program with theory sessions that will cover areas such as meteorology, strategy, tactics, trimming and maneuvers. For some of the sessions we have invited professional guest speakers to help us develop even further.

'The 2017 season has also been planned with all practice and regattas for the year and we are planning to participate in 6 regattas before we come to Gdansk in July, among these the Swedish ORC Championship over1-4 June in Oxelösund, Sweden. So we feel that we are already well advanced in our planning for the EC!'

Another team excited about coming to Gdansk are the popular pink-clad all-female team on Tutima, the DK 64 from Germany skippered by Kirsten Harmstorf. While in Copenhagen last summer for the 2016 World Championship, organiser Michal Korneszczuk found interest from the many teams now on the entry list for the event. 'The enthusiasm is fantastic, we are proud to share this beautiful city with a 1000 year sailing heritage to all our friends coming from throughout Europe and the world. This will be a memorable event.'