Team VELUX was battling against 40 boats from eight nations in the World Championship for X-99 last week. After three fast and furious races on Friday – the last day of the competition – Team VELUX managed to beat the Estonian boat Mati Sepp, which looked like winning this year’s World Championship for most of the week. Team VELUX also beat the Danish yacht MJ Eriksson, with its former mate Peter Kampmann at the helm, which had to make do with third place.
Rene Villefrance, the Team VELUX tactician, said, ”We had an out-of-body experience on the last day of sailing. I cannot remember that we have ever sailed the last three races in a competition completely perfectly and won three times in a row. After a week when we kept ourselves at the top, but had only won three races, it was very satisfying to experience everything falling into place. Our cooperation worked perfectly and we made all the right decisions.”
Before Friday’s last three World Championship races, Team VELUX was eleven points behind Mati Sepp and six points behind Danish MJ Eriksson. The team ended the day five points ahead of MJ Eriksson and two points ahead of the Estonian boat.
Team VELUX put the two closest competitors in the field under tremendous pressure, and while they made a number of mistakes, Team VELUX sailed its way to victory by completing the last three races in perfect style.
”We won the third from last round safely and the next but last by just a boat length. The last race, on the other hand, we won in sovereign style, leading the field from start to finish – and it was actually the last race that settled it all,” says Rene Villefrance. “After our victory here in Grömitz, we feel 100 per cent prepared and motivated to do well in the IMS Offshore World Championship in the Mideterrian this week.
In the IMS Offshore World Championship Team VELUX will be sailing in an X-37 boat, which is a new boat design from Danish X-Yachts in Haderslev. It is completely unusual for a team to sail two different types of boat, but unlike the X-99, the X-37 has no difficulty measuring up to the international IMS system and races against the really large racing yachts in international races.