ORC Double Handed World Champions
Here at the Royal Swedish Yacht Club (KSSS) at the first-ever ORC Double Handed World Championship three new World Champions have been crowned for each of the three classes competing in the KSSS’s Gotland Runt race, the world’s largest annual offshore race.
These three winning teams are as follows: among the 27 entries in Class A, Anders Dahlsjo and Martin Stromberg, both from Sweden, won the race on their Z30+ ZEUS. In Class B there were 25 entries, with the winners from Germany being Jonas Hallberg and Till Barth fon their JPK 10.30 HINDEN.
And among the 27 entries racing in Class C at the top of the podium were two new champions from Sweden: Patrik Forsgren and Joakim Hoppe, who raced their modified First 36.7 TEAM PRO4U.
For Class A co-winner Martin Stromberg, it was a scramble just to get to the start. He competed in last week’s ORC World Championship in Porto Cervo, and like many had some travel issues to get to Stockholm.
“I arrived with just minutes to spare at Registration,” he said, thankful that his partner Anders had things under control. These two have been shipmates for some time, having competed together in Volvo Ocean Races and also sailing some more recent DH races in the regional circuit.
Stromberg credits their win to perseverance – their autopilot stopped working in the race so they had to hand-steer while the other crew trimmed – and hitting a good windshift in the early phases of the race.
“We were in light air in the first night headed toward Gotland when we positioned ourselves well to take advantage of a big shift,” he said. “We were frankly amazed that we were able to stay with the larger boats around us, even after the wind picked up.” They were, after all, in a boat only 30 feet long.
“We had raced before using the SRS system and were told we had no chance in ORC,” Stromberg said, “and now have proven them wrong!” ZEUS’s corrected time margin of victory was a whopping 1:27:21 over a proven design in ORC, the J/122 JOULE raced by fellow Swedes Marcus Osterberg and Henrik Borg, who in turn finished about 9 minutes ahead of Frederik Rydin and Johan Tuvstedt’s J/121 JOLENE, also from Sweden.
Corrected time results were certainly closer in Class B, with HINDEN’s victory being by a 00:35:48 margin over fellow German Silver medalists Michael Hoefgen and Max Gurgel racing LIGHTWORKS, also a JPK 10.30. Finnish Bronze medalists Jens Krogell and Ville-Veikko Miskanen sailed ALMAVIDA, yet another JPK 10.30, were a distant 1:41:11 back in corrected time.
And in Class C TEAM PRO4U’s margin of victory was the most substantial over her nearest rivals than in any class. Fellow Swedes and Silver medalists Mikael Algevere and Per Lindell on their X-332 Lady X were 2:01:41 behind in corrected time, while a Dutch team – Patrick ten Brinck and Harmen de Jong sailing their HOD 35 HODSPUR – finished another 1:33:06 behind Lady X, over 3.5 hours behind the winners.
Winners of the all-amateur Corinthian team trophies were the Bronze medalists on JOLENE in Class A, the Swedish team of IMBRUGLIA, an Arcona 340 raced by Staffan Larsson and Magnus Wegrell, and the World Champions on TEAM PRO4U in Class C.
