illbruck yacht

Aboard the one and only German Volvo Ocean Race Winner

• September 9th, 2020
• Sailing Yacht

It was a hot summer´s day back in June this year when I visited Oliver Schmidt-Rybandt in Rostock at his “Speedsailing”-base near the city center. I went there to take a closer look at Dehler´s new 30 OD One Design which had already caught my imagination back in Cannes on her world premiere. Upon walking along the pontoon I noticed three large sailing yacht. True racers for which Speedsailing initially was best know for: Prior to becoming a Sales Agent for Dehler 30 OD this company was founded to keeping alive legendary racing yachts and offer a true racing experience to people. Their crow jewel of course is the GLASHÄGER, better know under her previous name, ILLBRUCK.

After Oliver showed me around on the Dehler 30 OD for more than two hours in detail, we walked back to the shore and came by the yacht. “Wanna take a look inside?”, he offered. Well, what a question? Of course I wanted! So I climbed aboard that 60 feet behemoth and instantly felt kind of being drawn into the amazing story of that yacht. For me as a German the name ILLBRUCK has a very special tone to it: She is the first, one and to date only German boat to ever win the Volvo Ocean Race. As I said: A true legend.

Inside ex-ILLBRUCK

The boat has been drawn as part of the one-design V.O.60-class and was built prior to the 2001 race. The campaign however was financed by German businessman Michael Illbruck who in turn is the son of Wilhelm Gustav Illbruck, a sailing legend and sponsor of Admiral´s Cupper PINTA who won the race in 1983. So, here we are aboard that classic. When I went down into what on other yachts is called the “saloon” it was almost like a magic moment: How many hundred times must have the crew of 2001/2002 Volvo Ocean Race come down and up the Kevlar-made “steps” of the companionway?

Down below the boat shines in yellow. The unmistakable hint of the boat´s prime material: Kevlar. Before the Carbon fibres became common sense in boat building it was a class rule of the V.O.60-boats to be built with Kevlar. This was the state-of-the-art stuff as it had a much higher impact resistance – back in those days there haven´t been any route-limitations for the crews, called “ice gates”, and so the boats were made as strong as possible to withstand possible impacts with growlers. The ex-ILLBRUCK weighs in 13.5 tons which is half the displacement of the Oceanis Yacht 62 ! Her bulkheads cling, making a strange sound when I knocked on it. Like being under some kind of tension. The strange yellow color of the unpainted, bare material instills a feeling of raw, naked power. Made for one sole purpose: Going fast.

The ILLBRUCK – now re-christened GLASHÄGER in honor for her new sponsor, a German mineral water brand – had the top-equipment available back in the days. The early 2000 years, sounds as if they had been passed by just the other day, in reality, that´s twenty years ago. In 5 years that will be a quarter century! A modern boat of her time, the pinnacle of yacht design and materials, today a slight scent of being antiquated – in the best sense of the word!

Unimaginable living conditions

Just like humans in a WW2 uboat , the crew of ILLBRUCK was not the primary concern when the yacht had been conceived. Everything on this boat seems to be envisioned and then made to make her go fast. Living conditions, human demands, comfort – these are words which did not play a single role in construction phase. Simple lightweight, slim and most certainly uncozy berths made of pipes plaster the hull walls.

A net makes the mattress. That´s it. A simple lashing can adjust the berth to the heeling and tack of the boat, that´s it. The crew probably had simple sleeping bags, most certainly wet and cold, a makeshift pillow, maybe the oilskin . There is no privacy here whatsoever, no cabins nor simple curtains or blankets. It must have been a hard trial being part of ILLBRUCK´s crew for sure.

I contemplate the water closet, cramped in a somewhat shadowy corner, half shadowed by a bulkhead, recessed into the hull. The ceramics would have been adjusted to counter the heeling as well and – although I cannot see one – I hope the crew would had made up for a blind, a curtain or something: As a guy obsessed with having at least two closed doors between me and civilization when taking a dump, this WC would most certainly have been my “Nope, thanks!” when being asked to join the crew.

A racing veteran

Apart from that, the ILLBRUCK has some pretty impressive features still valid. The nav station for example. Navigation back in the day already had been satellite-driven and digital, weather routing and evaluating weather data the digital way by means of a computer was available. So the navigator had his dedicated “nav station” in front of a screen rather than sitting on an old-fashioned chart table .

