14 November 2022
At
the ORC’s Annual Meeting last week, Dr. Wolfgang Schaefer – a
decades-long offshore sailor, Farr 40 one-design World Champion and
26-year member of the ORC Management Committee – was recognized for
his outstanding contributions to this organization. His long-term
experience in the sport gave him not only knowledge of the game
itself, but also keen insights on how to help best manage its
evolution and growth over the past few decades.This was particularly true for his role as a Management Committee member and Vice President of ORC from 1994 to 2020, but also as Chairman of the German Sailing Federation’s (DSV) Offshore Sailing Committee and member of the World Sailing Offshore and Oceanic Committee as well.
His ongoing passion for assisting in policy and governance came from his own passion in offshore racing, which included participation representing Germany in the prominent offshore team events such as the Admiral’s Cup and Sardinia Cup, but prominent offshore races as well, such as the Fastnet, Sydney-Hobart and even the Capetown-Rio Race.
Schaefer’s long-term membership at the Royal Ocean Racing Club was but one indication of his dedication to the goals of international offshore sailing, and from 2009 through the next few years he was actively involved with the One World, One Rule concept discussions between ORC and RORC.
At about this same time Schaefer shifted his personal competitive passions towards high-profile owner-driver pro-am inshore racing in the Farr 40 class, where his wife Angela (shown in photo along with Wolfgang and ORC Chairman Bruno Finzi) is a dedicated member of the crew as the team strategist. These two led their Struntje Light team to victory in the 2018 Farr 40 World Championship in Chicago in 2018. Ever campaigning on behalf of ORC, his friendships with fellow Farr 40 owners and commodores Matt Allen of the Cruising YC of Australia and Leif Sigmond of Chicago YC helped establish new ORC fleets which have grown and are now well-established in Australia and the US Great Lakes.
Always with an understated sense of humility and sarcasm, Schaefer has been prone to describing excellent developments and results as being “Not so bad.” Currently he and Angela are on a well-deserved pause from competitive racing while cruising in the Baltic region, and we look forward to no doubt seeing him in Kiel at next year’s 2023 ORC World Championship.
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