Gotland Runt 2011 (or whatever the sponsor ÅF has chosen to call it)

A very long Gotland Runt this year. Somewhere south of Visby it felt like it would just never end. Everyone looking for wind - at least a breeze or light puff. But nothing. So the hours went by and on "Stress" we started to calculate the remaining food and water supplies just in case we would be stuck in the calm for days. Suddenly we could see some wind on the water far behind us in the horizon. Proof of this was also the spinnakers behind us which all started to fill.

Finally we got at least some wind to help us north towards Almagrundet. Some two hours later the wind died again. When a cold front finally past by later that evening did we get enough wind speed to dare talking about a real wind shift and a Saturday finish. From then on we actually had some 4-10 knots wind with us up to Sandhamn and could cross the finish line a little after 5pm (Saturday). That can be compared with last year's race where we finished around 4 am on Saturday morning.

A few days earlier we actually passed Östergarn in 5th position but lost a lot of speed against competing boats as the wind started to die on us. A pure struggle to round the marker at Hoburgen and all the way up to Visby we got literally nothing for free. We also dropped through the field. Foggy and no wind - a bad combination for any sailor and "Stress" does require a bit of wind to make use of her waterline. But we ended up in 17th place overall and are quite happy about it, given the circumstances.

And in any event - just like last year we had a great time on board and I would like to thank the entire crew - Dick, Pauline, Per, Jenny and Fredrik for all the great laughs, delicious food and unbreakable team spirit. And a special thanks to Dick and Pauline for making this all happen.

(More photos to follow...).

Sandhamn buzzing before race day...

KSSS registering boats as they pass by.

Boats checking out the pre-start weather conditions.

Several Dehlers on the starting line.


"Vindile" ended up the winner of SRS Alfa 1.

Dehler 29 "Svea". Finished 23rd (SRS Alfa 2).

A really strong race performance by Dehler 29 "Funny" - 9th place (SRS Alfa 2).

Crowded waters around Almagrundet.

Even and relatively strong winds southbound towards Gotska Sandön.

Getting close to dead calm - one of many.

The giant. ("Ran")

Jimmy Hellberg's "Airbender". Plenty of fog in this year's Gotland Runt.

During a period of 10 minutes we actually gained on and overtook this Dehler 44 just north of Visby. The scenario changed quite drastically when the wind picked up again...

Swan 46 "Wafi" passing us in leeward.

With several boats still on the race track most boats were already celebrating their finish on Saturday afternoon.