The Diesel-tank which makes up for the seating of the navigator are tilted in a way that when sailing heeled the navigator would sit upright. I took the seat and closed my eyes for a short minute: I tried to imagine the sound of the waves smashing against the hull, the flow of water alongside – ILLBRUCK´s speed record still stays at whopping 39 knots, which is 72 kilometres per hour. Just try to imagine the sound, roaring winds in the rigging from above, crashing waters from below. Around the world!

Carbon indeed was part of the boat. I spotted the typical matte-black color in form of the power train from the huge grinders to the winches. Again I tried to imagine the sound when two people turn the winches with full power and the clacking and cracking noise of the tubes transmit throughout the boat. It´s a loud awkward sound in normal cruising yachts, just think of it manyfold stranger on this racing machine!

Keeping the legend alive

Oliver is seemingly proud: Along with ex-ILLBRUCK the company owns two more V.O.60, which is ex-SEB (now OSPA) and ex-TOSHIBA (which is now ROSTOCKER). Three V.O.60 yachts identical in construction: The boats can be chartered and match raced under real conditions, skippered by the Speedsailing team. The spirit of racing lives inside the boats, the team around Oliver is creating this worldwide unique atmosphere of high-class offshore racing – and it´s just a one hour drive from my home town!

When I left Oliver after thanking him for his time, I looked back onto this proud fleet. Well maintained and often raced, these veterans of offshore racing are not rusting on a pier or being put on dry stand, de-masted, de-capitated. They keep the spirit alive and – by judging from the atmosphere I was able to grasp there among the Speedsailing-staff – they all love what they do in providing a unique experience. Sitting in my car, driving back home I make a not to myself: “Ask the boss if we could do a match race on these as a big event for our staff.” Maybe as a company´s birthday present.

ILLBRUCK at her big time has been under the command of legendary U.S.-skipper John Kostecki. The first, one and only German boat to ever win this highly well endowed race sported a crew of 12 people of which just one had been German. Nobody cared whatsoever: After setting up a world record of 484 miles in 24 hours and winning the toughest offshore race to date, the boat arrived in Kiel in 2002, being frantically greeted by a fascinated nation. I thought I had heard an echo of this down in her hull. What a chilling cool experience!

Thanks for the tour, Oli!

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Illbruck Sets 24-Hour Monohull World Speed Record

• By Rachel Anning
• Updated: May 15, 2002

Illbruck Challenge goes into the record books after officially receiving ratification that they have set a new world record, for the greatest distance sailed in 24 hours by a Monohull. The record of 484 nautical miles was completed at 20:02 on April 30 during Leg 7 of the Volvo Ocean Race and was confirmed by the World Speed Sailing Record Council.

On arrival in La Rochelle, skipper John Kostecki praised his crew, and put the record win down to perfect conditions and great teamwork: “It’s an incredible feat which we’re all really proud of. It was 12 guys on the boat with a real team effort, and people on shore helping to maintain and fix the boat. The crew was fantastic and did a great job, pushing the boat hard and making efficient sail changes. They kept the boat going fast. The goal was to win leg 7, but it worked out perfectly with the right conditions to break the record.”

The ideal conditions arose from 20-25 knots of wind and the added push of the Gulf Stream. As illbruck left Chesapeake Bay, the team immediately started to put miles on the competition. A slight course alteration seemed an advantageous decision, picking up stronger north-westerlies, while staying in the strong current. “The Gulf Stream gave us two or three knots of extra push. Our average speed was 20 knots over the ground, although at times we were a lot faster, to over 30 knots,” said Kostecki.

Out in the Atlantic, the crew didn’t have much time to celebrate, however, and had to keep on racing: “We talked about it for a few minutes but couldn’t celebrate till last night after finishing Leg 7,” joked Kostecki on arrival in La Rochelle. “It’s an incredible record to hold and I’m extremely happy and proud to be the skipper of this award-winning yacht. It’s great to have a sponsor like EDS involved with our sport and it’s fantastic they promote this record.”

The average speed of 20.16 knots, with many periods reaching over 27 knots, caused no problems for the crew as they alternated three spinnakers on the fast reaches: “At 20 knots we had a lot of water on the boat,” Kostecki continued. “When you are going that fast, the boats do get wet. Ninety percent of the time the boat is wet, although the crew are used to it. There were no breakdowns, technical problems, it all went smoothly. Going at 30 knots is quite impressive for a Volvo 60 and you know you’re going fast.”

