After seven days of strong northerlies, curtailing all training and racing, the 5.5 Metre World Championship fleet finally completed three races on Wednesday in some great conditions with 15-20 knots.
Aspire of Przemek Gacek, Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Kilian Weise lead the 5.5 Metre World Championship with a 3, 1, 1 scoreline on 5 pts.
Artemis of Kristoffer Spone, Trond Solli Sæther and Anders Pedersen are second with 10 pts after winning the first race, then adding a 3 and 6. Third are Ali-Baba of Flavio Marazzi, Julie Marazzi and Eline Marazzi with a 2, 4, 7 on 13 pts.
Louise Morton’s Girls on Film was the early leader in race 1, in the strongest wind of the day at 16-20 knots, starting at the pin and leading round the top. Kristoffer Spone’s Artemis took the lead downwind and extended to win from Ali-Baba and Aspire.
Flavio Marazzi’s Ali-Baba then led race 2 at the top in slightly lighter winds but Aspire led at the gate to extend and win from Ku-Ring-Gai III Jay Cross with Artemis third.
In the final race of the day, Aspire led all the way to win from Bent Christian’s Otto with Girls on Film taking third.
The forecast for Thursday and Friday is for lighter southerly winds, which no one can quite imagine. Three races are scheduled for Thursday.
5.5 Metre Worlds – Results after 3 races
1st POL 17 Aspire Przemyslaw Gacek 3.0 1.0 1.0 – – 5 pts
2nd NOR-57 Artemis Cor Kristoffer Spone 1.0 3.0 6.0 – – 10 pts
3rd SUI 224 Ali-Baba Flavio Marazzi 2.0 4.0 7.0 – – 13 pts
4th GBR 41 Girls on Film Louise Morton 5.0 6.0 3.0 – – 14 pts
5th AUS 66 Kuringai 3 Jay Cross 9.0 2.0 5.0 – – 16 pts
6th BAH 26 John B Cor Gavin McKinney 6.0 7.0 4.0 – – 17 pts
7th NOR-68 Otto Bent Christian 8.0 8.0 2.0 – – 18 pts
8th GRE 6 Melx IV Stavros Papagiannopoulos 7.0 5.0 9.0 – – 21 pts
9th GRE 7 Aera Nick Lykiardopulo 10.0 10.0 13.0 – – 33 pts
10th SUI-233 Marie-Francoise 4.0 9.0 21.0 RET – – 34 pts