Öckerö Shorthanded Race 2023

And with Öckerö Shorthanded Race 2023 behind us, the racing season is closed.

As usual tough competition. All the usual suspects plus all others sailors who usually race with good results along the coast. All boats are very well sailed and in spite of the camaraderie and banter ashore, all guns are out on the water. This is one of our favorite races. Check out previous reports (2021; 2020)

Öckerö Shorthanded Race has found a successful recipe.

Partly because it is the last chance of the season. Partly because of the competitive nature. And the opportunity to mix and mingle with other crazy sailors. And, no less, because it is an intense race. Inshore, with a few stretches on open water. Short enough to require all concentration and to punish every single mistake. Yet long enough to be a distance race with opportunities to use the whole inventory, to sail all points of sail and make good use of the “single number” handicap system.

Just a week before, weather forecasts were grim with plenty (too much) of wind. Nevertheless, we trained recently to squeeze out as much speed as possible upwind in heavy air and were looking forward to some decent planing downwind.

Öckerö Shorthanded Race – First Day

Reality was a far cry from forecasts. Barely any air at the start and from exactly the opposite direction.

Nevertheless, the chosen course was fun and varied. We can’t really complain, except for the heavy showers which plagued the first half of the day.

With no air at the start, we had no time to pin the line. Not a big deal though at that speed. What side of the line? The wind turned from SW to NE about 20 minutes before the start. We had a plan to sail up the line on starboard and jibe at the start. We got stuck behind Coquette, a XP33 with a huge kite shadowing us completely. It took just a few minutes to jibe away, get some speed, jibe back and roll them from behind. This is one of the things we love with the J/80.

We sailed well. Had good speed all the time and stayed in clear air as much as possible. One the kite went up a little too early, once a little too late.

We placed 3rd in our class, which is good. Great in fact and our best result in this race so far. I am convinced that the spinnaker too late costed us the first place, but we will never know…

Öckerö Shorthanded Race – Second Day

Here the forecasts were quite accurate. Quite windy at the start. Really glad that the racing committee chose a course with a stretch in open water as it always is fun to play with waves. Though, the J/80 doesn’t like it much.

As shortest and slowest boat in our class, on a first leg tight reaching, our plan was to let all other boats ahead and not be rolled. But plan are there to be changed, right? I couldn’t hold myself from trying to be first on the line though. The result: we were too early, pushed above the windward buoy and therefore had to 360 back behind the fleet. Wasn’t it where we wanted to be all along?

Upwind, over those big waves, it felt like we finally got it and could sail fast and high. In fact, we could keep up with boats, such as First 31.7 or Elan 310, which are both longer and have far bigger righting moment.

FInally downwind! We were hoping to get on a plane immediately, but unfortunately, by this time the wind was down to about 15kts, which is just below our threshold. The sloppy waves from starboard quarter came to save the day as we could surf most of the time and sailed past a few of the faster boats in our group.

We finished in 5th place in our class. Not enough for a podium, but better than we hoped considering the short waterline and difficulty to punch through waves that we usually experience in these conditions.

Results

With a 3rd and 5th place in our class and a 7th and 10th total, we came 5th on the total regatta. Not bad at all and our best result at Öckerö Shorthanded Race so far.