Illbruck’s victory in this transatlantic leg awards the team a further 8 points. Neal McDonald, skipper of ASSA ABLOY, who finished the leg second, said: “illbruck sailed the perfect race. They were smarter and they arequick in these conditions. We sailed well but they are a hard act to beat.”

John Kostecki hopes so. With just two more smaller legs of the race remaining, he believes they’ll hold the record for some time: “You need ideal conditions like the Gulf Stream push to beat this record. “One of the new maxis being built, or 80ft sleds being built in California, or maybe one of the Open 60s actively racing could quite possibly break the record.”

For information e-mail Rachel Anning at [email protected] or log on to the Challenge Business’s website, www.challengebusiness.com/press/edsrecord.html.

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Illbruck crosses Equator

• October 10, 2001

Illbruck is the first yacht in the Volvo Ocean Race to cross the equator and enter the southern hemisphere

Illbruck is the first yacht in the Volvo Ocean Race to cross the equator and enter the southern hemisphere. The German-flagged yacht is currently 17 miles ahead of Assa Abloy.

On board Illbruck, her crew have been quietly preparing to induct the four crew that have yet to cross from north to south. Richard Clarke (helmsman/trimmer), Ian Moore (navigator), Jamie Gale (mast) and Tony Kolb (bow) will all incur the wrath of King Neptune, who, as justice for past crimes, dishes out punishment in many smelly and sticky forms.

“I saw Stu ‘Waffler’ Bettany busy getting the King Neptune crown ready, and a bucket on deck contains some brew,” explained navigator Juan Vila.

For the rest of the fleet, it’s still plain sailing and a pure test of horse, or rather sail, power in the steady south-east trades as they simply race towards the same waypoint (Fernando de Noronha).

These straight line sailing conditions are the true acid test of every yacht’s sail testing programme and final inventory selection, as News Corp’s Alby Pratt commented: “With a Volvo boat, the yachts have to cover both upwind and downwind plus all the reaching angles in between which can lead to a massive variation in sail designs and sizes. It is easy to see why most teams have seven figure budgets for their sails.”

Still some 300 miles off their equator ceremony, the crew on Amer Sports Too are feeling the immense frustration of falling further behind the fleet with every six hourly report. “We are officially parked, or let’s say, illegally parked,” said navigator Genevieve White. “Our worst fears have been realised – the lead pack of five boats whom we have kept within general striking distance to date have slipped though the doldrums just ahead of us while we have stopped in our tracks just behind by a breezeless, shifty area combined with sloppy confused seas. Nevertheless, the crew is really positive, itching to get moving again and get on with the job.”

Position Report Day 18

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illbruck Makes it Two Straight

• By Dave Reed
• Updated: December 4, 2001

“We got on to a slow start the first night,” said Kostecki after finishing. “We took on so much water and at times we thought we were sinking. We were coming back to shore at one point and we managed to stop the leak and bailed the water out, it took us an hour and a half and we gave them a 20-mile headstart. Yeah, it was tough, but we battled back and we have a great team and we were able to come out with a victory. I’m very glad it’s over.”

Finishing 1 hour and 13 minutes after illbruck was SEB, the other green machine of the fleet, which had led for much of the closing second half of the leg. Illbruck had been stalking them for the nearly a week, and perhaps it was illbruck’s intimidation that pushed the crew of Gurra Krantz’s SEB to take one step too close to the edge. In a wild broach on Saturday, SEB exploded its masthead-reaching kite, and then flooded their bow compartment. The lead they’d been fighting to hold vanished on Saturday.

“Last night was one of those nights we will never forget,” Krantz wrote the following day. “We wiped out and shattered the spinnaker. It was very disappointing, as we had managed to get through two jibes without crashing. We were monitoring a squall and it was coming closer, just aiming for us. ’No worries,’ we thought. We’ve been clean through two bad ones earlier and saw no reason to back down on this one. This one came in with a lift and forced us to sail higher and with an angle to the waves. One wave was bigger than the other was and, in combination with an extra gust, we just spun out. Not even a chance to make it.”

Krantz added that the situation turned from bad to worse when a spinnaker sheet jammed in the rudder, forcing them to put crewmember Tom Braidwood into the water to free it. Once underway, however, they immediately suffered from the massive gap in their sail inventory. With each position report, illbruck gained, and then there was more bad news. A bow hatch had been accidentally been opened, allowing several hundred gallons of seawater to fill the forward compartment. “A ton of water and all the garbage mixed up in it had to be emptied,” said Krantz. “We used buckets and a tail bag in the cockpit for the mission.”

