Over the next 12 days the International 5.5 Metre Class heads to Sopot in Poland for the Scandinavian Gold Cup and World Championship. It is the first time the class has held any of its major events in Poland.
2025 Scandinavian Gold Cup
The Scandinavian Gold Cup runs from Thursday 5 June to Saturday 7 June, through due to its unique format can be over in three races. While the current holder, Flavio Marazzi, is not in Sopot, there are seven teams vying to win the second oldest trophy in sailing, three of whom have won it before.
The Jean Genie GBR 43 of Peter Morton, Andrew Palfrey and Ruairidh Scott is the most recent winner in the fleet, taking the Cup over 5 races in 2023. Meanwhile Artemis NOR 57 of Kristian Nergaard, Johan Barne Trond and Solli-Sæther has won multiple times and Marie-Françoise XXII SUI 233 of Jürg Menzi, Jürgen Eiermann and Christof Wilke) has won twice before.
In a competition where only race wins count, it’s the first boat to take three race wins that wins the Cup, and after three races only those who have won races remain in the competition. It can become a very interesting when boats start taking risks to secure a race win.
2025 World Championship
The 5.5 Metre World Championship follows directly on with a 10-race series from Monday 9 June.
There are 20 teams entered from nine countries, including a team from the USA for the first time in a long, long time.
William Turner recently won the first US National Championship in more than 30 years, and he has chartered Red & White for the championship, joined by Philip Davis and Ryan Sheridan. Last USA winner Glen Foster with USA 97 – My Shout in 1998.
The fleet includes five former world champions, including the defending champions Ku-Ring-Gai III AUS 66 of John Bacon, Edward Wright and Joost Houweling.
The 2022 champions, Peter Morton’s The Jean Genie GBR 43, are one of the favourites, dominating the Alpen Cup again just a few weeks back. While they are getting faster in light winds, they are clearly more dominant when there is more than 12 knots of wind, the conditions for which the boat was designed.
Artemis NOR 57 of Kristian Nergaard, Johan Barne and Trond Solli-Sæther were runners up last year and remain one of the strongest teams. Nergaard last won the world title in 2020, his tenth as skipper.
After winning the world championship in 2023 in Porto Cervo, Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Przemysław Gacek swapped positions in Aspire and finished a very creditable third last year, along with Kilian Weise.
They were the drivers behind getting the events to Poland and sailing on home waters is sure to bring an advantage
