Veijle Yacht Service OK Dinghy Nordic Championship

9 – 10 June

A familiar face for many sailors showed up last weekend in the OK Dinghy boat park in Gottskär, Sweden. Fredrik Lööf stepped back into an OK Dinghy again after three decades away and took the Nordic title, which he previously won aged 17, with four race wins out of five races sailed. Double European champion, Bo Petersen was second with former world champion, Greg Wilcox in third. A total of 45 sailors from five nations took part.

The host club was SS Kaparen, situated just south of Gothenburg, a family orientated club with a strong and competitive OK Dinghy fleet. The weekend was characterised by light winds and sunny conditions with the very strong fleet enjoying themselves both on and off the water.

Lööf, a multiple champion and Olympic gold medalist previously won the OK Dinghy Nordics back in 1987, when he was just 17 years old, before starting his long career in Finns and Stars. This year he showed good speed right from the start and took all three bullets on the first day. Only Petersen was able to keep up, ending the day with three seconds, while Wilcox was third overnight.

Day two brought similar winds with home sailor Thomas Hansson-Mild taking the day’s first race win, after Petersen was disqualifed, followed by Lööf, who chased him all around for a tight finish. In the last race, Lööf once again took the race win, but this time he had a battle with the promising junior, Maja Hansson-Mild, who led for most of the race, only to lose out to Lööf and Petersen and cross third.

Lööf was clearly happy to be back in the class and thanked the club and all the sailors. He explained how special it was to actually be sailing in the OK Dinghy again after so many years away from it. Back in 1987 he didn’t dare to make a speech after winning the title, but that was long forgotten now and compensated for by his speech this year.

Lööf said he got back into OKs, Because I love the basic, elementary sailing like the Finn and OK. I found the OK more fun as it’s a lighter boat and I like the simple set up. It’s cheaper as well and just great sailing. It is a little special to win the Nordic Championship again as I won it 1987, just before getting into the Finn.

He thinks the equipment has moved on a long way in 30 years. The equipment has improved a lot, the whole concept is simple with a few suppliers, which is great…in a way better than the Finn.

For his first OK Dinghy in 30 years he chose a UK built Ovington. I know Ovington build great boats, and I talked to the guys in the class and they were impressed by the performance. I had great back-up from the Swedish supplier Båths, so it was an easy choice. I went for Green sails as they been building OK sails for ever.

On the racing, The level is great and the sailors love the sport and the OK sailing. It is a great class with no Olympic stress and you can compete at a high level and still enjoy it.

When Lööf started his Finn campaign back in 1987 he was up against Mats Caap, who won the OK World Championship in 1987, before qualifying in the Finn for the 1988 Olympics. Lööf then turned the tables to qualify in 1992, the first of his six appearances at the Games, three in the Finn and three in the Star.

Caap was also racing in Gottskär, having returned to the OK Dinghy a few years ago. Lööf reminisced, It’s always great to sail against Mats. He is such a great sailor and person so that’s also a strong reason to get back into the class – to see all your friends.

Runner up, Petersen, who sails a Strandberg hull from Denmark, added, It is always nice to come to Sweden for sailing, the nature is so beautiful, with this fjord with rocks down in the water, and also the Swedish people are so nice and gentle.

Fredrik was hard to sail against because he made nearly no mistakes and I was close to being a tourist. I enjoyed it though, because now I know what to do with my training. I only managed to take one bullet away from him but was disqualified for touching the leeward starting mark. Sorry boys.

Thanks to Kaparen sailing club for making a very nice and cosy Nordic Championship and I’m looking forward to going back to Sweden for the worlds in 2020.

Third placed Wilcox was also impressed by the level of sailing and equipment. The racing was close and very even as there was not so much wind and now the fleet pretty much all has good gear it is easy to get a bad start and never recover. Some of the top guys like myself and Mats Caap and Thomas Hansson-Mild all had bad races after bad starts.

It was great to sail against Fredrik as he shows a level of ability that comes with years of professional sailing. He doesn’t seem to make mistakes and his fleet positioning is very good. Not being slow helps but he didn’t really win on speed. He seemed to really enjoy it as well.

Next up for fleet is Kieler Woche, which has attracted the biggest entry for more than a decade with 70 entries so far. Many sailors are using it as a warm event for the World Championship in Warnemünde, Germany, in early July.

Wilcox concluded, We have Kiel next weekend with a great fleet lined up so that should be a very good event and perfect warm up for what looks like an extremely competitive worlds. It’s great for me as I need the practice. My new Synergy Marine boat is going well, and is fast, but the skipper’s head might need a bit of tuning.

The world championship already has a pre-entry list of nearly 130 boats, including, on the back of his Gottskär victory, Lööf. His last OK Dinghy Worlds was also in 1987, where he took fourth place. This year’s world’s has also pulled in many new names, as well as former champions, and looks like being one of the most competitive championships for a long time.

