2019 SSAB ORC European Championship, Day 3 - Offshore race results
by ORC Media 16 Aug 11:03 BST
11-17 August 2019
Sportsfreund being chased before changing to the A3 - 2019 SSAB ORC European Championship © Felix Diemer
After a long day yesterday for Classes B and C and one that drifted into the night for some teams in Class A, the offshore race results are in with some new names at the top of the race results but the leaders in each class remain unchanged at the SSAB ORC European Championship 2019. This race was important because it is not discardable in the series results.
While over two hours behind the first finisher One Sailing Finland's TP52 Zer0emission, Erik Berth's Swan 45 Tarok 7 from Denmark still managed to slide into the finish on a dying breeze after nearly 12 hours of racing with just 1:20 to spare to win the race on corrected time and earn another bullet on her leading scoreline of 1-2-1.
In Class B racing on a shorter course, the wind was not quite as in danger of dying so the racing remained close right up to the finish. Being the fastest-rated boats in the class, the Farr 40's needed about 15 minutes of space between them and the rest of the fleet, but were unable to save their time so Jens Kuphal's Landmark 43 Intermezzo from Germany won the race by a margin of 46 seconds to the current series leader, Axel Seehafer's X-41 Sportsfreund, also from Germany. Intermezzo is recognized in this fleet as being ex-Santa, Claus Landmark's Class B Gold medalist from Norway in last year's Offshore World Championship in The Hague.
"This was an interesting race," said Sportsfreund tactician Jesper Radich. "We did not have a Code 0 for reaching like the others, so we had to be aggressive at switching from the jib with staysail to the A3 with staysail when the conditions were right. This is a tough class, so doing this right was really important."
And in Class C one of the faster-rated boats did save their time to win by the greatest margin of all the classes. Max Augustin's Farr 30 H.E.A.T from Germany corrected out over runner-up and reigning ORC European champion Katariina II from Estonia, Aivar Tuulberg's Acrcona 340. With a 4th place in the long race, Class C leader remains Kodutarve OU's J/112E Matilda 4 from Estonia on scores of 1-1-4.
This morning dawned with overcast skies (but no rain), the first all week, with a southerly 10-14 knot breeze in the course area and a return of the Baltic bumpy sea state. Race managers have courses set for another 2 races to continue the series.
For more information on the SSAB ORC European Championship 2019, visit orc2019.oxss.nu.
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