(Gothenburg, Sweden)- J/111 BLUR.SE report- owner/ skipper Peter Gustafsson commented on the Gothenburg Open Sea Race:
“This is perhaps the only proper offshore race on the west coast of
Sweden- the Gothenburg Open Sea Race. It is a short 120 nm over-night
stunt back and forth over Kattegat bay.Most of the J/111 BLUR.SE crew were on vacation, but I was keen to go anyways- - so we decided to do it double-handed. We thought it might be fun to challenge the fully-crewed teams. Or, so we thought. As we got closer to the race, the forecast became more and more grim, with pouring rain and 18-24 knots southwesterly breeze during the night.
We managed to stay with the pack on the long upwind over to the northern tip of Denmark, before we took off on the way home in the pitch black August night.
Unfortunately, the wind picked up even more at daybreak, and we had a steady 34-36 kts of wind when we rounded the last offshore mark at Marstrand. Not good. But the J/111 performed great with the heavy weather jib and a deep reef. We didn’t break anything and we felt confident all the way!! And the bonus? We took line honors and beat the fully crewed boats on handicap as well!! And, we did 20+ kts for a long time!!” Here is a YouTube sailing video J/111 BLUR.SE’s experience on the Gothenburg Open Sea Race.
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