Four skippers in the fleet of 13 at Stenungsund, Sweden, last week, had won the IOD Class Championship before, each more than once, and collectively they’d won it 20 times! It was time for someone to upset the pecking order, and this year it was another veteran class sailor, Urban Ristorp, of Sweden, who got the job done. Urban had always shown flashes of brilliance at previous championships, but this time he sailed extremely consistently throughout the first six races of the regatta, never finishing lower than fourth place. Then on the final day, he lost a little of his magic, but still sailed just well enough to hold off two-time defending champion Charlie Van Voorhis, of Fishers Island, USA, topping the final standings by one point.

Urban Ristorp, 2009 IOD World Champion

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Kempe wins IOD A Series, first of many race week prizes

Disaster almost did strike Somers Kempe in the final race of the IOD A Series but luckily the crew examined the rig before the first race today and found a frayed shroud that could have broken and dropped the rig in the breezy sailing on Bermuda’s Great Sound.  They replaced the shroud in time for the first start of the day.

As it was with south winds gusting up to about 18 kts, Kempe and crew had winch malfunctions and could have switched boats under the IOD class rules, but elected to stay with that boat for the race. They took a tenth place, but with that race as a drop in the A series stayed ahead of Hubert Watlington who had 19 points and Kevin Farrar who came third in that series with 20 points.

The IOD racing is divided into three competitions, the seven-race A series, the six-race B Series and the overall thirteen-race Vrengen Gold Cup Series.

In the second two races on the day, Kempe elected to swap boats with the skipper who was third in the standings. He swapped to boat 21, Peppercorn, giving his broken boat, Encore, to Watlington and went on to take a 5-3 in the first two races of the B Series. Dan Faria (Newport RI) leads the B Series with a 3-1 today and Robert Constable (New York NY) stands second with a 1-4. Kemp is in third.

Kempe has a healthy lead in the thirteen-race Vrengen Gold Cup overall series. With 19 points he is with points ahead of Kevin Farrar and eleven ahead of Faria. Watlington has asked the jury for redress for fifteenth and sixteenth finishes sailing without any winches.