Three races and three wins for Aspire on third day in Cannes.
Aspire POL 17 of Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Przemysław Gacek and Flavio Marazzi has made it four wins in a row at the 2022 5.5 Metre French Open at the Regates Royales in Cannes.
New Moon III, of BAH 25 of Mark Holowesko, Christoph Burge and Peter Vlasov move up to second with two second places.
While Otto, NOR 68 of Bent Christian Wilhelmsen, Herve Cunningham and Lasse Berthelsen drop to third with two third places.
The third day in Cannes was a glorious day for sailing, with more wind and sunshine than forecast and three great races.
A third, non-counting race was a Tour des Isles, a coastal race between the islands of Ste Marguerite and Saint Honorat, that lie just off the Cannes coastline.
Aspire had the upper hand in both points races, extending away for a comfortable win in the first and then a much closer win in the second.
New Moon challenged for a while in the second race but the final beat put them back in fourth at the top, and they had to pull out all the stops on the final downwind to regain second, all down to the last approach to the gate, which they got spot on.
The fleet then joined with the Dragons for the Tour des Iles race around the islands, which proved more interesting than many expected.
New Moon, helmed by Christoph Burger, led to the first mark, only to lose the lead to Aspire, helmed by Przemysław Gacek, but regained it while sailing down the channel between the islands.
Then, on the final leg back to a finish line off the port entrance, Aspire went slightly higher and benefitted from getting the puffs first and slowly regained the lead, crossing the finish line ahead by little more than a boat length.
2022 5.5 Metre French Open after 5 races, 1 discard
1st POL 17 Aspire – Mateusz KUSZNIEREWICZ YC Sopot – – -3 1 1 1 1 – – 4 pts
2nd BAH 25 New Moon III – Mark HOLOWESKO LCS – – 1 -5 2 2 2 – – 7 pts
3rd NOR 68 Otto – Bent Christian WILHELMSEN KNS – – 2 2 -3 3 3 – – 10 pts
4th SUI 213 Pungin – Hans-Peter SCHMID SCM – – -7 4 4 5 4 – – 17 pts
5th GER 84 Ali Baba – Wolf-Eberhard RICHTER WSV1921 – – -13 3 5 4 6 – – 18 pts
6th SUI 201 Jörg SONNTAG WSV1921 – – 4 6 7 -8 5 – – 22 pts
7th SUI 175 Frédéric de RUTTÉ SNR – – 6 7 -13 6 7 – – 26 pts
8th NED 26 Arend Jan PASMAN KWVDK – – 8 -9 6 7 8 – – 29 pts
9th FRA 63 Yann DELABRIERE APCCN – – 5 8 -13 9 9 – – 31 pts
10th FRA 43 Jean-Bernard DATRY YC de l’odet – – 9 12 -13 10 10 – – 41 pts
11th SUI 20 Olaf SCHULZ VSAW – – 10 10 -13 11 11 – – 42 pts
12th GER 111 Andreas HAUBOLD VSAW – – 11 11 -13 13 13 – – 48 pts
