The Silverrudder is the biggest singlehand sailboat race in the world. This annual event attracts more than 300 skippers, it just takes hours after opening of the inscriptions to sell out the starting numbers. Faster than Rolling Stones concert tickets, as one of the participants once told me. It all began in 2012 with a humble 15 boats, 12 of which were Danish. Today it is a huge, huge event. It´s this celebration of singlehanded sailing that for a big part is responsible for the small boat amateur racing boom in Europe. I am sure, if the little picturesque harbor of Svendborg in Denmark could house more, they´d easily sell 1.000 starting tickets …
The „Silverrudder – Iron Men of the Sea“ has a route that traditionally takes the skippers around the Danish island of Fyn. A picturesque but demanding course with narrow waterways, tricky currents, a potentially stormy Belt-passage. Or feared calms which will make you float backwards, crush you on shoals or into bridges. A demanding, up to 24 hours (and longer) race – sailed by ordinary people in ordinary boats. 2024 was a „calm“ racing edition, but every bit as good as the stormy-editions. I´ve talked to a finisher and a non-finisher. Here´s their account.
Preparing for the Silverrudder – Challenge of the Seas
Sven Krause is CEO of Quantum Sails Germany and over time became my reference for all sails-related questions. His company will produce the sails for my Omega 42 and besides this personal connection, he is a keen regatta-sailor. Albeit his Comfortina 32 may not be first choice for most sailors, this rugged classy family yacht enjoyed quite some tuning by Sven. How many Silverrudder editions did you take part in and what have been the biggest learnings so far which you had planned to make reality this year, Sven, I asked.
As it was his second participation in the race of which the first one ended with a DNF, he wanted to make things better and just arrive this year, Sven tells me. „That may sound a bit odd for a race that has just only 130 nautical miles, but it isn´t. In reality, the race course is very, very demanding. Being fit and ready to go myself in every aspect was priority.“ As his father used to say: Laziness is punished immediately. „But not this year!“ For Heiko Zimmermann, who is an old-stager when it comes to the Silverrudder, this was the eighth edition of Silverrudder – there´s quite some experience, you´d say.
Heiko, who is the organizer of the famous ancora Yachtfestival, Germany´s biggest in-water boat show, raced three times in his YELLA2, a Beneteau First 27.7 and is now for the fifth time aboard her successor, a First 36.7 which is called YELLA32. „My plan was to arrive, as they all are hoping for. I usually complete the race in the good midfield, meaning 21 to 28 hours race time.“ He whispers: „To be honest, I wanted to beat my own record and be faster than 21 hours.” But, as he tells me, this year the wind wasn´t blowing for that. A calmer race. „Anyway, a nice race though.“
So, two guys, no first-timers and a lot of sailing experience. How do you prepare yourself and your boats to tackle such a race? For Sven, who couldn´t make it to the finish last year, it was clear. „I upgraded to Lithium batteries for my boat last year and had 200 amp hours at hand. This, so much for the calculations, should do for 36 to 48 hours of electronics and above all, autopilot.“ It worked just fine for him, as he tells me. Sails wise Sven shifted from classic Spinnaker to Gennaker which is much easier to handle solo. Problem was, as he disclosed, that during the light wind passages it was mostly dead downwind – a point of sail a Gennaker cannot manage. „My boat just didn´t perform good enough. Thank god Silverrudder isn´t sanctioned under ORC-rules, and so I was able to attach my Gennaker to the Spi-boom. Usually forbidden, good for me during this race!“
For Heiko, prepping wasn´t that big thing at all. After 10 years and 9 editions, Silverrudder for him is more like a homecoming. Nevertheless, as for any sailing trip, he meticulously checked boat, equipment and himself: „As you are sailing solo, it´s imparative that everything is prepared, at hand in a second and well within reach.“, he says. „You only work analog. Meaning, one step at a time.“ All lines, downwind sails, the food, the drinks, VHF, searchlight and clothing. „Name it – it all must be there, pre-stocked, ready to use. Especially in the darkness!“ One big learning from last year for him was the realization, that a wrong charging-cable could suck dry your battery instead of reload the pad. I ask for a detail, his power supply: „120 amp hours!“, he says and nods. „This should be enough …“
How to prepare oneself as solo-skipper for a race?
Solosailing is booming, at least in Europe. These races are sold out in a matter of a few hours, sales of boats from 25 to 35 feet capable of attending these regattas are still high compared to a more declining cruiser market. But how does oneself prepare for a solo race like the Silverrudder? Heiko focuses on the weather forecast and routing: „For the Silverrudder the more or less deciding factor is the currents in the Little Belt. That´s the classic bottleneck of this race.“ Of course, he admits, preparations can only be based on assumptions as conditions can (and will!) change. „As uncertainty prevails, all you can do is have your hot tea ready in your thermos jug and hope for a good start.“ With over 80 boats in his class, that´s quite a woolding!
