Let´s try something different for this article: Looking at the picture below, how many masts do you think have I caught in this photograph? To help you coming up with an educated guess, try to imagine the following scene: You arrive at a marina that in normal times offers berth for a total of no more than 60 to 70 boats. I mean “normal” times, because there is roughly one week each year when this capacity is driven beyond nuts. And I mean it! Upon arrival last weekend, I stood there at the harbor´s side and couldn´t believe my eyes … literally boats everywhere! It would have been no problem to walk through the whole harbor basin over the decks of the moored yachts alone!
This crazy week is of course the Silverrudder week – welcome to the world´s biggest singlehanded sailing race! So, to what extend can a harbor be brought if you would squeeze in every boat possible so that in between the pontoons and jetties wouldn´t be a single free square meter of water left over? I can tell: It´s 450 boats. Yep. This is how many masts you can see there. I knew about these figures already, because as a European sailor how couldn´t I? But seeing it with my own eyes for the first time blew my mind for sure.
Being overwhelmed by the sheer size of this sailboat race
The contrast couldn´t have been starker. I arrived by car. From Northern Germany where I live going to the eastward coast of the Danish Island of Fyn takes about 3 hours. Driving through Denmark, even though their Autobahn has a speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour, is honestly a bit boring: A mainly flat landscape, lots of agriculture, no forests, little villages. And long, long stretches of nothingness. That´s what we like about Denmark, right? Less people, less crowds, less stuff. Fyn is a special thing in that matter.
This island covers around 3.000 square kilometers and is Denmark´s third biggest island. Some half a million Danes live here. I wouldn´t dare to say that life´s boring here, but let´s put it this way: There is a reason why the Svendborg Sailing Club had the idea to come up with the Silverrudder race … I was present because one of my clients asked me to do a little documentation about his participation in this year´s edition. Sven Krause is the CEO of Quantum Sails Germany and a two-time finisher of this race. For this year, he of course had plans and aspirations and like any other participant, came up with a special sails setup, strategy and plan.
Being here myself let me instantly suck up the vibrations of the race. It was incredibly interesting to talk to the locals, be it sailors or many of the “civil” non-sailing volunteers. All together very proud of what they´ve achieved over the years. It all started with a crazy idea: “Let´s sail non stop around this island and make it a race!”, they said back in 2012. That´s not all too long ago, right? Back then, some 12 Danish skippers enlisted and tackled the adventure. It quickly became a big thing. One of the elder guys told me, they had hoped for 50 participants: “If we only could get 100 people to Svendborg, this would be fantastic”, he described the highest hopes about ten years ago. Only three years later the exponential growth of participants kicked in.
Since some years the maximum capacity of Svendborg harbor basin marks the maximum people the race can handle: 450 starting slots are there. What´s crazy about this is the fact that those 450 tickets are usually sold out in little over one hour over the internet. When Silverrudder ticket-day is announced in March, sailors in all over Europe hope to get the magic click and secure a starting place in this race. Similarly fast sellouts are up to now only known from Stones concerts, I think. So, you might ask, how come?
Why has this race become the world´s biggest singlehand sailboat regatta?
As I roam the jetties and take a look at the boats and their skippers, I slowly begin to understand what this sailboat race makes so interesting and, as participants tell me, “highly addictive”. The beauty of the race lies in its simplicity. I can spot boats and yachts from all sizes, classes, budgets, brands and times of making. New, old, rugged, sleek – you name it.
There are classic beauties (among which I also discover an Omega 42), from S&S designs to big production boat icons, the big five of boating from Bavaria over Hanse and Dehler to Beneteau and some exotic one-offs. It seems that this is a place where everyone is welcome and their participation is appreciated. For the Silverrudder, there are seven categories in which your boat will be put into. And for this category there is only one feature of the boat that is taken into account: It´s length.
That´s all. Simple as that. There are as many as five categories for monohulled keelboats and two for the multihulls. No ORC, no IRC and even not Handicap or any other rating system. That´s the crazy but also beautifully simple thing about Silverrudder: You will be sailing your own boat against a bunch of other similarly sized yachts. You may end up battling yourself with an all-out carbon racer like the Aeolos P 30 which I spotted on the pontoons or try to make good some leeway in your Folkboat against a modern planing racer like the First 27 SE.
But what´s the point?, you might think now. What is the point of having a race between boats which are so ridiculously uneven, with hopelessly heterogeneous distributed features, like sails area, hull shapes, pointing abilities and such? Isn´t it pointless and fundamentally inconsistent? Don´t we have the handicap rules specifically to even out differences between boats? Well, yes. Sure. But for some reason, all those 450 people give a goddamn shit about this.
