A County Wicklow yacht design has won the inaugural Offshore Sailing Worlds at the Hague last weekend. The Landmark 43, from the drawing board of Kilbride–based Mark Mills, produced a stunning win in Class B at the Dutch event.
Claus Landmark drove his Landmark 43 'Santa' to a runaway victory. Her sistership White Shadow of Torkel Valland was second, both well clear of the third-place finisher.
This design builds on Mills' experience with winning dual-purpose IRC designs both custom and production to offer 'true performance cruising comfort and outstanding results on the racecourse'.
The first event to combine the IRC and ORC World Championships, it was scored using the combined results under each rule, underlining the strength of this Mills Design 43 footer in the light-medium conditions that prevailed off the Dutch coast.
Landmark had already won the 2016 ORC World Championship in Santa, but success here carries twice the sweetness as it represents the first coordinated effort to bring the world’s two major rating systems together at a single event. Designer Mark Mills commented after the event “This provides us with a well-controlled trial for comparing the two rating systems, from which we are learning more about crossover opportunities to make our designs more capable under both rules, and perhaps under a unified rule of the future.”
Meanwhile, Ireland's only entry at the Championships, Fools Gold from Waterford Harbour was 22nd from 39 in Class C.
