Tutima wins first leg of Baltic Sprint Cup

by Andreas Kling on 12 Jul 2005 The brand new DK 46 Tutima, owned by Frankfurt based clockmaker Tom Ebert, won the first leg of the NORD/LB Baltic Sprint Cup 2005.

Although experiencing only light and variable wind all the way, Ebert’s crew needed not much more than 23 hours on the shortened course, about 140 nautical miles from Sandhamn, Sweden to the finish line set near Hanko in Finland.

Tutima was the second boat over the line, but first home and on handicap. Outsider (Tilmar Hansen/Kiel) came off the start best but finished sixth on handicap, as some of the smaller yachts gained on the last miles when a south-westerly breeze freshened and brought them home quickly.

‘We were becalmed for a couple of hours and drifted more sideway than moved forward,’ said Ebert on the way to Helsinki, where the original destination of the first leg is located.

‘The boat performed quite well, but we could have done better,’ continued Ebert, still surprised, but very satisfied indeed with his new DK 46. He had misjudged the course just after the start, after suffering VHF problems.
Leading the pack out of the archipelago, Tutima passed the first turning mark instead of rounding it. Only five minutes later they turned back and recovered quickly.

Preliminary results of leg 1 on corrected time:

1. Tutima (Tom Ebert/Frankfurt)

2. Brinkmann&Partner (Bertold Brinkmann/Hamburg)

3. Schüddelfrost (Friedrich Böhnert/Hamburg)

4. Glüxboks (Markus Balke/Solingen)

5. Emil Reiseschwein (Stefan Hummelt/Buxtehude)

6. Outsider (Tilmar Hansen/Kiel)

7. Meltemi (Harald Graf Saurma-Jeltsch/Eckernförde)

8. Sneagle (Thomas Werner/Hanstedt)

9. Anne Bonny (Hans-Jürgen Färber/Heiligenstedten)

10. Xtra Fun (Horst F. Figge-Jänke/Jever)

Further information: http://www.NordLBCup.com