Who wins Gotland Runt 2021?

That question is quite difficult to answer this year since we will not have an overall winner but only class winners. To find out who are mentioned as favorites in advance, we have talked to the offshore sailing guru Magnus "Baggy" Woxén, who guides us through the classes and gives his view on which boats to look out for.

ORCi
The first class that starts on Saturday at 11 am is ORCi, with 32 boats on the same line. Here Magnus believes in the "usual suspects" Team Pro4U together with the two Ker boats, Elvis (Ker 40) with Filip Engelbert who normally sails the Fast40-series on the Solent and the German boat Varuna VI (Ker 56). I personally would highlight the Elliot 44 Matador with Jonas Grandér who proved to be fast in the pre-season races.

Classic
This year, the Classic class is slightly smaller than normal and consists of 9 majestic combatants. It is probably no daring guess that the mighty 100-footer Gaia will take "line honors" for the shorter course, even if she is not really a "real" Classic boat according to the intended rule. Otherwise, it is difficult to predict who will take home the coveted cup this year. Patrick Ståhle and Itaka think it should be their turn this year, with a new gennaker that he can go really high with, he hopes to surprise Ballad and Bacchant and the other boats in the class.

Shorthanded (SRS)
The shorthanded class is divided into two, where eight teams settle for the Swedish Championships in mixed offshore and the other 26 sail open Gotland Runt shorthanded. Magnus believe the fast Tutalör (Figaro 3) with Anna Drougge/Martin Angsell and Lady Godiva with Anders Dahlsjö/Hjelte Berndolf while I would like to mention Andreas Hamrin/Linnea Floser with his Beneteau Figaro 2 who has shown good speed in the pre-season.

In the open shorthanded class, Magnus places his bets on Groovie with Martin Dubois/Karl Jungstedt and Juxbox with Jan Meincke/Mathias Klemptner from Germany. Personally, I would probably raise a warning finger for the J/121 Jolene with Fredrik Rydin/Nils Englund or why not the Finnish boat AlmaVida with Jens Krogell/Ville-Veikko Niskanen and their JPK 10.30.

SRS fullcrew
Above classes start on Saturday, while everyone who sails SRS fullcrew starts on Sunday, at 11 am ,SRS A with 18 boats will depart, at 11.20 am, SRS B with 43 boats will start and the last start of the day, at 11.40 am, SRS C with 34 starting boats.

SRS A
In the largest class, SRS A, Magnus believes in the VO70 Green Dragon (the other VO70 I Love Poland will, however, sail ORCi), but also mentions the Dehler 45 Solong with Johan Bratt. In this start we also have three J/111s that should be fast in the light wind that is expected.

SRS B
There are many exciting boats here and considering that it is the largest class, it will be difficult to predict the winner. We have a number of Mumm 36s that can be dangerous, Goose II e.g. Magnus also believes in the First 36.7 or X362s, while I would probably place my bet on the Grand Soleil 37 Amarone with Jonas Wiström.

SRS C
In the smallest SRS class, Magnus mentions the well-known Scampin Boj-Boj with Peter Forslund, who is usually included in the pre-talk about top positions. In addition, he believes in Mithril and Rikard Isby, which is a 34-foot One off building that also has a long tradition of high positions. The exciting project Necesse, which we followed during their preparations for Gotland Runt, also starts in this class.

We thank Magnus for the talk and wish all sailors, favorites or not, a nice trip around Gotland!

Iohn Ryott
KSSS Information Committee