Beautiful Swedish hostesses
In the yacht club GKSS (The Royal Gotenburg Yacht Club) in Marstrand, which was acting as race office for the Gold Cup, an army of officials and hostesses were running about helping with the check-in. A package of X-Yachts clothing was handed out to all crews, and a not very meticulous security official was checking the yachts for flares and life jackets etc. Every day, before and after the races, the hostesses came on board with information and practical advise. Among our male crewmembers there was a saying and a very typical Danish understatement, that “the girls were not noticeably ugly”…

On board our yacht, the IMX 45 “Vild Kalas” from Frederikshavn, the atmosphere was not wild at all. The crew was counting three couples and myself, and the boat had been entered in the Family Class – meaning max. two sails – well, the style was clear! We didn’t rush around to get rid of surplus ballast. The boat was on its way home from summer holidays in the Swedish archipelago, and what was brought on board was left there, even during the races. True, the skipper himself was very keen on delivering good results, however, he spent more time strolling along the quays admiring the competitors’ boats than optimising his own yacht. Yet, he took a clean cloth and polished the deckhouse where the sign “IMX 38 made by X-Yachts of Denmark” was positioned, and a sparrow was kindly told not to stain and fly on to another boat. Apart from that, the preparations were limited.

The Opening Ceremony
Gold Cup 2002 had been prepared well by X-Yachts. The opening ceremony was a chapter of its own, with Karoliner soldiers, dressed in authentic 17th century uniforms leading the way for the 600 participants to the Carlstens Fortress, towering over the island of Marstand. The fortress governor told the history in brief, and subsequently Niels Jeppesen stepped out on the balcony and declared the X-Yachts Gold Cup 2002 for open.

I was a bit excited to learn about the level of the races, but I was positively surprised. My racing experience up till now was limited to the windsurfing sports, therefore I was quite impressed by especially the IMXs, flying away with up to 12 crewmembers on the rail, and often dressed alike with the boat name embroidered on their clothes. However, soon it turned out that the races were very well planned, and irrespective of know-how and equipment everyone had a fantastic experience, - even a “board” sailor as myself who is used to pulling two lines only!

The X-Yachts Gold Cup was sailed in three classes – Family, Sport and Racing. The Family class was only allowed to use two sails, but the two other classes could use their full sail wardrobe. Furthermore, the Family and Sport classes were divided into yachts below and above 11 metres, whereas the Racing class was restricted to the tough ones – that is the IMX 38, 40 and 45s and the X-99s. With this classification there was plenty of room for everyone feeling comfortable in the field. You fight against similar yachts and like-minded crews, though some yachts may have a couple of feet more or less to do with.

In the middle of the scenery
Hereafter four well-prepared leeward/windward races were sailed, successfully arranged by the regatta management. Each class was started off separately, but as the races went along, the fields gathered and therefore our IMX 38 “Vild Kalas” often was in the middle of some spectacular duels among other yachts. Even the most respectable TV-programmes from international races worldwide couldn’t compete with our experience in the waters of Marstrand. The feeling of being in the middle of the scenery beats everything!

Water battle at Marstrand
One of the starts was postponed due to lack of winds, and suddenly we were all bathing and swimming around in the middle of the sea. The sun was beating down from a blue sky and around us approx. 20-30 X-Yachts were in the middle of a heavy water battle, motoring in and out between each other for full speed. Obviously, many X-owners have a huge water pistol ready under deck for situations like this!

Racing needs trimming
During the Gold Cup we worked hard with the trimming of “Vild Kalas”, and it is incredible how much you can learn from competing with other boats. The right trim is not optimum until you have spent many hours of work and have raced against equals, and this offers quite new aspects in life of sailing and will make the next weekend trip with the family even more fun. We placed 6th in the long distance race and advanced hereafter steadily step by step. In the first winward/leeward race we rounded the top mark as No 1 and our subsequent shouts of joy must have been heard far away into the archipelago. We won a total 3rd place in our class Family B.

The X-Yachts Gold Cup is finished and you wonder which boat to sail next time. As far as I am concerned there is no doubt at all, it will be an X-Yachts, not only because of the sailing qualities. Naturally, the private budget will set its limits as to the size, but we aim at an X-362. Unless we come across a second-hand X-332 with all equipment included. Both models complies with our family demands, and these boats are fast as well, - if we should be tempted to race her one day…..

At the beginning of August, seventy X-Yachts were bound for Marstrand in Sweden for the annual X-Yachts Gold Cup event – this year held for the fifth time. The Royal Gotenburg Yacht Club was organizing the X-Yachts Gold Cup and with their experienced staff and volunteers they succeeded in giving the 600 sailors, guests and sponsors three unforgettable days in the beautiful surroundings of Marstrand.

