121 yachts are registered for the ORC World Championship from August 4 to 12 in Kiel. “We are more than satisfied with the quality and quantity,” says a pleased organization manager Eckhard von der Mosel, who already managed the 2014 ORC World Championship in Kiel. All reigning world champions, all medal winners of the 2021 World Championships and European champions from 2022 and 2023 have confirmed their coming. A total of 121 yachts from 13 nations will compete for the three World Championship titles in Class A (15), B (33) and C (73). If it is the first start off Kiel for some active sailors, it means goodbye for others.

“Taking into account the shifts in sailing, this registration result is really good. We have a development in sailing towards adventure trips (double-handed and single-handed or smaller crews cover hundreds or even thousands of nautical miles). Large adventure cruises like the Fastnet Race also currently fit into the mega trend of offshore racing. We can therefore interpret the more than 120 yachts in Kiel for the World Championship as recognition for the German regatta scene,” adds Eckart Reinke, Offshore Chief of Kiel Week and Principle Race Officer of the World Championship. Three of seven race officers at the ORC World Championship in Kiel are Stefan Kunstmann, Dr. Peter Doepgen and Laura Kühlewind.

This year Reinke, who has been chairman of the German Sailing Association’s Sailing Committee since August last year and is regarded as an absolute offshore expert, is again concentrating on race management. The internationally renowned Race Officer has already officiated at four World Championships (2005, 2009, 2014 and 2021). He has also been involved in five European Championships, the America’s Cup, the Farr40 Circuit and race management throughout Europe.
With a view to the ORC World Championship, the courses have already been tested in advance and the active participants were brought on board to help design them. “With Kiel Week and as KYC, we have great experience when it comes to designing offshore courses. For example, the long course will be based on the „Silbernes Band“ popular in Kiel Week. For the „Coastal Races“, medium distances of two to five hours, which will be sailed for the first time in a world championship, we tested the courses at the MaiOR and Kiel Week and obtained feedback from the regatta sailors. With this experience, we then adjusted the course diagrams a bit to be able to offer even better courses for the World Championship,” Reinke explains.

Even if the big hype at the annual offshore regattas in Germany was missing and the number of entries from the MaiOR (30) to the Kiel Cup at the Kiel Week (35) to the IDM during the Travemünder Woche (21) remained rather in the lower to normal range, the ORC World Championship not only attracted German sailors in large numbers to the regatta course. Besides 61 German yachts, fleets from the Baltic States, Estonia (12) Lithuania (10), as well as Scandinavia with eight entries each from Denmark and Sweden complete the field.

And even if the numbers of the 2014 Kiel record ORC World Championship are not cracked, it should be a faster World Championship this time. “It is the idea of ORC sailing to use new materials and new technologies to make boats faster, in other words: To bring innovation to sailing. Whereas in the one-size-fits-all classes, attention is paid to ensuring that all the material is the same, in ORC sailing, particular attention is paid to technological advancement, which then benefits all boats over time. Based on this basic understanding, the entire fleet of racing boats is also becoming faster on average from year to year,” says Reinke, explaining the end development toward increasingly fast yachts. And of the fastest ones are at the start in Kiel. “It’s a who’s who of ORC sailing in Kiel,” says von der Mose