Short Offshore race held today at the 2024 ORC European Championship in Åland Islands
by Offshore Racing Congress 16 Aug 2024 12:52 PDT
August 9-17 2024
Today's Short Offshore race at the 2024 ORC European Championship featured another day of 10-14 knot wind conditions to provide close racing among the entries in all three classes. Each had their own course to race today: Class A's was 46.4 miles in length, Class B was 39.9 miles and Class C was 30.7 miles. Each course had its finish line placed in the harbor at Mariehamn.
Like Monday's Long Offshore race, this one was also very important for the final results in each class because the race score cannot be deducted from each team's points total.
Karl Kwok's TP52 BEAU GESTE (HKG) won today's race in Class A, further extending their lead in the class to 9 points over current runner-up Johannes Wackerhagen's Knierim 49 DESNA (GER), who in turn is only one point ahead of Jens Kuphal's Landmark 43 INTERMEZZO (GER) in third. But even with only 8 entries in this class Kwok's team will have to sail tomorrow to claim Gold because two more inshore races are planned, with the first being a discard.
In Class B there was a new team in the winner's circle today: Saulius Pajarskas's Italia 11.98 RHINO (LTU), followed 2 minutes later by another Lithuanian team racing a sistership, Raimondas Šiugždinis's ARABELA.
"We had a good day today, having a very good start, and we pushed hard all day," said Algis Nasvytis from RHINO. "Our crew likes a little longer distance races, that was our key point of today. We have one more day and two races, we will push as hard as we can to reach our targets."
After today's race the standings in Class B have tightened up because the dominant team - Tiit Vihul's modified X-41 OLYMPIC (EST) - had a mediocre 10th place finish today that will be non-discardable, whereas both their closest rivals in second and third place - Erik Stannow's X-41 DIXI 4 (DEN) and Soren Junker's X-41 NEXUS (DEN) - also have 10th place scores but these are among their discardable inshore race results.
And this math is further complicated since OLYMPIC's redress score in Race 5 will adjust to being the average of their inshore race scores. So it's quite likely the final podium positions in this class will not be decided until the close of racing tomorrow.
Class C results have also tightened with the leading team - Ott Kikkas's Italia 9.98 SUGAR (EST) - having a 4th place finish with their closest rivals scoring first - Patrik Forsgren's modified First 36.7 TEAM PRO4U (SWE) - and second: Aivar Tuulberg's Arcona 340 KATARIINA II (EST). Only after the discards in tomorrow's first race will it be determined what needs to happen in the second race to determine the final podium positions in this class.
"This was a challenging race," said PRO4U navigator Sam Stenman. "We had a front go through which made it tactically tricky. We made a few mistakes we know about and will analyze to improve for next time. But we're happy in winning the race by 4 minutes which matched what we predicted we'd gain by going into the archipelago earlier than our competitors." A key element was also getting input from two members of the team - Thomas Tennström and Alvina Johansson - who are local to Åland and provided important local knowledge on choices made on the complex course.
"Today's race was tricky, out of normal, but a really nice race," said Lorenzo Bodini from KATARIINA II. "To arrive in this channel for the finish is not usual for an ORC race, so it was interesting. There was a choice to go in two different channels, and probably we made the wrong choice, but we got second and are happy. For tomorrow it will be really tough, 5 points is nothing in this fleet, so we will sail our best."
Inshore racing will resume tomorrow starting at 1100 local time, and when concluded a Prize giving and closing ceremony scheduled for 1800.
Race 6 Top 3 teams:
Class A
1. BEAU GESTE TP52 - Karl Kwok (HKG)
2. KATIMA Swan 45 - Jan Oplander (GER)
3. DESNA Knierim 49 - Johannes Wackerhagen (GER)
Class B
1. RHINO Italia 11.98 - Saulius Pajarskas (LTU)
2. ARABELA ITALIA 11.98 - Raimondas Šiugždinis (LTU)
3. SHADOW J112E - Harles Liiv (EST)
Class C
1. TEAM PRO4U mod First 36.7 - Patrik Forsgren (SWE)
2. KATARIINA II Arcona 340 - Aivar Tuulberg (EST)
3. WARP 5 J-99 - Jan Scholtes (NED)
Overall Results after 6 races
Class A
1. BEAU GESTE TP52 - Karl Kwok (HKG) - 10
2. DESNA Knierim 49 - Johannes Wackerhagen (GER) - 19
3. INTERMEZZO Landmark 43 - Jens Kuphal (GER) - 20
Class B
1. OLYMPIC X-41 mod - Tiit Vihul (EST) - 22
2. DIXI 4 X-41 - Erik Stannow (DEN) - 33
3. NEXUS X-41 - Soren Junker (DEN) - 34
Class C
1. SUGAR 3 Italia 9.98 - Ott Kikkas (EST) - 14
2. TEAM PRO4U mod First 36.7 - Patrik Forsgren (SWE) - 15
3. KATARIINA II Arcona 340 - Aivar Tuulberg (EST) - 19
Complete results for each class can be found here.
The 2024 ORC European Championship hosted by ÅSS Marina is a combination of offshore and inshore racing held daily until 17 August and is organized by the Finnish Offshore Racing Association and Åländska Segelsällskapet (ÅSS) under the authority of the Finnish Sailing Federation under the overall authority of the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC).
To follow the fleet in tomorrow's inshore races, use the link on the TracTrac website.
Photos from Pepe Korteniemi, Jascha Kuphal and Janis Spurdzins are available in albums on the ORC Flickr page.
Videos and interviews are available here.
All information about the event is available at orc.org/europeans2024 and www.orceuro2024.com.
The ORC European Championships 2024, hosted by ÅSS Marina, is organized by the Finnish Offshore Racing Association, Åländska Segelsällskapet, and Offshore Racing Congress.