Shetland Race competitors soak up Lerwick sunshine ahead of prizegiving
AROUND 40 yachts participating in the Shetland Race are currently in Lerwick.
The crews were soaking up the sunshine at Victoria Pier this afternoon ahead of the prizegiving at Mareel tonight.
Shetland News spoke to the rumoured-to-be winning crew of the Eureka.
Lars Enok Wang from Norway is half of the two-man crew. Him and skipper Terje Gilje-Sørnes completed their journey in 1 day, 7 hours, 54 minutes and 55 seconds.
“I’ve been sailing since I was a kid,” he said. “I occasionally come down to race in Stavanger.”
He’s no stranger to Shetland however, this being his fifth time in the isles.
He said: “I might bring my family over next time. My wife is from Scotland… so we travel a lot back and fore.
“I asked her to come here with me many a time… maybe next year.”
He described this week’s crossing from Bergen as “tough”.
“Head winds the whole way over, choppy waves, not the rolling nice North Sea waves,” Lars said.
“Something happened so they turned into these tiny peaks that we had to push through, so there was a lot of banging and being thrown around, light to heavy winds through the night.
“Apart from that it’s always fun. It’s not comfortable but it’s always great fun.
“And then you get to come here afterwards and you forget the night.”
He said the weather in Lerwick this afternoon was “absolutely perfect” and that their plans over the weekend are to “eat and sleep” before heading off again on Sunday.
“We’re only two onboard this boat so there’s not much sleeping from race start until we reach the finish line,” he said.
“Then it’s another 17 hours to get the boat back to Stavanger again.”
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