Kristian Nergaard’ Artemis XIV has moved to the top on Day 3 of the 5.5 Metre World Championship in Helsinki, Finland after two more races on Wednesday.
John B of Gavin McKinney is up to second, while former leader Mark Holowesko’s New Moon is down in third. The race wins went to Beta Crucis of Martin Cross and John B.
Wednesday’s races have produced a very tight scoreboard with the top four boats within two points. With five races done and four more to go, this championship is still wide open, however after one more race the discard will come into play.
It was a day that promised much more, but delivered two quite tricky and at times frustrating races with the wind dropping out to 2-3 knots in both races.
Luck does not seem to be on the side of New Moon this week. Again, she rounded the top mark with a clear lead after the first upwind in Race 4, only to see it again disappear like the wind on the second downwind.
Peter Morton’s Girls On Film was second at the top, just ahead of Clark Kent of Craig Symonette, and took the lead on the second upwind, sailing the shifts well as the wind started to go funky.
The final downwind changed everything with Clark Kent following New Moon and Girls on Film, down the left, while most of the fleet went right.
While the wind on the left died, leaving them stranded, Beta Crucis went furthest to the right and held onto pressure to sail right around the pack to come in fast (relatively) to the gate and round ahead for a short beat up to the moved finish line.
John B also gained on the left upwind to cross in second while Bernard Haissly’s Caracole sneaked into third. New Moon and Clark Kent finished a distant 10th and 11th.
The second race followed a similar pattern, but this time there were no big changes.
John B nailed the pin and crossed on the first tack to lead the fleet around for a great race win. New Moon was second at the top, ahead of Artemis XIV and Beta Crucis.
These four managed to separate from the fleet and had their own race, with the only change being Artemis XIV passing New Moon on the second beat.
The boats finished in barely a breath of wind, while late finishers were able to hoist spinnakers to cross the line. It was that kind of day.
5.5m Class World Championship – Leaders after 5 races
1st NOR 57 Kristian NERGAARD 9 1 1 7 2 – – 20 pts
2nd BAH 22 Gavin McKINNEY 3 6 8 2 1 – – 20 pts
3rd BAH 21 Mark HOLOWESKO 1 5 2 10 3 – – 21 pts
4th GBR 40 Peter MORTON 4 3 3 5 7 – – 22 pts
5th SUI 214 Bernard HAISSLY 5 4 9 3 5 – – 26 pts
6th SUI 228 Jürg MENZI 8 2 6 8 9 – – 33 pts
7th SUI 209 Bent Christian WILHELMSEN 2 11 5 4 12 – – 34 pts
8th ITA 79 Hemming HANSES 6 7 10 6 6 – – 35 pts
9th NOR 64 Craig SYMONETTE 10 10 4 11 8 – – 43 pts
10th AUS 63 Martin CROSS 7 8 25 1 4 – – 45 pts