The Polish duo consisting of skipper Kuba Szymanski and co-skipper Maciek Lato became the first boat on the doublehand offshore course and only the second boat to reach the finish city of Aarhus.
At 20:06 AUG 9, the boat crossed the finish line after approximately 6 days, 3 hours, and 56 minutes. After the windy journey across the North Sea and Skagerrak from Esbjerg around Denmark's westernmost point Blåvandshuk, and then around Denmark's northernmost point Skagen, they headed south in calmer waters. Ahead was Storm Hans, waiting.
Gust of 50 knots
In contrast to the Palby Marine/Hansen Sailing Team, the race organizers decided to shorten the route on the Doublehand Offshore course, as Kuba Szymanski and Maciek Lato in their Beneteau 40.7 Polished Manx would have been hit by the storm in the Baltic Sea, where there were gusts of wind over 50 knots.
The reduced route skipped Denmark's easternmost point Christiansø/Bornholm and instead went around Denmark's southernmost point Gedser. Purely by chance, the boats Palby Marine/Hansen Sailing Team and Polished Manx encountered each other at Gedser Odde, where Kuba Szymanski congratulated Michael Møllmann on their anticipated Line Honour achievement. Around 1 AM on Monday night, the Polish skipper chose to take a pit stop after facing increasing winds in the Langelandsbælt for a few hours, waiting for the storm to abate. This happened on Wednesday morning around 06:05 when the sailing resumed.
The rest of the race continued with a steady breeze of 12-14 m/s, but no longer on a close-hauled course – they sailed on a broad reach all the way back to Aarhus, where they were greeted by race management representatives. In addition to the honor and a bottle of champagne, the skipper received a top-notch sailing watch, a Quatic 7 smartwatch from Garmin - Kuba donated at once the watch to his young co-skipper Maciek.
