This year's ORC Estonian Championship for classes A and B were organized by the Kalev Yacht Club on the venue of the Alexela ORC World Championship in Tallinn on June 17-20. While the ORC Estonian champions in these classes have been revealed together with the Finnish sailors at different sides of the Gulf of Finland during the Baltic Offshore Week regatta, this year the severe restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic did not allow Estonians to go to Finland. The same weekend Finnish fleet conquered for the titles of their country in Helsinki.
In the longest and most important offshore stage of the regatta, which started at noon on Friday, the Forte (X-41) team won in Class A and the Katariina II (Arcona 340) team in Class B.
Saturday was the second day of the competition, where the competition format was inshore race on the windward-leeward course. In harsh and changeable wind conditions, but even in Mediterranean conditions, three races were sailed, and the leaders by the end of the day were yacht Olympic (X-41 mod) led by captain Tiit Vihul and Katariina II of Aivar Tuulberg in the respective classes A and B.
Sunday's weather and sailing conditions were not much different from Saturday. However, it was gratifying that the wind was a little bit stronger and more stable on Sunday, and PRO Madis Ausman was able to start the races at the scheduled time without postponement. Fresh SSW wind made it possible to sail three more inshore races in a row. As a total of six inshore races were held, according to the scoring, it also allowed the two worst results to discard of the total results. The result of the offshore race had a coefficient of 1.4 and it was not subject to discarding. The competition was intense and its level was undoubtedly very high. In anticipation of the Alexela ORC World Championships in Tallinn in August, it also offered the same format in abbreviated form as at the ORC Worlds in 6-14 August.
Forte (X-41), who started the last day of the competition in second place in class A, won the first two races and took the sixth place in the last race. Olympic, on the other hand, received a starting penalty in the second race and scored third and fourth in the first and third races. Overall, it gave the team Forte, which had been sailing for the 15th season, another Estonian champion's title, and the Olympic (X-41 mod) team did not win the title for two years in a row, but earned the silver medals of the Estonian championship. The bronze medals belonged to Priit Tammemägi's team on the yacht Premium (X-41 mod). A total of 9 yachts competed in class A.
In class B with 14 yachts in the fleet, a sovereign winner and crowned Estonian champion was Aivar Tuulberg's team on Katariina II (Arcona 340), who ended as a leader both first racing days, did not give up her success on Sunday, taking bullets from two races and one sixth place. However, as the two worse results were discarded in the overall results, the final score for Katariina II consisted impressively of five race wins only.
For the Sugar (Italia 9.98 F) team with captain Marjaliisa Umb, which took two second places and one seventh place on the final day, only three second and two third places remained in the final score, which also guaranteed them silver medals at the Estonian Championship. The Amserv Toyota Sailing Team (First 36.7 mod), led by Margus Zuravljov, who also shot one race on the last day of the race, scored from the first to the fifth in total, and narrowly finished second, completing the podium of the Estonian Championship.
Teams are carefully preparing for the approaching Alexela ORC World Championships. In the crew of four teams well known foreign sailors were involved to improve their performance: Lorenzo Bodini (ITA) on Katariina II, Paolo Bucciarelli (ITA) on Sugar, Joachim Aschenbrenner (DEN) on Matilda 4 and Jesper Radich (DEN) on Adelante.
In addition to the good organization and race management, this regatta was also crowned by the seemingly unbelievable summer heat, but also by a pleasant and sufficient wind, which allowed the RC to hold only one less race than the maximum plan.
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