True, raw racing – no sugarcoating
Many speak of the Silverrudder addiction. In some way they say it has been tiresome and boring to attend races where sailing has become a calculation. How many seconds can I sail slower but still win? And I remember when I published my article about the then-new XR-41, speaking to VMG-optimizer Max Gurgel: How many comments and emails reached me stating that this was “cheating” and not “real sailing”? Well, there you have it: It seems that this raw form of sailing, just competing against each other, simply attracts many sailors who don´t see a point of paper-optimizing their boats. To paper-win races. This is real thing, they say.
Speaking of Max Gurgel: I met him at the pre-start and had a little chat. He sailed aboard the famous PLAY HARDER, a Dehler 30 OD, which had scored many wins at Silverrudder and still holds the record for the fastest circumnavigation of Fyn. I also met the guys from Seascape who – a bit shy and “in silence” – had brought their latest First 30 to the starting line, eager to witness her performance in this first ever real test under race conditions. Walking the pontoons and talking to the guys revealed a whole new world of sailing and maybe a never seen before perspective onto racing as well.
They don´t care about “equality” and the calculated fairness of handicap rules. On the contrary: The guys on the seemingly fast yachts, like the JPKs or the Classe Mini-yachts looked forward to match themselves with others: Bigger boats, faster boats! I had the impression that the smaller the boat the bigger the pleasant anticipation of the big battle was. Albin Vegas, built 40 years ago, pimped with carbon membrane sails. Family cruising yachts, tuned with latest Code 0 and Gennakers. Such a lush, happy and … somehow “free” atmosphere. I´d never expected this much comradery, openness and friendliness amongst the whole starting field. Amazing!
The race against yourself
Maybe that´s the case because the true opponent in the Silverrudder is not the other boat before you nor even the other boats in your category. In solo solo-sailing, and in singlehanded racing even more, the true one to beat is … you. Managing to sail the boat at the fastest pace possible for the duration of this race is the true challenge. Sailing around the Island of Fyn takes about 140 nautical miles on a perfect course with no tacking involved. The fastest times are just under 15 hours for the multihulls, under 20 hours for monos. But that´s the record – average finishing times are around 27 to 35 hours with the longest taking more than 40 hours!
I have sailed around Fyn two times up to now: For the first time in a Class 40 Pogo 40 S and my second time in a double-mode on a First 30 Juan-K. Both trips lasted around one week, being in one harbor every day. It´s a classic Danish sailing trip for many Germans and Danes as well. Doing this non-stop however is a totally different feat! For once, the Silverrudder is sailed counter-clockwise against the prevailing Westerlies and in general, local phenomena like strong currents which have a tidal change (yep, here in this part of the Baltic Sea is a very apparent tidal influence), occasional flatwater dead calms (the feared “Silverrudder parking lots”), mist and fog and not least commercial traffic, hazardous shoals, bridges to pass at specific positions and the sudden switch from open water to very narrow waterways pose a serious challenge to your navigational and boat handling skills. And I haven´t even mentioned the fatigue yet …
A spotless organization from start to end
To keep the crowd relatively controlled and make sure that 450 boats are sailing safely, pose no harm to the other maritime traffic, fellow participants and themselves, there is a big skipper´s briefing the night before race day. It´s like in every other professionally organized regatta: Rules, weather, suggestions. When I arrived at the venue shortly after 5 p.m. the hall was already filled to the brim. Most participants had their wives or friends with them – a reliable shore crew, a helping hand to prep the boat or just as moral support.
After the usual Do´s and Don´ts, the presentation of the sponsors and some happy prize drawing (never knew there was a tradition like this), the most anticipated part of the briefing started: Weather! As for the Silverrudder it is tradition and custom that a well trained meteorologist and keen sailor himself would hold the presentation. As it was this year, the Slovenian legend Jury Jerman did a wonderful job. And I learned something quite interesting listening to him. Apparently, as a Silverrudder skipper (and skipper in general), checking weather must be perceived from a time-and-place moving perspective. We are used to check weather for a specific location through time: “How will the weather be in location A tomorrow?” Well, that´s very 2D and wouldn´t help a sailor very much to plan ahead.
Because a skipper´s question is: “How will the weather be like when I arrive at location A at time tA and how will it be later in location B when I arrive there at tB?” In order to draw out the maximum of this weather briefing, any skipper should know the speed and hence the distance traveled over a certain period of time: Only then he might get a good view on the wind, waves and conditions to be expected. That said, most sailors already had a form of a schedule when to arrive at certain waypoints, either in their heads on in written form. So, the key was to know when you´d arrive at this waypoint so to avoid the night´s calms, the tidal highs or heavy currents.
