OK sailing in Viken

There is not one day without OK sailors in Viken! It is a persistent breed!

The updated OK dinghy world ranking was published by OKDIA and if featured honorable mention of two OKWiken sailors: Patric Mure for placing third at the UK nationals in July and Benjamin Hammerö for his third place in the Warenmünde also in July.

Full details on the ranking can be found here

There is frantic activities on the water outside Viken. Casual onlookers claimed that where ever you look, there is an OK dinghy – those sailors are truly dedicated! An impressive 14% of the participants at the Worlds are from the OKWiken fleet.

Gate start with Patric Mure in his new Synergy Evolution on port tack

Day 2 started in a completely different way than the brutal gusts of Day 1. Already arriving at the national Dutch Race center we were advised not to hurry as the wind barely made the faintest ripples on the now flat Ijsselmeer. The AP was soon hoisted while we all baked in our wetsuits. An hour later we launched and slowly made our way to the race course. Once on the race course it took yet an hour for the wind to stabilize around 080 degrees. Four races were planned and four races were completed in winds of 4-8 knots and frequent oscillations. Tricky and challenging sailing where the choppy conditions added an extra dimension. Keeping the pace and flow upwind was a completely different challenge than Day 1 when the focus was to stay upright! We did not get back to the docks until after six in the evening, with empty water bottles and hungry stomachs.

Day 3, the final day on Ijsselmeer, promised more wind from the new direction. The local sailors indicated that the waves would build and they were right! The downwind legs got more exciting compared to Day 2, while the upwind speed remained a differentiating factor separating the top 5-7 boats from the rest of the fleet. At the end of the day Stefan de Vries was the undisputed winner of the week. He mastered all three different weather conditions and secured an impressive series, closely followed by our new friends from GBR. Patric Mure finished in an impressive 5:th in his brand new Synergy Evolution in a striking color scheme. Greg Wilcox finished in 4:th place on the same points as the 3:rd place finisher.

The full results can be found here

Great sailing, 10 starts in 3 days, tight racing and good learnings. To stay in top ten a full race is challenging as the competition is fierce! The international OK sailors are good and getting better by every regatta.

1:st day of racing in Medemblik with 33 boats. Winds 18-20 knots and gusts of 26-28. Three races of 50-60 min. Hard hiking and challenging down winds. Patric was flying the Swedish colors and made us proud!

Göran Andersson OK-jolle cup on 23-24 April was the Swedish season starter. The unseasonably warm Easter weekend weather was boosted with a dose of high wind mixed with shifts. The racing took place just outside Strandverket on sheltered water and not on the 2022 World’s venue on Marstrandsfjorden. It was simply too windy!

The OKWiken sailors did very well and place in top ten – BIG congratulations!

2nd – Benjamin Hammerö
4th – Tomas Franzen
8th – Håkan Söderberg
9th – Peter Hörwing

Results can be found here

There were frantic activities on the water outside Viken all days of the Easter weekend. Ample possibilities for all sailors to maximise the on water training. We had Tomas Hansson-Mild join as a distinguished guest sailor a few of the days.
On Easter Sunday a total of 11 OK dinghies were on the water at the same time. 3-4 m/s and sunshine from clear blue skies made us all think of July rather than early spring.