With two X-41’s , “Extacy” and “König&Cie”, sailing in the strong ORC-int group 1, in the end Thomas Brügge’s “Extacy”, a member of Kiel Yacht-Club (KYC), was standing on the winners´ rostum.

 

Brügge has been sailing together with his crew on his yacht “Extasy” for more than ten years by now, starting the third season with his X-41 yacht this year. “We didn’t optimize “Extasy” due to ORC measurement formula but rather in view of the X-41 class rules as our seasonal highlight will be the X-41 European Championship during Kieler Woche. We used MAIOR as a tune up racing under similar conditions and are very satisfied with the result”, said a visibly happy Thomas Brügge after racing was finished on Sunday.

 

Besides a great amount of high class ORC-Int yachts, Brügge´s strongest competitor was “König&Xie” another X-41 with Sven-Erik Horsch (KYC) as helmsman. Due to a head-to-head record it was only on the last day Brügge took over the lead. “We had two very good starts on Sunday and could hold our lead until the finishing line” explains Brügge their overall victory in ORC group 1.

 

X-41 in first and second place
“König&Xie” was placed second in the overall result and left “BM Yachting” a First 40 and “Beluga” a Rodman 42 on the commencing places. Due to the victory and last year’s experiences Brügge is thinking about participating in the ORC-int European Championship and encourages other X-41 owners to use the ORC-int races at Kieler Woche as a tune up for the X-41 European Championship, which will take place during Kieler Woche from 24 - 28 June 2009.