All in from Long Offshore race at 2023 ORC Europeans in Malta
by Offshore Racing Congress 27 Apr 2023 18:02 BST
23 April - 1 May 2023
2023 ORC European Championship © Alex Turnbull
From the late morning start yesterday of the Long Offshore race, the fleet of 37 entries from 11 nations experienced a wide diversity of conditions in this suitable test of skills to open the 2023 ORC European Championship, hosted by the Royal Malta Yacht Club. Elapsed times ranged from 19:41:46 for the Class A winner, Karl Kwok's (HKG) TP52 BEAU GESTE who raced 186 miles, to George Greer's Arcona 380 KIBOKO TATU whose team from Sweden raced 151 miles in Class B for almost 29 hours.
Results are expressed in corrected time using the ORC PCS All-Purpose scoring model, and for Class A BEAU GESTE (shown above) was the clear winner over runner-up Claudio Terrieri's (ITA) Swan 45 BLUE SKY by over 2.5 hours. In third place in Class A was Malta-based ELUSIVE II, a modified First 45 owned by Maya and Christoph Podesta.
"We got lucky in being fast enough to avoid some of the transition holes in the wind that our slower rivals felt," said BEAU GESTE tactician Gavin Brady (interviewed at left). "We like the ORC system because its fair for all boats, which means we have to race hard to not lose to the others in corrected time. We also had a conservative approach to not push too hard to break anything because as Peter Blake said, you have to finish to win. We had every possible condition: light air, heavy air, flat seas and very choppy seas. It tested all our skills."
The first to finish on the 151-mile course in Class B was Renzo Grottesi's (ITA) Club Swan 42 BE WILD, less than 13 minutes ahead of the 2022 Class B Worlds Bronze medalist team from Estonia, Aivar Tuulberg's KATARIINA II, which is also a Club Swan 42. BE WILD tactician Enrico Zennaro gave credit to the full-race focus of his team and some clever moves made between the old and new winds at the northern turning mark at Rugosa. This focus launched them into the lead for the last half of the race.
Yet both Swans fell to Marcin Sutkowski's (POL) Grand Soleil 44 P WINDWHISPER 44 (shown right) who won in corrected time by 30 minutes over BE WILD.
In Class C the fleet sailed a shorter 140-mile course and finished ahead of most of the Class A and Class B boats, with Vincenzo De Blasio's (ITA) Italia 11.98 SCUGNIZZA taking the win in both elapsed and corrected time. Ott Kikkas's (EST) Class C reigning World Champion Italia 11.98 SUGAR 3 was less than 8 minutes behind, while in third place was Jakoubek Zdenek's (CZE) M37 HEBE V.
"I think this was the most beautiful race we have ever done," said a tired but ebullient Zdenek, shown above in an interview. "Because the weather was perfect, the boat was perfect, so we are so happy we have finished this race because it will stay in out memory for a long time. We really enjoyed being at sea under the stars, and always enjoy visiting Malta. This was I think a good race for us to start the championship against some very tough competition."
For more information on the 2023 ORC European Championship, visit orceuro2023.com.
Race results will be posted at orceuro2023.com/results.
Tomorrow racing resumes with the next phase of the programme: windward/leeward racing with up to three held tomorrow on two course areas set east of Valletta.