5.5 Metre class World Championship at Yacht Club de l'Odet - Day 3
by Rupert Holmes 5 Sep 15:44 NZST
29 August - 7 September 2024
Aspire (Przemek Gacek, Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Kilian Weise) - 5.5 Metre class World Championship © Rupert Holmes
Race wins for Aspire and The Jean Genie, but Ku-Ring-Gai III leads overall after six races
Aspire (Przemek Gacek, Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Kilian Weise) won Wednesday's first race - the fifth of the championship - by a narrow margin at the end of what proved to be an adrenaline fuelled downwind leg for many competitors, with many boats overlapped on the finish line.
Artemis (Kristian Nergaard, Johan Barne and Trond Solli-Saether) took second place by a whisker, having overtaken Ku-Ring-Gai lll (John Bacon, Joost Houweling and Edward Wright) in the final few lengths of the race. The Polish team is currently the only one to have won two races, but like most is still struggling to post consistent results, although with the discard applied today they are no longer counting their 14th place fromrace four.
Race six started after a general recall and in a building wind that produced gusts towards 20 knots at finish. In contrast to race five, The Jean Genie (Peter Morton, Andrew Palfrey, Ruairidh Scott) won by a large margin, having started in clean air and then extending right round the course.
"It's the first time we've seen much more than about 10 or 11 knots all week," says Morton, "so it was good for us - the boat certainly performs once there's some breeze, but we're a bit sticky in under seven or eight knots, which showed up in this morning's race.
"We had a nice gap on the start line - we didn't fight for an end - and were on the line at full pace and on time. On the first beat he says they "had space either side of us, so we had the option to go high if we needed to, or to go fast. Ruairidh did a great job on the shifts - we saw 30 degree wind shifts two or three times on each beat. So we got those right, or mostly right, and just kept extending all race."
Ku-Ring-Gai lll was the most consistent boat on the course today, positing third and fourth places and now heads the overall leaderboard, counting 14 points. "It was a tricky day, but a nice wind, even if we didn't get two great starts," says Bacon.
What's the secret to being consistent in this fleet? "I don't think there is any secret," he adds. "The boat's going good - we are a new crew, we weren't together last year, but we did the Alpen Cup together, we enjoyed the company and we're loving it here."
Aspire now lies second overall, just two points behind Ku-Ring-Gai lll, while Artemis is third on 22 points. Two boats - The Jean Genie and Ali Baba (Flavio Marazzi, Julie Marazzi and Eline Marazzi) - are tied on 25 points, with the latter picking up second place in race 6, her best result in the championship so far.
The level of competition at any 5.5 Metre world championship is such that it's invariably a high scoring series and, with two days to go, any of these boats still have the potential to take the overall title.
ChlikaChlikaChlika (Antonin Radue, Pascal Radue and Patrick Huguenin) is leading the Evolution division for older boats, in a newly restored boat Pascal is sailing with his son.
"I think we had quite two good races today and managed to read the water better than yesterday," he says. "The boat is an ex world championship winner that wasn't raced for 25 years and was at risk of being cut up. Now we're learning to sail it - learning every day - and fixing quite a few things, but it's good fun. The most important thing for me is that it's bit of a youth programme, bringing an old boat back to life with my two sons and lots of friends involved."
Racing continues all week, hosted by the Yacht Club de l'Odet in south Brittany.
Full results available here.