Ross Field’s Team News Corp was the third team to arrive in Sydney nearly an hour after SEB. Their second third-place finish moves them into second overall in the standings, a position that Field is content with for now. “We’re very happy with third,” he said after finishing. “We’re definitely going better than we were in the first leg and with more improvement we will be there.”

As the first three arrivals enjoyed the fruits of their arrival, a heated battle was underway between Knut Frostad’s djuice dragons and Grant Dalton’s Amer Sports One. The dragons had been slowly reducing Amer’s lead, and as was the story of this leg, a boathandling error on Amer was their undoing. In full view of media helicopters, Amer accidentally jibed, and the boat rolled onto its side. Worse than the humiliation of being caught on film, Dalton, who was belowdecks was injured in the incident. Amer’s navigator and onboard medic Roger Nilson reported that Dalton may have sustained internal injuries and broken ribs.

With their leader man down, Amer was crippled, and djuice immediately capitalized, overtaking them and finish fourth for the leg. “We were pushing a little bit too hard,” said Amer co-skipper Bouwe Bekking. “We were loosing control and it was the first time in my life that we made such a bad broach. It was the worst situation we have been in on this leg. This was a nasty one, one like this and the rig can come down and just especially when we were so close to home and we had such a good leg. We sailed very properly and we just lost control in the flood of the race.”

The final finisher for the leg was Mark Rudiger and Neal McDonald’s Assa Abloy, obviously disappointed with another poor finish. “I told the guys as we were coming in that in my mind they won this leg, they pushed hard; the boat went really fast; and it’s really Neal and I that need to put on the winning positions. It’s an easy thing to fix as we have a good boat and great crew, we just need to work on our side of things.”

The girls on Amer Sports One will continue to fight their uphill battle for several more days. At this morning’s position report, they had 627 miles to sail.

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Volvo Ocean race 2001-2002 Summary

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Round Skagen : "Illbruck" first yacht in Kiel

 ·  11.06.2014

At 03:42:37 this morning, the former Volvo Ocean 60 racer "Illbruck" crossed the finish line of the Pantaenius Rund Skagen Race 2014 in Kiel-Strande, after the crew of skipper Oliver Schmidt-Rybandt had fought a 500 nautical mile duel with the crew of the "Varuna" (Ker 51). The "Varuna" crossed the finish line just a few minutes after the "Illbruck" at 3:45:18.

A little more than three hours later, the "Haspa Hamburg" of the Hamburgischer Verein Seefahrt followed at 6:51:24 and the "Norddeutsche Vermögen" at 8:25:38.

After these two yachts, two other duelists crossed the finish line: the "UiJuiJui" with skipper Friedrich Hausmann, which had also fought a kind of match race with the crew of the "Needles and Pins" over almost the entire course. "UiJuiJui" crossed the finish line at 8:57:51, "Needles and Pins" followed at 8:59:24.

At 2.00 pm, 15 of the 61 yachts had crossed the finish line, the rest were between Kiel and Korsör.

Meistgelesen in dieser Rubrik

Press Releases

• Press Release

Illbruck Victorious in Volvo Ocean Race

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Southampton, England, June 9, 2002 - An ocean race of epic proportions reached its final conclusion today (Sunday, June 9), after 32,700 miles of racing. Winners, losers, glory and defeat, this race has seen it all. A script for an ending such as this could not have been written better. Djuice, the boat that struggled all the way around the planet claimed victory in the leg while illbruck took the race in a convincing manner.

Starting a race as the clear favourite was a heavy burden, but illbruck lived up to the highest expectations right from the start. With a conservative approach illbruck took the early lead in the race even though disaster struck on the first day of leg two as the bow section filled with water and for some dramatic hours it was unclear whether the yacht was in danger of sinking. In an impressive team effort the crew around John Kostecki got the yacht going again in last place, but it took them just a few days to sail straight through the whole fleet on a middle course to reclaim dominance on the fleet. They were rewarded with a spectacular victory in Sydney end never returned the lead on the overall table.

The extremely well organized and developed sail program allowed illbruck to save four new sails for the ultimate leg and they went well armed into the final battle they won against Swedish archrival ASSA ABLOY.

