With all three Line Honor winners back in Nyborg, the majority of boats on the 167 and 225-mile courses are finishing, and the fleet of boats on the 78-mile course are out of the Småland Sea, it appears that Vegvisir Race Nyborg 2023 will be an edition of the race with the highest completion rate. And uniquely, a race where a singlehander beat all the others.
The experienced solo-sailor Jens Listrup from Sweden took Line Honors on the 167-mile course ahead of the entire doublehand fleet. It has never happened before in Vegvisir Race that a singlehander becomes the first boat back.
The 167-mile route took the participants from Nyborg, through the Rudkøbingløbet, through the South Funen Archipelago, out into the Baltic Sea at Marstal, past the Fehmarn construction, past Gedser north to Grønsund through the Småland Sea before finishing in Nyborg.
On Friday September 1st at 20.09.42, Jens Listrup in his Norlin 411 Gerda Ulrika XI crossed the finish line in Nyborg. Since Friday morning when the boats were at the entrance to Grønsund, they sailed upwind. Jens Listrup steadily closed the gap of approximately 4 nautical miles, and at one point, he had a lead of 4 nautical miles over second-place Franz Schollmayer and Fanko Braun in Corsa 30 Firlefanz. However, the lead shrank to a 0.4 nautical mile lead on the last leg as Jens Listrup got caught in a wind hole. He managed to find the wind before being overtaken, securing his position as the first boat back.
Dutch winners on the 225 miles
At 02:17:25 on Saturday morning, the first boat returned on the 225 NM long Red course. The winners were Arno Molenaar and Rob Vis from Medemblik in Holland. The boat, a Farrier 32R named Thriller, turned out to be the fastest on the 225-mile course. Before the start, everyone believed that a course shortening would be necessary as the weather forecast indicated very light winds. But as it turned out, more wind, especially during the night between Thursday and Friday, propelled the participants through the western part of the Baltic Sea to the mark at Drossler Ort. There was a close battle between the Line Honor boat and Fly Dragon, a Dragonfly 40 C. However, in the end, the Dutch boat proved to be faster.
Danish winner on the 78 miles
Finally, we saw Ejnar Kjær in the trimaran Dragster cross the finish line at 06:26:17 as a dominant winner on the 78-mile course, leading from start to finish. After the start in Nyborg, he never looked back. He was the first past Agersø and also the first at the tricky waters between Femø and Fejø around midnight. Vejrø was passed to starboard at around 01:30, after which there was a beat back to Nyborg. It was not Dragster and Ejnar Kjær's specialty, so it became exciting when the German Thorsten Thelen in Seaquest 36 and the Dane Kenneth Jespersen in Hanse 575 suddenly were less than 2 nautical miles behind. However, the Danish multihull sailor held on all the way to the finish line and took Line Honor. Thus, as a solo sailor, he also beat the larger doublehanded monohulls. The performance is somewhat less impressive than Jens Listrup's since multihulls are considerably faster than monohulls.
Another exciting night - and day to come
On the 78 NM course as well, all predictions of calm winds and course shortenings were proven wrong. The participants had a fantastic night sail. The sun set at 20:06, after which the nearly full moon illuminated the course from 21:00. On August 2nd, the sun rose at 06:23, and it looks to be a fantastic late summer day for both participants and spectators who can see the harbor fill up throughout the day.
At 16:00, there will be plenty of people at the harbor when the Danish top duo Sko/Torp takes the stage at 16:00 on Heimdalsplads right in front of the inner harbor where the participating sailors in Vegvisir Race Nyborg are moored.