- After Day 1 New Moon II leads from Caracole and Artemis
After a year of delay, the 2022 5.5 Metre World Championship finally got underway on Friday with two races in light to moderate winds for the 23 boats from 10 nations.
New Moon II (BAH 24) won both races confidently, taking the lead in race one from Caracole (SUI 214), before leading all the way in race two after a close battle with defending world champion Artemis (NOR 57).
In race 1 Caracole of Bernard Haissly, Nicolas Berthoud and Daniel Stampfli got the best of the first beat to round with a nice lead, but New Moon II of Mark Holowesko, Christoph Burger and Peter Vlasov had legs downwind to round level and then overtake up the second beat to lead down to the finish.
Ku-Ring-Gai 3 (AUS 66) of John Bacon, Terry Wetton and James Mayjor held onto third for the majority of the race.
The wind increased for race 2 with a large left shift out of the start. Artemis (NOR 57) of Kristian Nergaard, Johan Barne and Trond Solli Sæther hooked into it straight away and sailed away from the line on port, leaving a mess behind at the pin.
New Moon II also escaped and the two traded tacks up the beat with New Moon II rounding ahead. The two fought all the way round to build a useful lead but Artemis could not find a way past.
The all-girl crew on Girls on Film (GBR 41) of Louise Morton, Annie Lush and Hannah Diamond also had a good start and first beat to round third and sailed well to protect that in the increased wind.
Girls on Film is in fourth overall after a 7, 3 Friday.
5.5 Metre World Championship _ Leaders after 2 races (19 entries)
1st BAH 24 Mark HOLOWESKO 1 1 – – 2 pts
2nd SUI 214 Bernard HAISSLY 2 4 – – 6 pts
3rd NOR 57 Kristian NERGAARD 6 2 – – 8 pts
4th GBR 41 Louise MORTON 7 3 – – 10 pts
5th AUS 66 John BACON 3 7 – – 10 pts
6th BAH 23 Craig SYMONETTE 4 8 – – 12 pts
7th BAH 22 Gavin McKINNEY 5 10 – – 15 pts
8th AUS 63 Martin CROSS 9 6 – – 15 pts
9th NOR 68 Bent Christian WILHELMSEN 8 9 – – 17 pts
10th GBR 42 Elliot HANSON 14 5 – – 19 pts
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