With the final 53-mile lap left in the fleet’s tour of southern Norway, the corrected time standings are in for the 123-mile long offshore race of the 2011 ORCi European Championship hosted by the Royal Norwegian YC (KNS). Leading their ten rivals in Division 1 after 70.4 miles of racing, Lena Having’s IMX 40 Gertrud from Sweden is in the lead by 17 min 14 sec over nearest rival Peter Suselbeck’s First 40 Westwind from Germany, with another IMX 40, Norwegian Jan Henrik Bryde’s Xanthippe, only 47 sec astern in corrected time.

In Division 2, the race in corrected time is extraordinarily close, with Kai Haupthoff's X-332 Sport Varuna Express from Germany only 16 sec ahead of Eirik Brekke’s X-382 Mk 2 Felicity IV, who in turn is leading fellow Norwegian Anders Nordstrøm and his team on his new T-34 Team UK Svertsen by a mere 14 sec.

This will be a hard-fought night for the leaders in this 14-boat class: the top five boats are within only 5 minutes in corrected time after 12 hours of racing!

Weather conditions thusfar in the race have been extremely varied, with teams encountering everything from light air and blue skies to lightning and thunderstorms. However, as the first boats rounded the mark at Gamholen starting at 2300 local time the predicted wind shift to the northwest with rain and a build-up in pressure to 15-20 knots was already starting, promising for a fast but wet final lap in this race.

And while the race has been close in corrected time thusfar with most boats separated on the water, it has been very close in real time as well for some teams. The two Mills-designed Landmark 43’s entered in Division 1, Dag Skarsgård’s Karoline and Tore Kandahl’s Destin, were shot out in front early in the first leg and have been chasing each other ever since, separated by only 9 seconds at the end of the first lap. No doubt these Norwegian rivals will have much to discuss when they get ashore in the wee hours of the morning.

One crew member from the all-female team on Siri B. Kamfjord’s IMX 40 Team Drømmen has been offloaded due to illness on to the KNS committee vessel, but the team is opting to race on to the finish one short of crew. Team Drømmen lay in 7th place at the rounding mark.

Scoring points earned in this race get weighted by 1.75, with results expected later this morning once all boats have finished the course.

Photos: Peter Gustavsen - Blur.se