Andreas Willim (to the right) and Tom Gosh and a blast of a race when they managed to beat the 2021 record with over 10 hours.
10 hours that's an improvement worth talking about. And that's exactly what happened when the first boat on the Garmin Round Denmark Race inshore crossed the line at 14:41:39 hrs. The new still unofficial time to beat is 5 day 2 hours and 39 minuttes.
The 2021 record was set by trimaran sailors Lars and Anders Kämpfe in the extremely light edition of the race. But that was literately destroyed by another German 2Star team; skippers Andreas Willim and Tom Gosh. They had a tough battle with Frank Lavrsen and Jeppe Hougaard in Matthis 35 Jingo and the Dutch sailors Harmen De Jong and Richard van Leeuwen in the Hod 35 Extrahod. All three boats were neck on neck at the entrance of Lillebælt. In the mix was also fully crewed J/120 Honky Dory. But whereas the J/120 managed to slip away through the tricky Lillebælt the three doublehanded boats got stuck in the current. So a real podium final was on after 600 nautical miles starting from between the two bridges in Lillebælt at 03:15 in the morning.
The secret weapon - the lifting keel
The dutch boat is better for more windy conditions and as the day broke attuned out to be an ultra light and very patchy morning. So Belle and Jingo could slip away. The decisive moved came when the JPK 38 used it's lifting keel as the secret weapon to make a shortcut over the sandbanks between the island Endelave an Jutland. The moved gave Belle a significant lead and the victory in the 2Star inshore category as the rest of the leg to Aarhus was a walk in the park.
See the full post race interview here