The illbruck Challenge crew finished in Kiel to an enthusiastic reception from friends, family, illbruck employees and customers and the thousands of German sailing fans who have been following the team since the around-the-world race started on September 23, 2001. Sail trimmer and sail designer Ross Halcrow from New Zealand, the only crew member on board illbruck who ever won the America's Cup (1995 with Team NZL) exclaimed enthusiastically: "This welcome has been huge and double as big as whatever I have seen in the America's Cup."

Illbruck was the first German yacht to secure victory in a leg and in the overall race, but they are just continuing a strong German tradition in this race. Peter von Danzig sailed the first race in 1973/74 finishing 14th, followed by Walross III in 1981/82 and Schluessel von Bremen in the 1989/90 race. Inspired from the early competitors, professional sailor Timmy Kroeger sailed the 1993/94 race on Intrum Justitia (second) and 1997/98 on Swedish Match (third).

The first place on this ultimate leg of the Volvo Ocean Race is a big reward for the endurance djuice has shown in their difficult sail around the world. Stricken by gear failure on the first leg and slow boat speed in spite of endless hours of two boat sail testing in the remaining legs djuice managed a second place on the fourth leg to Rio as their second top result. Finally they have overtaken Scandinavian rival SEB, who they put to seventh place in the eight-strong fleet after the disastrous losses of their rudder and mast in the Southern Ocean.

Figures about the number of spectators vary from 50000 to 100000 and the boats on the Kieler Foerde were so tightly packed that one could have crossed the water on dry feet.

Volvo Ocean Race Position Report, Day 2, 1708 GMT

PS Yacht Latitude Longitude DTF CMG SMG TFHR DTL ETA PO

3 AART 54 31.12N 010 17.84E 12 229 11 158 12 09/06/02 18:22 55

4 ATOO 54 31.68N 010 18.88E 13 230 10.9 158 13 09/06/02 18:27 16

5 AONE 54 31.84N 010 19.16E 13 230 11.1 157 13 09/06/02 18:31 44

6 TSEB 54 39.84N 010 36.40E 26 223 11.1 145 26 09/06/02 19:56 32

7 TYCO 54 40.68N 010 38.12E 27 226 11 146 27 09/06/02 20:02 42

8 NEWS 54 41.12N 010 39.32E 28 227 11.1 144 28 09/06/02 20:08 41

Leaderboard

PS Yacht Points

1 illbruck 61

2 ASSA ABLOY 55

3 Amer Sports One 44

5 News Corp 41

6 Djuice 33

7 Team SEB 32

8 Amer Sports Too 16

PS - Position; DTF - Distance to Finish; CMG - Course made good; SMG - Speed made good; TFHR - 24 hours run; DTL - Distance to leader; DTL-C - Distance to leader change; ETA - Estimated time of arrival; PO - accumulated Points

ILBK illbruck Challenge

AONE Amer Sports One

ATOO Amer Sports Two

AART ASSA ABLOY Racing Team

NEWS News Corporation

TYCO Team Tyco

TSEB Team SEB

DJCE djuice dragons

Volvo Ocean Race Background

The Volvo Ocean Race is run every four years. It started in Southampton, England on September 23rd 2001 and finished in Kiel, Germany, on June 9th 2002. Over a period lasting some nine months, the Volvo Ocean Race will reach a broad audience around the world via modern communication technology.

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www.VolvoOceanRace.org

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Pinta Husavik sold

De valk sells legendary illbruck yacht.

De Valk Hindeloopen, a member of the De Valk International brokerage group, has sold Pinta Husavik (ex. Pinta Smeralda), the final private sailing yacht of the late Willy Illbruck. This pioneering vessel, which benefits from the decades of experience built up by Illbruck during his illustrious career, is now being enjoyed by her new Dutch owners.

Launched in 1997 by Marten Marine in New Zealand, the customised Pinta Husavik was a trend-setter in the move towards fast yachts with clean decks and a small crew.

“As one of the industry leaders in Germany, Mr Illbruck shaped much of the German sailing industry by his leading edge in developing and building racing yachts for the German Pinta teams,” explains senior broker Hans Visser from De Valk Hindeloopen, who negotiated the sale.

“Only the best was good enough for this Admiral’s Cup winner and you can see what that meant in practice onboard Pinta Husavik. The fact that the yacht can be sailed at full potential with only two people on board was an enormous plus point for the experienced Dutch couple that now owns her.”

For more information contact Hans Visser at De Valk Hindeloopen on T: +31 (0)514 524000; F: +31 (0)514 524009; E: [email protected]