This year's Silverrudder was one for the record books in terms of entries, but not in terms of the pace around Funen in the middle of Denmark. The entire field had a fantastic start, but later on, many boats lost many hours due to calm winds on the second half of the run around Funen.
White Shadow and Karl Otto Book did however prevail in the top class for keelboats, the Keelboat XL class. White Shadow is normally set up for a full crew, and since Karl Otto Book decided to take up the challenge and see what the Landmark 43 could do in singlehand racing, much preparation has been going on. Book did earlier this year show that the Landmark 43 is very capable for shorthanded sailing as he won the ORC Double Hand Euros alongside Maren Magda Book.
- Silverrudder is a beautiful event, and even though this was a first for me sailing White Shadow in this event, I have done a lot of shorthanded sailing in the past. Shorthanded sailing became quite the craze in Norway years ago, and I was very active in it from the start. So yes, great race and a great experience for sure!
It did however take a bit of work to do the preparations:
- Singlehanded racing takes a lot of care and preparation to get right. This was actually the main part of the challenge for us - White Shadow is always ready for a regatta, but since it's fully crewed 99% of the time, this took something extra. It suddenly becomes very important to get every sail change right every time. Do it wrong, and you will lose time, but more importantly, it will also cost you energy - and over +20 hours, this becomes a vital part of the challenge, Karl Otto says and adds:
- We did a lot of work to limit the amount of sail changes. I went with a J2, A2, A0, A1 and J2 back to the finish line - and this is also pretty demanding in terms of knowing what you should set and when. Setting 200 square metres of sail alone is doable, but it gets tricky when you have to take it down again.
A big stretch of very calm conditions did hit many of the entries hard at Little Belt. On the White Shadow, Karl Otto also had a brief spell of limited speeds as a result of this, but eventually, pace picked up again.
- I was a bit lucky to find the wind on my way out of Little Belt. Many of the other boats ended up struggling through there, and it can really spoil the race for many boats. I got through before the wind calmed down completely, and then it was a dash down to the finish line. I would like to thank the whole team for all of their help and support in doing this. Racing the Silverrudder with White Shadow was a wild idea, but it turned out amazingly well. I would also like to thank Torkjel Valland for lending me the boat - it's been fantastic!
The 2023 edition of Silverrudder became a strong show for Elvstrøm Sails across the classes. Outside of Karl Ottos win in Keelboat XL, Elvstrøm Sails also powered Peter Lang to take home 2nd in the class for Large Multihulls. Amazing to see so many crowns on the 379 boats!
We have been happy supporters of Silverrudder and we continue to support this amazing event. Our goodiebags made from leftover sail materials were an instant hit on the marina in Svendborg. The bags are produced by inmates from the local detention centre near our Aabenraa HQ - meaning that we have more capacity for producing sails. :)