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Slow going in Eurocard Gotland Runt reports Bob Fisher in Sandhamn

Quiet is too strong a word to describe the six separate starts of this year’s Eurocard Gotland Runt and with the weather threatening to stay the way it is for the next three days, progress will be a mighty slow process. A southeasterly breeze of 2-3 knots provided the 238 starters with a different kind of challenge, simply to find some of their own, away from the crowd, and use it effectively.

With the line set almost east-west, there was little doubt in the minds of the majority that the pin (easternmost) end of the line was the place to be, but with that feeling so general, there were crushes there that made a clear start virtually impossible except for the lucky one. Those who chose to start in mid-line, in clear air, had a better chance of success in the early stages, and this fact was appreciated by a few of the later starters who had watched the first two starts.

The IMS boats in the European Championship, for whom this is the final race, were first away, and it was Peter Rudback’s IMX 40, Imagine that popped out of the line from below the bunch jammed around the pin, into clear air and was away - gone. All eyes were on the Championship leader, Einar Sissener’s Grand Soleil 42R, Al Capone III. A conservatively judged start was made by the boat carrying the Alpharma sponsorship on her mainsail; waiting until there was a gap near the pin and then attacking it with as much pace as possible. She had set a light spinnaker to approach the buoy from the windward side, dropped it and hardened up through the tiny gap that had appeared and off towards Almagrundet lighthouse, the first mark on the 362-mile course.

The three boats that were recalled; the 48ft Desna of Sven Wackerhagen, the 40ft Cabernet of Tiit Haagma, and the X-43 Xaviar of Lauri Lundstrom; all found that the penalty was harsh, the return to round the end of the line cost them 20 minutes as they had to give way to the boats in the next class away, fifteen minutes after the first start.

The J/105s that started with ORC 1 and were second away, made the best showing with Erik Utterstrom’s Charlie clear ahead of Jerry Hellstrom’s Junior. Best of the rest was Seppo Sutela’s Fingulf 41, Saara-Sofia.

Bjorn Wennerstrom in the J/80 Bjornsnabben made an interesting strategy from mid-line in the next start, for ORC 2. He set an asymmetric spinnaker and reached off to leeward for some way before hardening up. It guaranteed him clear air - an essential ingredient in this fleet. But Lars Gellerhed in a similar J/80 was less reactionary and made the early showing from a mid-line start. The X-99s that started with this class produced two good starts from Charlie Ahlback’s Extra and Lars Bergfeldt’s SAS Institute.

The came the big boats for their extended 432-mile course, and the smallest of them, Tilmar Hansen’s 45ft Greg Elliot design Outsider appeared to be best away, but she soon received a recall request, having beaten the gun by inches. It gave the starting honours to Jonas Claesson’s Volvo Ocean 60 JMS Media System (ex- SEB) while Alex Thomson in Hugo Boss was to leeward in mid-line. Neal McDonald, with navigator Steve Hayles, took the leeward option and were able to heat-up Ericsson soon after they started and was a tad faster than the rest.

The multihulls - Open 30 and Open 60 classes - were last away, and the experience of the skippers was in evidence - none were over, yet all their bows were close. Knut Frostad in Academy found some additional zephyr to ease out from under Magnus Olsson’s Nokia while the most conservative was Bonduelle, loitering with intent back from the line near the pin end, but Zbigniew Gutkowski had timed his run perfectly and was on his way unimpeded while Bruno Peyron in Stena Sovcomflot was extricating himself from the surrounding bunch of Open 30s.

High pressure over the area shows little sign of relenting or producing stronger breeze in the next three days.

Update:

Four and a half hours into the Eurocard Gotland Runt, Alex Thomson, the skipper of the Open 60 Hugo Boss discovered that his worst fears of this race had come to visit him. He had completed only half of the first leg, to the Almagrundet lighthouse, in a sea that resembled a mirror.

Before the start, Thomson, who is on an extensive tour of Europe with the boat, confessed, "If there is little wind, we will stick like glue!" How true this is proving. The normally speedy Hugo Boss has covered five miles at little more than an average speed of one knot.

The British skipper is not alone in this respect, all the other boats in ORC Grand Open Class that includes two Volvo Ocean 60s, have made a similarly parlous showing. There is little hope of more wind overnight, although the waters off the island of Gotland, some 70 miles down course, showed a sea breeze during the afternoon.

Fram XV, skippered by king Harald V of Norway, was the first yacht to pass the Almagrundet lighthouse, 10 ½ miles into the 362 mile Eurocard Gotland Runt. The King was not on deck at the time and there was seemingly no wind. The 53 foot Farr design was propelled solely by fickle zephyrs from the east.

More photos on the following pages...

Below: King Harald of Norway's Fram XV rounds Almagrundet lighthouse. Image: Daniel Forster/ www.yachtphoto.com