Second place on Gotland Runt

This year's Gotland Runt is over for us and after just over 57 hours of sailing we finished Monday night. After a somewhat strange race where we have ridden the roller coaster in the results list, we finally finished second in the ORCi class and given what it looked like, we are happy with the result.

The results can be found here: https://www.ksss.se/globalassets/gotland-runt/gr2021/resultat/race-results-orci_finnish_7.html

We made a good start and had a nice sailing through the archipelago and we cruised successfully and led out at Korsö Hals. Then, unfortunately, we more or less ran out of wind before Fårö and were left lying in very little wind for a long period while the slightly larger boats in the class, which had gone the same way, got nice breeze and left us considerably. There was no good feeling on board when we already found out that between the first and second rounds we had lost 20 places from 1st to 21st place.

But it was just to bite together and keep sailing well and we started picking placings all the time and managed to round Hoburgen as 8th and then it was from Visby and home that we were able to take a few more places after we got a long shoulder with our new Jibtop that worked very well.

We finished the race second 11 minutes behind Finnish XP-44 Xtra Staerk and we congratulate them until the victory!

We also thank the organizers KSSS for a good race and very fun that we got to race again. We are also looking forward to next year when we hope all the nice country activities will be back to normal again.

Below is an interview with our team shortly after the finish.

Gotland Around start on Saturday

We are very much looking forward to catching up with Gotland Runt again this year after it was cancelled last summer. However, not everything is business as usual and, for example, an adaptation is to put the start over two days. We who sail in the ORCi class will start on Saturday and we start at 11:00. The ORCi class has a total of 32 boats. See start list here: https://www.ksss.se/globalassets/gotland-runt/gr2021/dokument/saturday_orci_mh_sh.pdf

Unfortunately, there will also be no open boat this year and we must hope to meet you all who usually come by the boat to the next Gotland Runt as we hope that the land activities are also back.

But you will be able to follow us during the race this year in several ways:

• We start Saturday at 11:00 in the ORCi class with the number 29.
• KSSS will live stream the start Saturday from 10:30 a.m. on: https://m.youtube.com/user/ksssfilmer
• On the noticeboard there are all relevant documents: https://www.ksss.se/gotlandrunt/competitors/OfficialNoticeboard/
• Via TracTrack: https://tractrac.com/event-page/event_20210622_GotlandRun/2082
• Via our own Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Pro4uSailRacingTeam

When we last raced Gotland Runt it was really wet, cold and windy but it still went well and we managed to win our class (the pictures from GR 2019). This year we hope for a little better weather with warmth and medium wind... But you never know what it's going to be like.

We are looking forward to this year's sailing and we will be running with our regular team of 9 people which is fun. As usual, we will have a high goal and to be involved in fighting in the top 3 is what we want.

Below is the team that races this year's Gotland Runt:

• Emil Forsgren, fore tyre
• Hugo Christensson, mast
• Zacharias Krafft, keyboards
• Thomas Tennström, focktrim
• Anders Björk, spin strip
• Peter Thorwid, tactics
• Roger Nilson, Strategy & Navigation
• Patrik Forsgren, Helmsman & Skipper
• Sven Eriksson, BigTrim

Team Pro4u Finnish champions!

Today the Open Finnish ORC Championship / BOW ended and we managed to win the championship and are now Finnish Class C champions! The plan was to get to at least two races today but unfortunately the wind ran out and after several hours of waiting we finally got to a race where we finished third.

We got the series 1, 2, 1.2, 3 overall 7.2 points. The results can be found here:

https://data.orc.org/public/WEV.dll?action=series&eventid=cxiic&classid=C

We also thank the organizers for a good competition and despite tough conditions with very little wind, after all, they got to a championship! Very nice award ceremony where the Swedish national anthem was also played for us. We are happy to come back another time and sail in Helsinki.

Team Pro4u leads the Finnish Championships

Baltic Offshore Week (Open Finnish ORC Championship) continued today with the second day and today we raced an offshore course of 30 distances in continued radiant sun and light winds between 4 and 12 knots.

We sailed a really good race where we had good speed in the boat, made good choices and maneuvers and took another nail in the championship. In total, after three sailings, we now have series 1, 2 and 1.2 with a total of 4.2 after the sea race is listed with 1.2. The results can be found here:

https://data.orc.org/public/WEV.dll?action=series&eventid=cxiic&classid=C

It was also the second race of the competition where we took line honors in the class (if you exclude a boat today that did not run the track correctly).

The organizers had laid a fun and good course with about 15 rounds and we sailed around in just under 7 hours. There were both hefty cruises and bilge winds interspersed with some semi-winds and some jungle around islands. It was difficult to sail because the wind was really sheared and there was a big difference between the shoulders and it changed all the time so there was a varied extreme twist in the sails and none at all on the shoulder after. It was about being alert the whole race and we re-tuned constantly in a usually pretty good way.

Tomorrow the race ends with hopefully a 2-3 track race. Of course, we aim to continue sailing well and we hope that wind and forecasts will be sufficient, but we are keeping our fingers crossed!

