New Moon progress in battle for 5.5 Metre World Championship

Kristian Nergaard’s Artemis XIV was again the boat of the day at the 2020 International 5.5 Metre Worlds despite a stumble in the final race of day 2.

Nergaard, sailing with Johan Barne and Anders Pedersen, opened the day with a huge race win, before 2018 World Champions, New Moon II (BAH 24) of Mark Holowesko, Christoph Burger and Peter Vlasov took the second race of the day.

Artemis XIV picked up where they left off on Thursday with an emphatic win in Race 2, leading at every mark and extending away from the fleet. Behind them, there was a battle between three or four boats in the light wind and long legs.

Eventually Ali Baba (BAH 23) of Craig Symonette, Flavio Marrazi and Will Alloway emerged in second with Ku-Ring-Gai II (AUS 60) of Matt Crawford, Rob Crawford and Matt Visser sailing a great last beat to finish third in their first event together as a team.

With the wind increasing the front-runners changed, with New Moon II finding some pace to round the top mark just a boat length ahead of Artemis XIV.

It remained even down the first run, but with the left increasingly paying in the building breeze they moved head and extended on the second downwind and up again to the finish for a win of nearly a minute.

Fellow Bahamians John B (BAH 22) of Gavin McKinney, Mathias Dahlman and Lars Horn Johannessen also sailed a great final upwind to cross second while Artemis XIV was third.

5.5 Metre World Championship – Results after race 3

1st NOR57 ARTEMIS XIV Kristian Nergaard 3 1 1 – – 5 pts
2nd BAH23 ALI-BABA Craig Symonette 5 2 4 – – 11 pts
3rd BAH24 NEW MOON Mark Holowesko 1 9 3 – – 13 pts
4th GBR40 GIRLS ON FILM Peter Morton 4 7 2 – – 13 pts
5th BAH22 JOHN B Gavin Mckinney 2 4 8 – – 14 pts
6th AUS60 KU-RING-GAI II Matt Crawford 6 3 6 – – 15 pts
7th SUI226 SHAOLIN Cyrus Golchan 8 5 11 – – 24 pts
8th GER79 PRETTYNAMA Max Muller 10 6 12 – – 28 pts
9th SUI201 ZICCA Tobias Isler 9 10 10 – – 29 pts
10th NOR64 CLARK KENT Petter Fjeld 11 14 5 – – 30 pts
11th SUI209 OTTO Bent Christian Wilhe 13 8 9 – – 30 pts
12th AUS62 KU-RING-GAI John Bacon 12 12 7 – – 31 pts
13th AUS63 BETA CRUCIS Bob Stoddard 7 11 16 – – 34 pts
14th AUS64 BLACK MAGIC Andy Macphail 14 13 13 – – 40 pts
15th AUS35 RHAPSODY Thomas Spithill 15 15 15 – – 45 pts
16th GER108 TANGALOOMA Michael Schulz 16 19 14 – – 49 pts
17th AUS26 BARAGOOLA Jason Antill 17 16 17 – – 50 pts
18th AUS32 SKAGERAK Steve Brajkovich 20 17 18 – – 55 pts
19th AUS61 ALPHA CRUCIS Richard Schilling 19 18 19 – – 56 pts
20th ITA73 CARABELLA Alfredo Delli 18 20 21 – – 59 pts
21st AUS24 KINGS CROSS Scott O’Connor 21 23 20 – – 64 pts
22nd GER106 MAROTTE Wolf-Eberhard Richte 23 21 22 – – 66 pts
23rd GER101 ANTARES Kasper Stubenrauch 22 22 25.0S – – 69 pts
24th GER69 ARUNGA VIII Joachim Fluhrer 24 24 23 – – 71 pts