Three large catamaran classes were gathered in Kaløvig near Aarhus this weekend. Kaløvig is currently the main catamaran spot in Denmark, being home waters for several F18’s, N17’s and others, and the home base for the Danish Olympic N17 campaigns. This weekend F18’s, A-Cats, and Hobie 16 spi’s all sailed on the same course with each their own starts. A report by Anders Liebst.
With an extreme competent race management consisting of the crew behind the Nacra 17 Worlds held in July this year, spiced with the best Danish Olympic coaches in each their own RIB it was simply ‘World Class’. It’s the third year of the ‘Danish Open’, and 15 Formula 18s found their way to Kaløvig. The top-seeded Danish boat with Magnus Dahl and Jesper Vogelius, who finished 27th at the F18 World championship 2015 in Kiel, gave all they got. But, despite their home-water-advantage, they finished 6th overall. Finn Heeg and Merle Baars, who never sailed the Danish Open before took the trophee home.
Several of the strongest German boat were already out on Friday to check the course. This seemed to be the right thing to do, as they claim the first five spots in the ranking. Despite breaking the mainsail (torn apart between 2nd and 3th batten) in the first race, and having to switch to a borrowed club sail, Finn Heeg and Merle Baars continued their aggressive style and took the line honor in the remaining 4 races Saturday.
While Finn and Merle acted like “Untouchables”, the battle for 2nd was much more intense. The heavy battles between Sven Lindstädt/Maaren Ody and Robert Schutz/Kilian Feind ended up with equal points, giving the silver to Schutz/Feind due to a better series.
Jan Jensen and Penny Wyon from Vallensbæk ended 7th overall, second best Danes, even though Jan sailed with 2 broken ribs. An accident in the Nordic Championships in Oslo 2 weeks ago caused the painful injury. But with pure Nordic Viking will and stubbornness, they made it through the day though Jan Jensen looked a bit pale after races were over.
Five fantastic races in 12-16 knots and flat water do something to people, so it was 70 happy cat-sailors around the beer barrel in the sun-set back at the harbour, saturday evening.
Sunday morning we all woke up to absolutely no wind. Waiting time was continuously postponed until 13.00, but wind was closer to vacuum than to the 3-6 knots needed to race. The race officers called it a day.
Even though we didn’t get any sailing Sunday, the quality of the racing Saturday was excellent and enough to have our new Champs and provide them their medals, the trophy and with great gifts from the main sponsor, the lawyer firm Holst Advokater.
The punch line of the regatta must be Great sailing & great “hygge”, and we hope to see you all again and many more in 2016, the date and site still to be confirmed.
Results:
- Heeg/Baars (DEN) 4 points
- Schuetz/Feind (GER) 12 points
- Lindstädt/Ody (GER) 12 points
- Friedrichsen/Wendel (GER) 15 points
- Maurer/Oldenburg (GER) 17 points
- Dahl/Vogelius (GER) 20 points
- Jensen/Wyon (DEN) 23 points
- Schmidt/Nielsen (DEN) 30 points
- Neudahl/Otte (GER) 32 points
- Norup/Kaarsberg (DEN) 33 points
- Schmeink/Pelzer ((GER) 40 points
- Josephsen/Liebst (DEN) 43 points
- Nielsen/Nielsen (DEN) 49 points
- Thoden/Thoden (DEN) 54 points
- Wolf/Said (GER) 64 points
Full and detailed results can be downloaded here.
More information about sailing in Denmark, check the official Danish Formula 18 website and of course like their Facebook page.
Photo credits: Emil Landry