Management after BOW day 1

The plan was for three track races to be sailed today but due to the wind dying out during the morning, there were finally only two races after a long day at sea with a lot of waiting in the sunshine.

We did well and in the first race with really light and tricky winds we found and did most things right and were able to take a nail. When we were finally able to start the second race of the day, the wind had increased to about 14 to 16 knots and it became a tangled situation at the start , we had the wrong sail plus there was a favorable turn on the second edge made us get behind a little on the first part of the first cross but then we sailed well and worked our way up and finished second in the race.

The results can be found here: https://data.orc.org/public/WEV.dll?action=series&eventid=cxiic&classid=C

Tomorrow we think the plan will be to run a sea race but it's not quite decided yet. Unfortunately, the forecast for the wind does not look quite good but let's hope it blows so that we can race!

BOW starts tomorrow

Team Pro4u is in Helsinki for our first international race since summer 2019 and it feels good that we are hopefully starting to see the end of this pandemic and that international racing is possible!

Baltic Offshore Week starts tomorrow and there are about 28 boats with and it will be fun to compete against the Finnish ORCi fleet. They look to be quite light winds and nice weather this weekend and you plan 7 races in total, 6 track races and 1 sea race.

Today we have been out training and had a very nice day where we trained short course and starts and then in the afternoon we cruised out to the starting area and then we got a nice county home. Tomorrow we think there will be 3 track races and we look forward to this!

More information and later results can be found on BOW's website:

https://balticoffshoreweek.org/

Sandhamn Open closed

Over the weekend, the Sandhamn Open was sailed with two planned separate competitions. On Friday night, the sea race started in just over 50 distances in very light winds and after 17 hours of sailing we finished third in the ORCi class. It was a fun race where it was a matter of finding the wind.

The results can be found here: https://www.ksss.se/globalassets/resultatarkiv/2021/orci-resultat.pdf

We generally sailed quite well with generally good road choices even the wind turned in a wrong direction for us a couple of times. We had the opportunity to train offshore races where we rotated in more positions, made sail changes and we tested the guard teams for upcoming offshore races such as Gotland Runt and upcoming championships.

Unfortunately, the wind ended at Alma on the way home and the last bit took a very long time.

We congratulate Matador on the win and Stormtrooper on second place.

Today there would have been track sailings but due to the lack of wind there were unfortunately no races, really bad we who need to get all the competitions we can in preparation for the upcoming World Championships.

But instead, you could swim...

We thank the organizers for a good competition and the course at the sea race was good and just the right length!

Photo: Team Pro4u when nothing else is specified.

North Sails Offshore Clinic

During the weekend we have been in the North Sails Offshore Clinic on the sea outside Sandhamn. There have been a lot of good, useful and fun exercises for the dozens of boats that were there. We started on Friday afternoon with start training and shorter course training, then after a little break it was on Friday night jungle track and MOB training – very healthy and quite difficult as it was dark and foggy.

Then we drove all Saturday with the most jungle courses on the sea with a lot of maneuvers and different angles to sail – fun and eventful! On Saturday night there was another "night pass" and now it was even more foggy, dark, a bit strange lake that made it extremely challenging to trim and steer right and very instructive. To push ourselves a little bit, we also made several sail changes in these conditions and our fore deck has really had to work hard all weekend and done it very well! Today we then finished with some starts, shorter track sailings and then speed training boat to boat.

We are also very happy that we had Roger Nilson on board during the weekend and to have such a professional with all his experience is very instructive in many different ways. We look forward to having Roger on board more during the season!

We also extend a big thank you to the organizers North Sails, KSSS and SHF who arranged this and we really appreciate being able to train in this way together with other boats. We hope this continues again next year and that even more boats will take the opportunity to participate and develop, we can really recommend it.

On the way home just outside Sandhamn we also met at Childhood who was on their way to their start – really cool boat.

Nice morning for sea measurement

Gathering at 05:00 today for sea measurement of Malin – nice morning and feels like the heat is coming now! Thank you Johan Tuvstedt.

Win in Viggan Open training sailing!

Today we sailed Viggan Open training sailing on Trälhavet. There were six fun training sailings at a good pace with nice courses. We actually managed to win all six training races according to the ORCi rule and with a calculated result it was a total of 5. According to the SRS rule, we came 2nd in the first race but then managed to win the remaining five training races, with one excluded it was also a total of 5.

The results of the training can be found here: https://www.sailwave.com/results/vigganopen2021.htm?fbclid=IwAR1SZ8rv24lNMmsDgt0OsDcBFRk1uhiha7S2cIfwtKdqWETxm6-YKx-czZ0

It was fun and very useful to train with several other boats as we trained a lot ourselves earlier in the season. We are happy with our sailings today, we learned a lot and there are several things to improve but by and large it floated on nicely! Many thanks also to the organizers of viggan open that you arranged such a good training day for us sailors! We'd love to come again next year.

Videos from the starts can be found on viggan open's page where pictures will also be posted later: https://www.facebook.com/vigganopen

The image below from another competition a previous year.