	Rank	Fleet	Boat	Type	Club	Skipper	Co-skipper	SRS
2	1st	Gul	Elektra	Beason 36	Lerkils BS	Oscar Bergstrand	Björn Cervell	0.964
3	2nd	Grön	Alif Rödbena	If	LDSS	Anders Ewert	Anders Öfverman	0.813
4	3rd	Röd	Lady Godiva	Dominant 105	Lerkils BS	Anders Dahlsjö	Emma Sundén	1.027
5	4th	Gul	Den Röde	Dehler 33	SS Slören	Hans Caspersson	Fredrik Eliasson	1.001
6	5th	Gul	Veloce	J/80	KMS Nordön	Federico Garofalo	Johan Berntsson	0.947
7	6th	Gul	Seahorse	First 31,7 HR	HJBK	Johan Johansson	Andreas Turesson	0.961
8	7th	Gul	Vindrus	Xp33	XSS	Jesper Folkesson	Sten Bergqvist	1.02
9	8th	Gul		X99	BKSS	Åse Magnusson	Carl-Johan Pihlgren	1
10	9th	Grön	Vildavilja	Cumulus	STSS	Joakim Axelsson	Jonas Caspersson	0.867
11	10th	Grön	La Chispa	Späckhuggare	SS Slören	Nils Ekholm	Sarah Fidler	0.839
12	11th	Grön	Magda	NF	KMS Nordön	Mikael Ekbrand	Fredrik Ekbrand	0.89
13	12th	Grön	Pan	Drake	XSS	Daniel Hermansson	Fredrik Hermansson	0.859
14	13th	Grön	Båten	If	Rörviks SS	Felix steijner	Lukas Folkesson	0.813
15	14th	Röd	Elusive	First 35	XSS	Krister Gustafsson	Patrik Rohlin	1.031
16	15th	Grön	Tess	Omega 30	BKSS	David Christofferson	Ulf Christofferson	0.919
17	16th	Gul	Ping	Archambault A31	SS Slören	Pelle Lindell	Fabian Thies	1.011
18	17th	Röd	Våga	Xp38	Lerkils BS	Bo Larsson	Leif Johansson	1.076
19	18th	Röd		FarEast 28r	Halmstad SS	Jonas Karlsson	Johnny Stjernquist	1.041
20	19th	Grön	Vår	Omega 28	LBS	Sebastian Wik	Jens Svanvik	0.856
21	20th	Röd	XALAX	Xc 42	XSS	Jonas Dyberg	Carina Dyberg	1.052
22	21st	Röd	Vameom	Fareast 28r	KMS Nordön	Ulf Andreasson	Johnny Petersson	1.049
23	22nd	Gul		Smaragd	Långedrag SS	August Ruckman	Gustav Gabinus	0.947
24	23rd	Grön	Novella	Cumulus	BKSS	Björn Lerntoft	Loa Arnesson	0.867
25	24th	Gul	Gröna Pantern	Smaragd	LDSS	Emil ström	Torsten Samuelsson	0.956
26	25th	Grön	Nefi	NF	SS Slören	Calle Christenson	Lennart Ericsson	0.88
27	26th	Gul	Kaida	Salona 33	GKSS	Johan Wetterlundh	Niclas Lygner	1.008
28	27th	Röd	Xil	X-37	LDSS	Martin Malmström	Axel Ekerstig	1.054
29	28th	Grön	Kanon	Aphrodite 25	Lerkil BS	David Melander	Berry Berglund	0.834
30	29th	Grön	Piri Piri	Banner 28R	XSS	Johan Henricsson	Emil Henricsson	0.935
31	30th	Grön	T-rex	X-79	SS Slören	Fredrik Gärdhagen	Jesper Gunneling	0.905
32	31st	Röd	Jolie	First 35	XSS	Markus Svensson	Anna-Karin Grahn	1.039
33	32nd	Gul	Lady Catryn	Elan 310	Tjörns SS	Tord Björkqvist	Ebbe Jenssen	0.957
34	33rd	Röd	LaPrimera	Jeanneau Sunfast 3600	STSS	Peter Lundgren	David Johansson	1.058
35	34th	Röd	My Lady	Dehler 41	XSS	Mats Andersson	Thomas Lundberg	1.095
36	35th	Gul	Slowly Gonzales	Smaragd	LDSS	Erik Nevhagen	Linus Lindblom	0.947
37	36th	Grön	Estelle	Cumulus	SS Slören	Martin Anderberg	Magnus Anderberg	0.867
38	37th	Gul	Heroix	X-332 Sport	STSS	Anders Bergvall	Staffan Cederlöf	1.005
39	38th	Grön	Thalia	Comfortina 32	BKSS	Stefan Rosvall	Erik Rosvall	0.911
40	39th	Röd	Esquire	Dehler 36sq	KMS Nordön	Krister Ahlqvist	Pierre Ohldin	1.037
41	40th	Grön	Mars Makalös	If	KMS Nordön	Robert Jansson	Katarina Frithiofsson	0.813
42	41st	Gul	Spiff	Salona 33	SSSÖ	Ulf Palm	Leif Thordenberg	0.99
43	42nd	Gul	Coquette IV	Xp33	STSS	Anders Kuikka	Ann Kuikka	1.028
44	43rd	Gul	Sun Salutation	Jeanneau Sun Fast 37	XSS	Johan Holmqvist	Lena Holmqvist	0.991
45	44th	Gul	Decision	Archambault A31	STSS	Thomas Dahl	Svante Arvidsson	1.005
46	44th	Röd	Svalan	Dehler 34 SV	SS Slören	Magnus Sjögren	Helena Peilot Sjögren	1.034
47	44th	Röd	STELLA	Swedestar 370	KMS Nordön	Stefan Möller	Yvonne Möller	1.036
48	44th	Röd	Blur V	Open 7.50	GYC	Peter Gustafsson		1.054
49	44th	Röd	Farrgo	Farr 30	BKSS	Magnus Witting	Per Algotsson	1.068
50	44th	Röd	Mrs Freckles	Corby33	CCYC	Lena Having/ Eivind BoymoMalm	Lena Having / Eivind BoymoMalm	1.037
51	44th	Röd	Dehlight	Dehler 38	SS Viken Ägir	Robert Trolled	Rolf Kjällgren	1.048
52	44th	Gul	LYRA	Dehler 32	BKSS	Patrik Pettersson	Karin Pettersson	0.968
53	44th	Gul	Selma	X 332	KMS Nordön	Bengt Svensson	Doris Krus	0.982
54	44th	Grön	Revansch	Siesta 32	Lerkils BS	Peter Elfstrand	Martin Håland	0.923
55	44th	Grön	Sea breeze	NF	Tjörns SS	Hampus Bäcklund	Peter Bäcklund	0.885

All results here