Almost the same goes for Sven. As Quantum Sails-pro he couldn´t arrive at the start unless his underwater hull hadn´t been srubbed and prepared for the race, so he took out his boat by travel lift and made her lateral plan as smooth as possible. „I also tried to arrive at the start, which is a day´s travel, as relaxed as possible.“, Sven tells me. Weather was of utmost concern for him as well. Observing the local weather and forecast for a week now, he was sure that this year´s Silverrudder would be taking place in a rather easy and simple overall weather situation. Well. It wasn´t …
Plan vs. Reality: That´s sailboat racing!
Sven thought that it would be an easy one: „The overall weather situation looked as if it was to be a no-brainer. Also, the weather guru who briefed us in the big meeting the evening before the race promised that we´d have no surprises to expect.“ In this, Sven say, he was up to a normal race where speed and trim would prevail. Unfortunately just before the big Belt Bridge a „big time parking lot for boats“ was about to open. Heiko got tricked as well, who was expecting a light winds regatta.
„But that didn´t work out as they said it would“, he tells me: „Because we´ve got easterly winds I knew that the biggest challenge would be to tack through the Svendborg Sound – which has a very narrow waterway – and through the big bridge.“ That there would be calms during the night just when arriving at the bridge is normal, he says, but then the currents should have taken the field with it. But there much more phases of calms. „I was slower because of this and so I was late in the Belt. At that time I´ve had the current on my nose at 4 p.m. already and I was really fearing to get stuck under the bridge.“ But in the end he made it. Tightly.
Learnings for the next race
I ask the guys about their top key moments and what they´d be taking out of this year´s race. Heiko says that – again – the Big Belt Bridge was his fate, as it has been for many. „I almost got stuck. It´s really a tough situation! Only the clever skippers who put up with the detour to their right were far enough away to catch some wind and make the passage. I was on the left. And very lucky!“ He tells me that furthermore he was able to sail his whole approach to the Belt and the passage itself under Gennaker, therefore pretty fast. A key moment had finally been a Gennaker-flight, catching many smaller and also bigger boats south of the Belt – all done inside a spooky thick fog! Sounds exciting, right? Well, it is!
For Sven it was the start of the regatta: „Imagine 80 boats between 36 and 40 feet, some of the skippers had knifes between their teeth, really! We started on a starboard tack but I already saw some specialists on a port tack – crazy mess and chaos at the starting line was inevitable.“ Some participants wanted to keep themselves out of the trouble and got stuck. Sven also mentions the calm just before the big bridge. „My boat has a mast height above water of 17.30 meters. That means that out of the whole bridge there are theoretically only two safe and „legal“ bridge arches to pass underneath. I was literally drifting. No wind at all. Some current. All against me. But then … like a divine push, juuuuust a little breeze set in and I was able to pass.“ Sven also tells me about the spooky and exhilarating Gennaker-moments through fogbanks. „At 8 knots speed and no visibility at all you just pray that all of the guys have active AIS …“
As for 2025, next year´s edition, Heiko says that he will have to re-check the energy supply for his yacht: „After 22 hours of sailing under autopilot the batteries were low. Which wouldn´t have been a problem if I wouldn´t have had another 40 nautical miles – beeline! – ahead of me. Tacking away 40 miles is a tough one, so I decided to exit the race. Which is a pity.“ Other than that, Sven says that he was too gentle and maybe too less aggressive during the start in hindsight: „I unrolled the Genoa far too late because I wanted to stay out of trouble. That time loss was missed later very painfully.“ Will he be at the starting line for his 10th edition of Silverudder Race? Of course!
Same goes for Sven Krause, who tells me that he is basically very satisfied. „I made it through for my first time and I´ve got this Finisher-T-Shirt, which is really something!“ He smiles. Looking at the bare numbers, he did quite a nice job: „Although in my class „keelboats medium“ I came in only 51st, you have to know that my boat is a 31 feet grandma from 1980. There is no handicap system or any othe rating formula for Silverruder. You race with what you have. But in my group there´s the racing going on: Archambault 35, X-332, several JPK-racers and some other planning rockets.“ In the face of those opponents it is worth mentioning that Sven finished only 4.20 hours after the fastest boat of his group. Chapeau! As he finds that his boat and his sails are essentially perfect, he will definitely be at the starting line next year again. Well, if he can make it and get a ticket first. Because just like your latest Rolling Stones tour, hundreds of keen skippers have the day of the start of ticket sales marked with a thick red circle in their calenders as well.
Thanks Sven and Heiko for these insights and your great pictures!
More on the booming singlehanded racing scene in Europe:
Talking to the first German female finisher of the longest Baltic solo race
Silverruder action with Phil Sharp and the new First 36
At the „Brassfahrt“, newest of those Baltic races