The first leaders of the ORC Double Handed World Championship are:
In Class A: Pep Soldevila and Pol Servent, with the Dufour 44 "ES TES UNNO," are leading.
In Class B: The Americans Jonathan McKee and Peter Isler on board the Sunfast 3300 "RED RUBY" are in first place.
Leading in Class C is the Sun Odyssey 36.i "TARTERITA" skippered by David Garcia and Jordi Bosch.
On Tuesday afternoon, at 2:52:33 PM, 'Duende 50,' owned by Inés RodrÃguez and crewed by Jorge Arnal, crossed the finish line, thirteen minutes later, 'Urbania,' with Fernando Julio and Retegui Bernardeau on board, did the same. They were the first boats in Class A to finish the first of the two races that make up the ORC Double Handed World Championship held until Friday and organized by the Real Club Nà utic de Barcelona.
The first race, covering a total of 183 miles for Class A and B, and 163 miles for Class C, took competitors from Barcelona northeastward, passing through the Medas Islands and the ODAS Begur buoy before returning to Barcelona. By 06:34:02 AM on Wednesday morning, all boats had crossed the finish line. Seven crews abandoned the race.
In Class A, the results after applying the compensation show Pep Soldevila and Pol Servent in the lead with their Dufour 44 ES TES UNNO... In second place are Marco Corno and David Belda aboard the X-41 MAGICA, and third are Joan Balaguer and Alex Fernández with their X-46 SD KORRIGAN 4. The first boat to cross the finish line was the IMS50 'Duende 50,' owned by Inés RodrÃguez with Jorge Arnal, arriving at 14:52:33 hours, with a total elapsed time of 28:18:51 hours.
Jonathan McKee and Peter Isler (USA), aboard their SunFast 3300 RED RUBY, won the long offshore race and took the lead in Class B of the 2023 ORC Double Handed World Championship. They secured victory with a margin of 31 minutes over the second-place finisher, INTEMAN, a Figaro 2 skippered by José Daniel MartÃn and Didac Costa (ESP).
Third place went to Lluis Blanchar and Pablo Calbeto and their X-35 COMETA. The crew of RED RUBY has 10,000 nautical miles of offshore racing experience and a significant number of victories over the past decades, but this is their first time competing together.
Jonathan McKee: "It's been incredible to cross the finish line first! The whole race was tough and dynamic; it wasn't easy to get into the lead, and there were opportunities to mess it up until the end. Peter did an amazing job and made two incredible tactical decisions that took us from the middle of the fleet to the front. We were lucky that the race favored our boat, as it was downwind and reaching most of the time, which was good for us. Upwind, especially with light winds, is much more challenging for us. Let's see how the short race on Thursday goes, but we're happy with the result so far."
In corrected time, the results were very close in Class C, with the Sun Odyssey 36.i TARTERITA skippered by David Garcia and Jordi Bosch leading by a margin of 00:04:14 over the X 332 O'MARYLOU, helmed by Jesus de Miguel and Unai Cilleruelo. Toni Pons and Josep Pons on the Sun Fast 3200 CHICA TXECA round out the top three.
Guillermo DÃaz and Stephane Azzoni on the X 332 sport ASTERIX were the first in their class to complete the course.
The race was very dynamic and varied in terms of wind conditions. Downwind sailing prevailed, as well as periods of calm and stronger winds. In the northernmost part of the race, wind speeds exceeded 20 knots upon reaching the Medas Islands, and during the night, there were moments of very light wind, almost calm in the Bay of Begur. For the last boats to finish, conditions were very light in the final stretch of the race.
Tomorrow will see the second and final race of the ORC Double Handed World Championship 2023. The course, approximately 70 nautical miles, will be determined at the end of the day based on weather conditions to ensure the best development of the competition.
The combined scores from both races will determine the new ORC Double Handed World Champions in each of the three classes: Class A, Class B, and Class C, grouped by size and weighted speed.
The Barcelona ORC Double Handed World Championship 2023 is organized by the Reial Club Nà utic de Barcelona (RCNB) on behalf of the Real Federación Española de Vela (RFEV) under the authority of the Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) and with the collaboration of the Federació Catalana de Vela (FCV). It is supported by l’Ajuntament de Barcelona, Generalitat de Catalunya, EsportCat. Collaborators include Gramona, Estrella Damm, Veri, Renting Ribs, B&G, Engel&Völkers, and HM Hospitales Nou Delfos.