Why are people taking part in this crazy venture?
So this makes a whole lot more sense now, right? This battle against yourself is also a race against yourself. For this year´s edition for example it was paramount to arrive at the entrance to the “Lille Belt” at the northern side of Fyn before the counter current would stop you – as the tide fell exactly on the same time as a spectacular ease of the wind speeds. Likewise, the participants now knew that after the start almost the whole northbound leg along Fyn´s eastern coast would be a fun ride with winds gusting at 24 knots: Jib or Genoa? Code 0 or standard foresail? So many decisions to be made …
You may think that these 450 participants are here to take home one of these literally silver rudder awards. They are not. As the speaker of the briefing put it very nicely and with some of the mild Danish humor: There are only a handful of real winning aspirants in each group. Only a handful of boats and sailors who objectively have a chance to win. For all the others: Don´t bother to mess with them. Don´t hinder them at the starting line. Just let them go – you will realize very vividly only a few hours later, that your race is and never was about those shiny awards with the silverish rudder. It´s about something very different.
I know what he was talking about. Suddenly and very strongly I felt reminded and traveled back in time some 10 years ago when I was an active amateur bike racer. We participated in well over 50 all-out alpine races in all of Europe, mainly in the Austrian, French and Italian Alps, but also in the Pyrenees and as far away as in New York City. We had never had a chance to win. The true prize was to make it to the finish. To conquer these 5 or 8 alpine high mountain roads, these legendary Tour de France summits. And just as if someone opened my eyes I understood why during the day I´d seen so many sailors proudly wearing their Silverrudder finisher-jerseys! As a manifestation and attestation that they had made it. Not winning against one another. An other sailor. Or an other boat. But winning against time, weather, fatigue, disorientation, hunger, the cold, the miserable heat, deafening storms or grinding calms. This is what this all is about. A plain white T-Shirt. Isn´t that even more crazy?
Calm before the the storm …
And so the big briefing event draws to a close. Some have poured a beer, some even more. A big queue is set up. In the starting fee there is a dinner for the participants included with a nice big portion of rice with meat and some red sauce in one hand, another plate filled with some fresh salad in the other. People sit together, chat, exchange their views and opinions on the weather and their strategies. For us it´s going to be an early bedtime today. I will hear people talk and have fun for many more hours into the pitch black night.
As I lay in my bunk – Sven allows me to sleep in his boat – I feel the gentle movement of the boat, but soon in the night the wind almost completely died down. Taking a pee outside, I see a mirror-like water, as heavy as lead. This will be the conditions for all participants tomorrow night as well, I think to myself: And for some, they will even have two of these dead calms. Drop anchor? Drift helplessly in the narrow sounds of around Fyn? A scary idea imagining for sure.
Another scary idea – short switch of topic here – is you missing any new articles here on NO FRILLS SAILING.com! With roughly one new feat every three days, you may return frequently or just sign up to the free monthly newsletter here. So, sign up, tell your friends and never miss one of my hopefully interesting and gripping stories! But, back to Denmark, a new day dawns – it´s the day of the Silverrudder!
Race day!
It starts pretty nasty, to be honest: Somehow I caught a cold on my return flight from Cannes Yachting Festival last week. Coming back from 27 degrees into the fresh and rainy 13 degrees autumn vibes of Northern Germany seemed like too much for my system. So I woke up with a pretty heavy head, a running nose and nasty coughing. Nice. Sven had an equally sleepless night as well: He delved deep into weather forecast models and lost his feel for time playing around with the routing software.
The the usual improvements of the last minute sets in. Sven is a well-know man with a lot of knowledge. So it seemed that every half an hour or so another fellow sailor knocked on the hull of LIVLY, his 32 feet Comfortina cruising yacht, to ask for a hint, a favor and even help to repair stuff. Sven is a kind and polite man, never refused to help if he could. And all this in the face of some last-minute finetuning he had to apply to his own boat.
This included taking down the Jib and installing the large overlapping Genoa: Which in the end turned out to be a very clever decision as the highest wind speeds did not turn out to exceed the predicted 26 knots and the large headsail proved very helpful especially in the choppy northern part of Sven´s personal race. I was lending a hand, but I fear due to my sickness I wasn´t of any help here …
At exactly 9 a.m. in the morning a thunderous voice shouted at full volume over the marina: The harbormaster of Svendborg Havn traditionally calls the boats to the starting area. All according to their categories had specific starting times assigned. Beginning at 10 a.m. with the Mini keelboats, every 30 minutes another category of yachts would now be entering the pre-start area, the starting area and be brought through the usual 6-minute starting procedure that is celebrated in any other sailboat race as well. It was time for me to say Goodbye and wishing Sven fair winds for his third race. He was in very good mood and, as far as I could observe, as was his boat.
