Tallinn, Estonia (August 10, 2021) – The Alexela ORC World Championship 2021 is underway with the completion of an overnight offshore race in the Baltic which started yesterday. Teams endured all range of conditions – sun and rain, calm wind to over 20 knots, beating and reaching and running – among the event’s three classes.
Three German teams earned podium finishes in Class A over the 200 nm course. Michael Berghorn’s Mills 45 HALBTROCKEN 4.5 won the class by a margin of 9 min 49 sec over Tillmar Hansen’s first-to-finish TP 52 OUTSIDER after racing for 23 hours 43 min. In third place was Holger Streckenbach’s TP 52 Imagine, over 27 min in corrected time behind the leader.
“We have only had this boat for just about two years,” Berghorn said, “from having bought it in Australia. It’s a great boat, very well built, and we have not really had any time for the normal build-up of races and training this year [due to all the restrictions and uncertainties]. It was difficult for our team to plan their time off to participate, but we’re glad we’re here and the results are showing we have potential…it’s going to be up to us to perform.”
Among the 33 entries in Class B, the winning margin was even closer for Catalin Tranafir’s new Grand Soleil 44P ESSENTIA44, flagged for Romania but with a lot of Spanish team members on board, such as tactician Nacho Postigo. After 23 hours 32 min of racing over their 167 nm course, they almost got defeated by 2 min 7 sec in corrected time by runner-up SEANNA, Seppo Sjoroos’s Grand Soleil 45 from Finland, who was also the top Corinthian team in this race. In third was another team from Finland, Martin Estander’s X41 XINI FREEDOM, another 12 minutes back in corrected time.
When asked where they could have found 14 minutes on the course to overtake the leader in corrected time, XINI tactician Sten Mohr said “Actually I think we were pretty lucky to do this well. There was a lot of reaching and our sail inventory is optimized for up and down racing, so we’re happy with the results.”
Due to the enormous size of Class C (63 entries), it has been broken into two groups, Blue and Yellow, who are being scored each day separately, and the composition of each group re-shuffled each day. This arrangement will continue through racing for the next two days when the results will then reveal for the final two days a top half that will race in the Gold fleet and the bottom half that will race in a Silver fleet.
In the Yellow fleet, three Estonian teams were on top, led by Eero Pank’s Salona 38 CREDIT 24 SAILING, who has also won the Corinthian prize in this race. Erki Melts’s Italia 9.98 DIRECTO finished 3 min 8 sec behind in corrected time after 22 hours 32 min in elapsed time on the 143 nm course, with Alan Kodar’s X-34 BRIGITTA-X another 4 minutes behind in corrected time.
In the Blue fleet, the corrected time margins were similar, with Juss Ojala’s 2019 ORC Class C European Champion MATILDA 4, his J-112E from Estonia, earning a 3 min 12 sec margin over the 2017 ORC Class C European Champion, Patrik Forsgren’s modified First 36.7 Pro4u from Sweden, and a 9 min 10 sec margin over third-placed Rainmondas Slugzdinis’s Italia 11.98 ARABELA from Lithuania.
Reigning Class C World Champion from the 2019 Worlds held in Sibenik, Croatia – Ott Kikkas’s Italia 11.98 SUGAR 3 skippered by Sandro Montefusco – was another 3 minutes behind in corrected time.
“We had a rough start, over early at the start, and a tough first two legs,” said Montefusco. “There were opportunities to come back, just not on the long reaching legs. We prefer the up and down races and look forward to this starting tomorrow.”
Event details – Results – Facebook
A total of 104 entries from 12 nations are registered for competing in three classes, each with its own World Champion titles and awards, on August 9-14 in Tallinn, Estonia.
The format calls for a long offshore race in the Baltic to start August 9, finishing the following day. Then on August 11-12, short inshore racing will be held on four course areas near Tallinn. On August 13 there will be a short offshore race finishing the same day, conclude on August 14 with more inshore racing.
Source: ORC
