One of the major highlights of the year has now been sailed, Gotland Runt 2024! Both the course and the weather for this year's edition of the race looked different, as the start went from Sandhamn and stretched up to Svenska Högarna before heading off towards Gotland. In varying weather and wind conditions, we got a nice lap out on the Baltic Sea!
The start was at 14:15 on Sunday afternoon, when we, after a tight and intense start, headed towards Svenska Högarna in light wind and rain. The race started with what was close to a stretch bow at the beginning but then became more and more a straight cross. Despite careful studies of the weather situation, the forecasts were unstable until the end as the low pressure moving towards the Baltic Sea and Gotland was unpredictable. At the rounding of Svenska Högarna, the wind increased significantly while the rain poured down. We pulled up the S3 and set off in a steep reach towards Gotland, but when we could no longer carry the S3, we switched to the 3.3 and then took a reef. We sailed a steep half-wind for a few hours with winds of 27 knots, big waves and a lot of rain. We then knocked out the reef when the wind eased slightly. Later it turned right slowly to a cross and we continued to port until it was so strong that starboard bore down towards Fårö. At that point we tacked and changed to the 3.1.
On the way down to Fårö, at the height of Gotska Sandön, we hoisted a jib top and staysail when the bow again opened up to half wind. When the wind increased, we put on a new reef. Near Östergarn it turned against and we hoisted our mid-wind jib, the 3.2, knocked out the reef and cruised down to Hoburgen.
In our journey down to Hoburgen, it was noticeable to us that the larger boats had the advantage of the windward side and could stretch unlike us who needed to cross.
We rounded Hoburgen on Monday evening and started the journey back to Sandhamn in a nice sunset and in slightly lighter winds. We set up the S1.5 and enjoyed a joint dinner in the cockpit. A short change was made to the S2. As the sun went down and we approached Visby, the wind increased slightly as the course became steeper. We switched to the S3, which we then drove with all night.
On Tuesday morning, we were able to change both staysails and beat out the reef to continue towards Almagrundet. The wind changed during the morning, which meant that the rest of the trip back offered a nice bilge in increasing wind strength with the S2 hoisted.
At Almagrundet we then changed to jib top and staysail to half wind towards the finish line which was crossed at 13:54 on Tuesday afternoon. We sailed the approximately 350-mile course in 47 hours and 39 minutes, which gave us third place in the class. All results can be found here.
Overall, we are all happy with the race. As this was also the team's first longer race together, we have learned a lot of lessons that we look forward to applying to the next race, which actually takes place in just a couple of weeks when it is time for the Roschier Baltic Sea Race starting in Helsinki on July 27.
During Gotland Runt we also had a dear reunion with Roger Nilson who joined us as navigator. Thank you very much Roger for sharing your invaluable knowledge on board!
Finally, we would like to thank KSSS for a well-run competition, everyone in the team has created such great memories together during these days!