I watched the boats part one by one from a small observation lounge in the middle of the harbor. The excitement was palpable. Wives waved their husbands, girlfriends blew kisses to their guys. I loved to watch the Folkeboot-ladies depart (something just tickles me when I see an F, IF or H-boat!) and peered to the pre-start area, where already dozens of boats with hoisted mainsails – some even under full canvas – dashed up and down in pleasant anticipation of the start. Then I jumped into my car. Swallowing another pair of Aspirin, I drove two kilometers to a large park where the starting line was set up and could be observed. Now it was on!
The hunt is on!
When I arrived the start of the Mini keelboats was in full swing. I rejoiced and was happy to see my friend Hendrick Decker – you know him from several articles – leading the pack on his Vector Class Mini racer. Under full canvas it seemed his PLAYGIRLL 2 was unstoppable, other boats seemed to be stuck compared to his boat speed. What an incredible sight!
Hendrick, who last year won his category and was awarded the “Best Newcomer” prize as well, sailed a fantastic and very strong race. Top speed of 22 knots (!) SOG, he lead his category all the way around Fyn. It was sadly only in the dead calm and unforgiving Russian Roulette in the wind patches when he lost to another boat. Literally on the last two miles of the race luck had left his PLAYGIRL and he was stuck in only 2 knots of boatspeed, easily overtaken by the second and new winner who had the luck to catch one of the rare wind patches. I´m so sorry for Hendrick – but that´s sailing, right?
Watching the following categories starting was a tremendous sight: In some fields more than 80 boats fought heavily about a good placement in the pack to catch the strong wind and not the unreliable vortexes of the others. Silverrudder is the traditional occasion for the European Championships of the Beneteau First 27 SE class, another class of its own among the small keelboats category. As a former 27 SE-owner and still admirer it was especially great to watch as many as 16 of those dash to the starting line, followed by a rat pack on the loose of 80 or so more boats. Spectacular!
Pointing my head towards the shore I could observe maybe 200 or 300 people watching the spectacle with me. The race committee had set up a booth with a live commentary (sadly in Danish, but it nicely added some local color to the scene), a booth selling hot coffee and delicious Danish pastry as well. Sadly, I couldn´t taste neither of those – as didn´t the participants starting in front of me. At least for the coming one or two days.
When Sven´s group started, I could hardly make out his yacht as LIVLY did not had any visual features (like my GEKKO had back in the day) to help recognizing her. Anyways, I just took pictures of the whole fleet and was happy when I spotted her. You may see LIVLY in the picture above, GER 379. Sven´s race turned out to be of mixed feelings, yet I´d say he did pretty well: Achieving a similar finishing time and place as last year (52th in his category of 140 boats, with more than 30 DNF), he came in more than 2 hours before the next Comfortina 32 of his type. Overall it seemed that his strategic and tactical decisions including the late sails change had been crowned by a nice new finisher T-Shirt. Well done, Sven! Max Gurgel of PLAY HARDER by the won his category, another silver rudder award for this boat, congrats Max as well!
Are you a Silverrudder guy?
All of this I of course couldn´t know when I took these pictures. With ague on the rise and some 350 km to home, I rather jumped into my car to hit the bed for curing the worst of my sickness. I could only frequently watch my fellow sailing friends on their way around Fyn on the awesome tracking app of the race. A feverish roller-coaster ride, I can tell you! Now, why am I telling this story? Well, maybe you are a regatta-guy and this was nothing new for you. Thanks for reading anyway. But if you are – like me – a rather un-regatta guy, this particular race could be something for you, seriously.
The Silverrudder is so different from any other race I know. No handicap, just collision avoidance rules, no make-up, no sugarcoating and no hiding. Plain, raw racing. Fun. Honest sailing against yourself, you inner doubts. A race against tides, currents, bridges, shoals and the pitch black night. Fellow boaters are always around you, near you. Even in the pitch black night. And for sure: A finish you´ll never forget. Something that maybe will make you come and try for a second, a third, a fourth time. Silverrudder is a very special – and hence a very precious gem in the sailboat racing calendar of Europe. I know that the bulk of my readers is based in the US: Guys, if you have the chance: Secure a slot, rent a boat (and boat!) and take part! It´s absolutely worth it. For more, check these amazing articles with Silverrudder stories as well …
More on this fascinating topic:
About one DNF and one coming through: Silverrudder!
Ten meters short. A tragic-funny Silverrudder story
Phil Sharp and the (then) all-new First 36 at the Silverrudder