Unexpected winner

Jon Amtrup reports on the Simrad OneStar, Scandinavia's leading offshore event for solo sailors

Local dark horse Vidar Moe finished off the competition in big style when he hung on to his game plan on the last leg in Simrad OneStar to win Scandinavia's leading solo offshore race in his uncle's boat.

No one expected Moe to win the Simrad OneStar this year. He registered for the race just a couple of days before the start after a long search for a suitable boat. He ended up with the Cayenne 42 - a great sailing boat, but not necessarily a boat that stands out as a winner alongside a X-43, Elan 410, X-50, Mini Transat boats and a Whitbread 30.
But Moe proved them all wrong. In the coastal race last Saturday he surprised the competition by winning both his class and the race overall. A broken autopilot on the long offshore race from Fredrikstad to Arendal on the Norwegian south coast messed up his potential podium place on that leg.

But on the final 80 nautical mile stretch from Arendal to Fredrikstad he crushed them all - again.

"My game plan was to go east as soon as possible to avoid the strong counter current and reach the current that runs north along the Swedish west coast," Moe said later. "I stuck to that plan, and also managed to avoid the big windless holes that most other competitors got."

Jokerman, an X-50 with Per Ottar Skaaret behind the wheel, took an early lead position from Arendal. But he could only watch when Kjetil Bakke on the IMX 45 Maline sailed pass him and the others gained big time half way in the leg. Bakke eventually took line honours.

"This was a huge success," says Morten Jensen, editor in SEILmagasinet, media partner in Simrad OneStar. "The sailors really enjoyed themselves and the level of competition is awesome."

The final plans for Simrad OneStar 2008 are not yet finalised, but the idea is to make this annual regatta even tougher and attract more foreign solo sailors.