Johan Larsvall lended us his newly built Z30+. It was designed by Johan with hull lines from CDE Yacht Design in the ‘00s. Jimmy Hellberg stepped in as an optimizer of the boat to focus purely on racing. The initial plan was that Jimmy and I would take part in the World Championship 2022, but he wasn’t able to invest the required time, which is why I asked Martin Strömberg as a first choice. He wasn’t hard to persuade, so with his CV including several VOR and with my experiences including America’s Cup, we became a strong team who has also raced together before. 

We won our first DH competition, Raymarine 2 Star, with Z30+. The following weekend was the KSSS ocean racing regatta in Sandhamn which came with new victories. It became our training for the World Cup. The time before the World Cup was running short. I arrived by flight from Mallorca at 2.30 am the morning of the race. Martin made it to the registry office with a margin of a few minutes earlier that afternoon. Johan had taken care of the transports and security surveys etc., such that we could board a practically finished boat. Unfortunately, we couldn’t manage to get the autopilot to work, so I prepared myself to sail yet another DH race around Gotland without one.

The weather forecast was good with following winds out through Stockholm and then tacking all the way from Almagrundet to Hoburgen with increasing winds towards the end. From there it seemed to be an open reach all the way north again, with wind around 10 m/s. 

We sailed Class A, as the smallest boat in the fastest class. This made the downwind start in a limited area a bit tricky. There was nowhere to run for free winds. After a few jibes and some frustration, the group began to spread out and there were free areas to sail for. Soon enough we could start to sail more tactically, choosing where to point for optimal power in the sails. 

From Oxdjupet to Tisterön we sailed under jib, before the A2 came up again. At the end of Saxarfjärden we changed to CODE 70 which we kept until Kanholmsfjärden, and then back to jib. 

Last part out towards Sandhamn passing Korsö, we set course on Almagrundet in slightly lighter wind. 

After Alma we trimmed to sail above target speed to the anticipated wind shift to the left. Our goal was to maintain 7.0 knots. The wind blew at 11-14 knots but slowly decreased. It shifted slightly against us. At that point Krackemut chose to tack and we considered following suit, but decided to continue to get a more easterly track to the south. Krackemut tacked back again after about 30 minutes, and we were satisfied with our move. More boats started to tack and we now started to reach the positions we were counting on. In order not to risk pointing too high towards Fårö, we tacked.

Towards Östergarn, we were initially pointing a bit high and eased off a little. However, it was short lived and we returned to speed mode to the south, as we expected the wind to slowly shift to the right again. The wind slowly veered right before shifting to the left again as we approached Gotland. We hoped it was the land effect and looking at the AIS we could see that those sailing closer to land were not getting the lift we had. We tacked towards Östergarn early in order to have room for lift. At this point Jolene came from the outside, and we were sure they would tack towards us. We eased off about 15 degrees in good time to make them tack early. It worked and we were able to luff up and had free wind. Nice lift on the port tack, as seen in the picture.

Remaining close hauled stretch towards Hoburgen, we only had to tack as soon as possible in order to get better sea conditions behind Gotland, get some landlift and position for a right turn.

We took in a reef for a while between Ljugarn and Grötlingboudd. Dehler 45 Solong caught up with us and we were head to head for the last bit to Hoburgen, where we rounded at 22:49 on Monday night, according to my notes. At that point we were about 10 minutes behind Joule. Our plan then was to take the shortest route towards Visby, to the inside of Lilla Karlsö and Utholmen.

The boats that rounded before us chose to go between Stora Karlsö and Lilla Karlsö.We made good speed and after I got some rest we took in a reef at the height of Hammarudd before Martin got some rest. We drifted well with a jib and a reef. We shook the reef out before Utholmen.

We had gained on Joule and with the A2 we soon planned past them. Rounded at Visby now, after Solong but before Joule, and prepared for CODE 70. We pointed too high for this, and instead decided to take in a reef before hoisting the Code. 

We knew we wouldn’t be able to make the course towards Almagrundet, and realized that we needed more sail area for better speed, as we saw how Joule gained in on us when we were under jib. We sailed close to the limit with a loosely sheeted gennaker sheet in order to not broach, although it sometimes happened.  Our course wasn’t impressive and we wondered how long we could sail like this. However, the wind shifted a bit and abated a little so we were able to keep our course, which allowed us to get further before we had to take down the Code.

The wind indicator in the masthead had loosened and was pointing straight to leeward such that the values weren’t correct anymore. With about 15nm left we sailed under jib and soon shook out the reefs, and then made good speed again towards the mark. We hadn’t seen our competitors for a while as we lost AIS for a while. The first boat we saw came in at 17 knots and we wondered if we had made a fool of ourselves. It turned out to be Jimmy and Jakob in PACMAN. We had gained on Solong and also kept Joule safely behind us. We sailed from Visby to Almagrundet in less than 10 hours. All that was left was a short beam reach towards the finish line. 

When we entered the port, we were greeted by a committee with flags, cameras and cheering people dressed in the Swedish colors. A fantastic feeling struck us when we realized we were now number one in DH Worlds, class A.

Anders Dahlsjö