5.5 Metre class World Championship at Yacht Club de l'Odet - Day 4
by Rupert Holmes 6 Sep 11:41 NZST
29 August - 7 September 2024
Seven boats are now race winners in the 2024 world championship, yet only one has scored two victories - Aspire (Przemek Gacek, Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Kilian Weise), which is currently lying fourth overall.
Race wins on Thursday went to Australian boat Beta Crucis (Martin Cross, Bob Stoddard and Simon Reffold) and Ali-Baba (Flavio Marazzi, Julie Marazzi and Eline Marazzi).
A left-hand wind shift before the start of the first race, the seventh of the series, suggested a strong port end bias on the start line and a number of the top teams gathered there. Aspire pulled the trigger first and emerged ahead of the fleet in clean air, while The Jean Genie (Peter Morton, Andrew Palfrey, Ruairidh Scott) also initially looked very well placed in clean air a few lengths to windward.
"It was an interesting start today," says Cross. "We got a little bit sandwiched but managed to hold on for a couple of hundred metres before we had to bail out and go right. Then we got a very nice clear lane up through the centre, with a nice lift, and then found another lift. We had good boat speed and suddenly found ourselves having picked the right way up the beat and got to the windward mark at more or less the same time and just ahead of Jurg (Marie-Françoise XXII - Jürg Menzi, Jürgen Eiermann and Kim Chabani) and Gavin (John B - Gavin McKinney, Lars Horn Johannessen and Mathias Dahlman).
"I think we theoretically led all the way round, but it was touch and go all the way - very, very hard work to stay ahead," adds Cross, who is racing a 19-year-old boat bought second hand with co-owner Bob Stoddard. "We were very thankful at the end to breathe a sigh of relief as we just managed to cross the finish ahead. This is such a competitive fleet that you rarely get a chance to win a race," says Cross. "We've managed to win two in this boat over the last couple of years, but Bob won another in 1981 when he was a crew in The Bahamas, in one of the few planing 5.5s, so he's happy to add a third win to his collection."
Race 8 started in a little more breeze, but still no more than 7-9 knots, which eased towards the finish. This time the pin end of the line was shunned by almost the whole fleet. Ali-Baba started between one of the Bahamian boats and The Jean Genie, a little to the left of midline, then tacked onto starboard and went well to the right, where there was a little more breeze, and emerged in the top three at the first windward mark.
"From there on it was was all about finding the best pressure, or at least more pressure than the other boats," says Flavio Marazzi who is racing with his 14 and 16-year-old daughters. "It's always difficult, but I think we saw that the right was always a bit stronger, so that's where we tended to go - upwind on the right hand side, then a gybe set at the top mark." Even though this meant splitting from Ku-Ring-Gai lll (John Bacon, Joost Houweling and Edward Wright), who had been race leader, Flavio says, "he went to the extreme, so it wasn't us gambling... and we felt pretty safe."
What does it feel like to win a world championship race? "It's great. Honestly, after our win last week in the Scandinavian Gold Cup, I felt like nothing could top that, but it's still absolutely amazing because this is the first race we've ever won in a world at championship," says Julie Marazzi. "I think it still feels pretty good and it feels great to see that we can still keep up this success - we've been lucky to have these experiences over the past week."
With only two races left in the championship, Ku-Ring-Gai lll holds a commanding lead nine points ahead of Ali-Baba. Artemis (Kristian Nergaard, Johan Barne and Trond Solli-Saether) currently lies third overall on 33 points, Aspire fourth on 38 and New Moon lll (Mark Holowesko, Christoph Burger and Peter Vlasov) fifth, with 41 points. All five of these boats still have a mathematical chance of winning the championship.
ChlikaChlikaChlika (Antonin Radue, Pascal Radue and Patrick Huguenin) extended her lead in the Evolution division today, ahead of another Ali-Baba (Wolf-Eberhard Richter, Kallkowski Beata and Joerg Gruenwald) and Singora (Hans Köster, Cedric Menzela and Mine Köster). Manuela V (Guido Tommasi, Matteo Barison and Andrea Racchelli) retains the lead in the classic fleet, ahead of Twinns XLL (Jean-Philippe Gervais, Eric Gaiani and Johnathan Commissaire).
The day finished with another of the 5.5 Metre class's legendary pontoon parties, hosted by Australian, German and British teams. Two more races are scheduled Friday, with much windier conditions forecast.
Full results are published here.