Roschier Baltic Sea Race 2022

Roschier Baltic Sea Race 2022 – The pioneers

by Louay Habib Jul 19 2:52 AM PDT
July 21, 2022

The first Roschier Baltic Sea Race starts on Thursday 21st July 2022 in Helsinki, Finland organized by the Royal Ocean Racing Club together with the Ocean Racing Alliance.

The race lasts approximately 635 nautical miles, starting and finishing in Helsinki in the Gulf of Finland. The course covers the Swedish island of Gotland, which is approximately 250 nautical miles southwest of Helsinki.

The Roschier Baltic Sea Race has attracted 27 entries from 11 countries; the host country Finland; Denmark; Estonia; Germany; Great Britain; the Netherlands; Norway; Poland; Spain; Sweden and the United States of America. A huge variety of entries; A completely new course and a variety of weather scenarios make predicting the elapsed time for the competing yachts anything but easy. three teams; Ambersail 2, I Love Poland and GP Bullhound can be considered favorites to set the race record. Janne Kjellman’s TS-42 Squid from Helsinki is the only reported multihull. The overall winner of the Roschier Baltic Sea Race will receive the best corrected time according to the IRC judging rule.

IRC Null

VO65 – Ambersail 2

The Lithuanian VO65 Ambersail 2 has been chartered to American skipper Clarke Murphy and will be sailing under the NYYC and RORC lads. The Ambersail crew includes Ian Budgen as tactician and Mike Broughton as navigator; Both have won multiple world championships and competed in races around the world. Clarke Murphy will be racing with two family members; Liam and Caitlin Murphy, with a professional crew including two-time Volvo Ocean Race sailor Abby Ehler.

Volvo 70 – I love Poland

Almost all of the 14 crew members on the Volvo 70 I Love Poland skippered by Grzegorz Baranowski are aged 30 or younger and are all from Poland. Owned by the Polish National Foundation, the mission of I Love Poland is to bring forth the next generation of top offshore sailors from Poland. A prime example is Magdalena Kwasna, who competed in the laser class at the Tokyo Games. Since the project began in 2018, I Love Poland has won Line Honors at the Rolex Middle Sea Race, was the first Volvo 70 to finish the 2021 Rolex Fastnet Race, and won the 2022 IMA Caribbean Maxi Challenge.

Volvo 70 – GP Bullhound

The Volvo 70 GP Bullhound sailed by Per Roman is known on the international offshore circuit as HYPR. GP Bullhound’s crew of 16 is a mix of friends and family and a regular professional crew led by Jens Lindner, including circumnavigator Diego Fructuoso. The international crew of the GP Bullhound comes from Spain; Sweden; France; Germany; Hong Kong and the Netherlands.

Tilmar Hansen’s German TP52 Outsider with skipper Bo Teichmann is one of the favorites for the overall victory under IRC. The biggest outsider victory so far was the overall victory for the RORC Caribbean 600 2020. The German Carkeek 47 Störtebeker, formerly Black Pearl, is driven by Torben Muehlbach with a young crew from the Hamburgischer Verein Seefahrt (HVS). The largest boat in the race is Kenneth Bjoerklund’s Norwegian CNB 76 Enderpearl, which will have a Nordic crew including the owner’s longtime friends and highly experienced Finnish sailors Ari Känsäkoski, Sakari Kalske and Jan Paukkunen. The Dutchman in IRC Zero is Willem Jan Landman’s Volvo 60 Boudragon.

IRC One

Ten teams in a variety of yachts are registered on IRC One from six different countries. The largest is Sebastian Gylling’s classic Finnish Swan Eira, the smallest is Anders Lundmark’s Danish Figaro 2 The Spirit, who will be two-handed racing with Louise Edgren.

Notable entries on IRC One include Ed Bell’s British JPK 1180 Dawn Treader, overall winner of the 2022 Gotland Runt and class runner-up of the 2022 RORC Caribbean 600. Arto Linnervuo’s Xtra-Staerk will be racing with a team of eight from Finland. The Xp-44 has scored impressively in the RORC Transatlantic Race, RORC Caribbean 600 and the Rolex Fastnet Race.

Two German teams with a similar design will race. Berthold Brinkmann’s Mariejo, skippered by Martin Buck, is a brand new Pogo 44 with an all-German crew of four. Thomas Reinecke’s Millennium 40 Edelweiss will be sailed by Ove Franck with an all-German crew of eight. The Swedish Farr 400 Wetjob is the highest rated boat and will represent the Royal Swedish Yacht Club. Wetjob skipper Niclas Heurlin has competed in several Fastnet races and nearly 20 Gotland Runt races. Swedish duo Karl Jungstedt and Martin Dubois will ride Sun Fast 3600 Groovie Two-Handed. Dubois has competed in over 20 Gotland Runt Races. Karl Jungstedt is a very experienced Class40 sailor and has competed in several RORC Caribbean 600 races, the Rolex Middle Sea Race and the Rolex Fastnet Race.

IRC Two

Ten teams will compete in IRC 2, the largest being the classic Ron Holland-designed Swan 441 Carissa, owned by the Ocean Ladies Association and managed by Raija Alapeteri with an eight-strong Finnish women’s team. The smallest boat in the class and the Roschier Baltic Sea Race is the Finnish H-323 Silver Moon II with a crew of five of family and friends led by Salla Kaven.

Swedish Sailing Federation President Olof Granander will be sailing his Swedish First 40.7 Embla, with most of the Corinthian crew coming from three Swedish families who have been sailing together for five years. MP42 Tokka-Lotta will have a crew of 10 Sea Scouts from Turku in south-west Finland. The Tokka-Lotta with skipper Philippa Rytkönen was designed for sailing training and is crewed by a young team.

Kind of Magic is a Finnish IMX 38 skippered by Ilmari Absetz and a crew of eight mostly from Finland but also including Yasmine Piening from Switzerland and the well-travelled Australian Peter Fletcher who has competed in almost every 600m race in existence. Xchiquilla will be driven by owner Edgars Kvjatkovskis and skipper Mareks Ivans with an all Latvian crew.

IRC two-handed

Five teams from the Roschier Baltic Sea Race will compete in IRC Two-Handed, including Julius Haartti and Sanna Moliis with their Finnish J/109 Irie. The pair have crossed the Atlantic twice and competed in the last two editions of the Gotland Runt. The Swedish Albin Nova Team Mobline will be driven two-handed by Pär Lindfors from Sweden and Nadine Kugel from Germany. Team Mobline regularly competes in duels in the Baltic Sea.

Before the start of the race on Thursday 21 July, the Helsinki Mayor’s Reception and Welcome Party will take place at Helsinki City Hall. The impressive neoclassical building was originally designed by Carl Ludvig Engel in 1833. The official race supporters of the Roschier Baltic Sea Race are: The City of Helsinki; Nyländska Jaktklubben (NJK), Finnish Offshore Racing Association (AMP); Helsingfors Sailing Club (HSK); FINIRC and the Xtra Strength Ocean Racing Society.

For more information and to follow the Roschier Baltic Sea Race please visit here.