Today the Offshore Worlds in the Hague, Netherlands was concluded after one week and 9 races. We in Team Pro4u won the Corinthian division and we came third in the Open class C among 49 boats.
Before today we had a small lead, having had a larger lead but after having sailed really bad yesterday. The French J-112 J LANCE 12 was just behind and they would win if they managed to get us down to a place worse than 16 and for them they did not need a result. We knew that today they would try to give us bad wind and everything they could to give us a bad score today and this is exactly what they did. For us having a around 10% slower boat than the J-112 it was really hard and we tried hard to get out of the wind shadow from J LANCE 12 but in both the up-winds they mostly managed to give us bad wind and it was very hard to find the speed for us and we tacked too many times to get a good race time and score. What also made it even worse is that we had current against us on the upwind and with us downwind so the upwinds when we had to sail in bad wind was long and vice versa downwind when we had free wind. Unfortunately, this lead to a 38.5 place today and after having been in the lead since day one of the Worlds we ended up 3rd in the Open class.
But we congratulate the French/Dutch J-112 J LANCE 12 to the gold and during the inshore races they have undoubtedly been the best boat on the course and today they sailed very professionally and did not give us a chance even if we tried hard to get away from them. We also congratulate our good friends from Germany IMMAC FRAM in an Italia 9.98 that came in 2nd place in the Open class. Both these crews are clearly worthy medalists!
In the Corinthian (for amateurs) class C we however managed to stay at the top and we won the Gold medal so Team Pro4u was likely the only team in the Offshore Sailing Worlds that got a medal in both the Open and Corinthian class!
Overall, while we had hoped to keep the first place in the Open class our goal coming to the Offshore Worlds as amateurs was to win the Corinthian gold and be on the podium in the Open class and we managed both of these so we reached our goals.
The Team Pro4u of eight that has won the gold and bronze medals in the Offshore Worlds in the Hague are:
- Patrik Forsgren, skipper and owner
- Anders Mårtensson, main trim
- Joakim Hoppe, bow
- Oskar Sömermaa, mast
- Johan Tuvstedt, jib trim
- Oskar Hellblom, keyboard
- Peter Thorwid, tactician
- Anders Björk, spinnaker trim
We would also like the organizers of the Offshore Worlds in the Hague for a very good regatta and the hospitality of the people has been impressing the courses and the arrangements have been very good around the event. It is impressing the way the organizers have managed to create good and fair courses considering the tide and current impacts we have had. We also like the city of Hague and we have been going around with our bikes and this has been a perfect transportation here and going down to the beach close to our house we rented has been a very nice experience!
Our results was 73.5 points in the 9 races with the series (one discard): 6, 2, 13, 3, 7.5, 1, 17, 24, (38.5). Overall, we managed to win two of the races!
The results are here (Corinthian or Open class division can be selected): Offshore Sailing Worlds Class C results
Below is a picture from todays race and this is how it was for us both up-winds having the bigger and faster J-112 covering us all the time.
Video from the prize giving.
Picture from the prize giving ceremony today after the race.