2018 Nordic Championship – Results
Rank NAT SAIL HELM R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Total Nett
1 SWE 69 Fredrik Lööf KSSS 1 1 1 2 1 6 4.0
2 DEN 1507 Bo Petersen Hellerup SK 2 2 2 DSQ 2 54 8.0
3 NZL 582 Greg Wilcox Bernd 3 3 5 6 20 37 17.0
4 SWE 139 Hans Börjesson VSS 6 4 8 12 6 36 24.0
5 SWE 100 Thomas Hansson-Mild SSKA 13 8 4 1 16 42 26.0
6 DEN 1487 Henrik Kofoed-Larsen Hellerup 9 24 6 4 12 55 31.0
7 SWE 59 Lars Edwall LBS 4 6 16 26 7 59 33.0
8 SWE 2846 Jonas Börjesson KSSS 7 23 9 9 10 58 35.0
9 SWE 797 Mats Caap VSS 11 17 3 13 11 55 38.0
10 DEN 1433 Henrik Kimmel Petersen Herslev Strand SK 21.5) 5 17 5 15 63.5 42.0
11 DEN 1431 Christopher Joe Schubert Horsens SKb 10 37 15 10 9 81 44.0
12 DEN 142 Jörgen Lindhardtsen Hellerup SK 5 12 7 21 34 79 45.0
13 SWE 7 Bengt Larsson SSKA 12 7 11 17 25 72 47.0
14 POL 7 Marek Bernat KKS Warmia Oisctyn 15 18 24 3 13 73 49.0
15 SWE 2788 Jan-Erik Engholm 8 15 21 33 8 85 52.0
16 SWE 9 Håkan Törnqvist SSKA 26 9 10 14 21 80 54.0
17 GER 767 Juliane Hofmann Bernd 16 14 22 20 5 77 55.0
18 DEN 1419 Henri Skov Horsens 14 20 14 8 30 86 56.0
19 SWE 2797 Olle Albrektsson VSS 27 30 23 7 4 91 61.0
20 SWE 60 Per Westlund Norrköpings SS 25 11 13 24 22 95 70.0
22 SWE 2804 Ingemar Janson SSKA 20 33 19 16 18 106 73.0
21 DEN 1482 Tim Normann Herslev Strand SK 24 10 20 19 31 104 73.0
23 SWE 17 Jan Carlsson Mariestads SK 17.5 21 28 18 19 103.5 75.5
24 SWE 2816 Claes Avellun GKSS 21.5 16 32 11 32 112.5 80.5
25 SWE 22 Lasse Hansson GESS 28.5 13 36 22 24 123.5 87.5
26 SWE 99 Hans Elkjaer VSS 36 32 12 BFD 14 140 94.0
27 DEN 1407 Mattis Pedersen 23 38 29 27 17 134 96.0
28 SWE 55 Ulf Sahle GeSS 17.5 29 27 BFD 36 155.5 109.5
29 DEN 14 Peter Thybo Horsens SK 19 41 34 35 23 152 111.0
30 SWE 2776 Peder Thunander ASMK 35 25 30 28 28 146 111.0
31 SWE 2849 Sverker Härd Upsala SS 33 31 18 31 38 151 113.0
32 SWE 77 Peter Rudblom GESS 30 22 25 37 42 156 114.0
33 SWE 15 Mats Hovde GKSS 37 19 38 29 33 156 118.0
34 SWE 2802 Claes Heyman SSKA 38 26 26 30 37 157 119.0
35 SWE 888 Magnus Gillgren SSKA 32 35 31 25 40 163 123.0
36 DEN 88 Jacob Bang Svendborg Sund SK 31 34 33 34 26 158 124.0
37 DEN 1505 Peter Plesner Svensborg Sund SK 28.5 40 42 32 27 169.5 127.5
38 SWE 111 Bertil Eliasson SSKA 39 39 43 15 39 175 132.0
39 SWE 80 Arne Malm KSSS 40 28 35 BFD 29 178 132.0
40 SWE 2792 Anders Widding Umeå SS 41 27 40 36 35 179 138.0
41 SWE 2791 Roine Ericson KSSS 43 36 39 23 41 182 139.0
42 SWE 57 Maja Hansson-Mild SSKA DNC DNC DNC BFD 3 187 141.0
43 DEN 1396 Fredrikshamn SK Christian Roulsen 34 44 41 DNC DNC 211 165.0
44 DEN 8 Jakob Witthöft 42 43 37 DNC DNC 214 168
45 SWE 11 Bengt-Ingvar Sörgård STSS 44 42 44 DNC DNC 222 176.0

DNS, DSQ, OCS, BFD etc: 46pts