From the 7th to the 11th of September the Flensburger Segel-Club (FSC) was host of this years IDMS (ORCi German Championship Inshore).  It was for the fifth time that the FSC organized this high ranking championship for the top crews of German offshore sailing. For the third time, though, the Championship had been divided into too independent parts: the ORCi- German Offshore-Championship that had already been sailed during the Kiel Week in June and the ORCi German Championship Inshore.

Overall 36 boats had signed the entry list, so that 17 boats of the Alpha- and 19 boats of the Beta Division crossed the starting line on the 8th of September for the first of eight windward-leeward inshore races. The races were sailed in the same area that had already proofed extremely suited for inshore racing during last years ORCi World Championship: in the relative shelter of the inner Flensburger Foerde, west of the Holnis peninsula.

Nevertheless the crews had, just like last year, to cope with changing weather conditions and a challenging mixture of shifts, puffs and lulls that made sailing tactically interesting. Thus during the whole event racing was extremely competitive and close, with many positions determined to within seconds in corrected time. Dr. Wolfgang Schaefer, Chairman of the Offshore Sailing Department within the German Sailing Association, regards this “to be a wonderful proof that the formula works and meets all expectations.” Accordingly it is not surprising that racing between the two leading yachts remained tight until the last race. A persisting lull on Saturday had allowed only one race per division to be sailed, so that the crews had to go out on the fjord again on the reserve day.

Both leading boats in Division Alpha, SILVA HISPANIOLA and TRANSIT EXPRESS had started with 15 points after six races, so that the last two races had to bring the decision.

The first was won by TRANSIT EXPRESS (Luffe 43) of Claus-Willy Schmidt from Kappeln with just a tiny advantage over SILVA HISPANIOLA (Evento 42) of owner Heinz-Peter Schmidt from Flensburg  who then won the second race clearly.

Again both ended up with a score of 18 points after eight races, but it was this years ORCi European Champion Heinz-Peter Schmidt with SILVA HISPANIOLA who finally won the ORCi Int. German Championship Inshore according to the higher score of first places (3:2).  Together with his young crew he was happy about one more victory: “A wonderful success completing a very good season”.

Tactician Dirk Manno’s relief became virtually visible when PRO Claus-Otto Hansen finally proclaimed the results via loudspeaker: “this was definitely our best race in the whole series,” he commented, “it was really thrilling and could not have been any tighter”. Third became XENIA (Xp 44) of owner Dr. Bernhard Buchwald from Bremerhaven (winner of this year’s ORCi Int. German Championship Offshore in Kiel earlier this year) with quite a clear gap (29 points) to its predecessors.

In Divsion Beta patent³ (X-332 Sport) of Jürgen Klinghardt from Hamburg succeeded in achieving a double victory, as winner of the ORCi Int. German Championships Offshore and Inshore. He had started the final races “quite calmly” with a 3.5 points advantage over his competitors. In the end he won the championship with 15 points, well in the lead before BLOND (X-332) of Oliver Leu from Heiligenhafen with a score of 21 points and DOGMATIX (X-332) of Stefan Voss (Langballig) with 27 points. A third and a fourth place on the final race day had unexpectedly pushed him up. “This was the highest of expectations”, rejoiced the happy owner