A total of five races were sailed, mostly in perfect weather conditions with sufficient wind and the sun was shining from a blue sky. At the end of the day the participants gathered for the prize giving ceremony and later the restaurants and nightlife in Marstrand offered the many participants delicious food and entertainment.

On board the IMX 38 “Vild Kalas” we met the journalist, Torben Kornum, sailing his first race on an X-Yachts. Returned from Marstrand he wrote an article about the X-Yachts Gold Cup, and we found his article both informative and very amusing, and asked for his permission to publish it to our readers. Now we hope that you will enjoy reading his version of the X-Yachts Gold Cup in Marstrand - we could certainly not have written it with more enthusiasm ourselves.

Intro by Torben Kornum
When I was offered to sail on board an IMX 38 as a crewmember, I was wondering what makes 68 X-Yachts from the whole of Northern Europe cross the open sea and meet in Marstrand in the middle of the summer. But at that time I was in the belief that the X-Yachts Gold Cup was just another ordinary race.

I arrived on the island of Marstrand on board the ferry a late summer evening. Everywhere along the bridges the 3-striped X-Yachts were moored. All these yachts you slobber over when you meet them one by one in the domestic waters. X-332, X-362, X-382, X-412 etc. And all the IMXs of course. On the flagpoles alongside the quay the big “X” was flying, making every Danish sailor proud of being Danish – irrespective of being the owner of an X-Yachts or not.

The first time in Italy in 1998
The X-Yachts Gold Cup started in Italy in 1998. The year after the cup was held on home ground in Haderslev, followed by Ijmuiden in Holland and Sct Tropez in France. When the X-Yachts family gather in the summer 2003 it will be in Hamble in England. The last two years the cup was called X-Yachts World Cup, however, this title was maybe overdoing it a bit. The purpose of the cup is not to hold a world class sailing event, but to gather X-Yachts owners under attractive and social conditions with the races as a joint activity.

One big family
No doubt that most of the X-Yachts owners have a sporting attitude and they are used to obtain results on the race courses, but in spite of that the crews in Marstrand generously exchanged precious optimising tricks and experience to one another, and undoubtedly the participants considered each other as one big family. Between the races, the crews interchanged many admirable nods and compliments. In Marstrand it wasn’t the size of the boat that counted, but rather the “X” itself together with good and inventive solutions on board.

Per Ottar Skaaret was helmsman on one of the Norwegian IMX 45s. Last time we met was in Malaysia in 1992 during a World Surfing Cup where we had heavy fights for big money prizes. Today he owns an X-482 himself, but had sneaked on board the IMX 45. The meeting with him was another positive aspect of the Gold Cup. In only four days a vast number of friendships were made and new contacts between X-owners from the whole of Scandinavia were established. No doubt that X-Yachts hits the mark with the Gold Cup events, especially as to brand loyalty in the years to come.

The Danish X-3/4 Ton “Nimbus” was my favourite during the cup. The boat was old and had seen better days, and the sails had not been taken out of their bags the day before. Furthermore, this crew would have made any HA supporter group extremely envious of their great mutual collection of tattoos. The “Nimbus” boys could sail – no doubt about that, but in the light winds and very competitive Sport Class C, they didn’t get a chance. The guys, however, had a lot of fun and they were the ones partying during the night after some of the crewmembers had swum across the harbour to get a bottle of whisky.

Big and small, new and old
A good thing about the X-Yachts Cups is that big and small, new and old yachts are competing in the same field. In our class we had big trouble keeping the Danish X-3/4 Ton “Miraculix” at distance. Even though she was 15 years old, she hung on to us as a leech, and we teased our skipper persistently with the fact that he could have saved almost a million Danish kroner, which is the amount differentiating a new IMX 38 from a second-hand X-3/4 Ton. Probably the truth is that “Miraculix” had a good grip of the trimming, and probably their skipper didn’t get distracted by all the beautiful yachts surrounding him…

It was also great fun when we saw the X-332s overtaking the big yachts, and we sat on the rail and felt comfortable by having saved all our money by buying small. During the four days of racing I gather that we had saved around 8-10 million kroner.

X-Yachts had their sailors joining the race as well. Designer Niels Jeppesen sailed his X-412, and during the final prize giving ceremony, he certainly felt a bit uneasy being acclaimed the winner of Sport Class D. His partner, Birger Hansen, had collected his crew from employees at the yard in Haderslev. “We knew beforehand that we were not good enough to mingle with the top in the Racing Class, but we have a mutual and social adventure which we will benefit from at work afterwards” – says Birger Hansen and represents hereby one of the main objectives of the X-Yachts Gold Cup.

The first race was a long distance race in very light winds. The boats without spinnakers started out and were overtaken on the running before rounding the mark. The many colourful spinnakers were a fantastic view, and so was the Danish X-412 “Nordstjernen” sailing majestically towards the mark. It was a grand spectacle when the two IMX 45s, still after two hours of racing, were side by side only a few meters apart, almost match racing through the field.