Aspire leads as 5.5 Metre World Championship finally gets underway with three great races in 15-20 knots at Lavrion, Greece. Artemis (NOR 57, Kristoffer Spone, Trond Solli Sæther, Anders Pedersen) took the opening race before Aspire (POL 17, Przemek Gacek, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Kilian Weise) won the next two. Artemis sits in second place with Ali-Baba (SUI 224, Flavio Marazzi, Julie Marazzi, Eline Marazzi) in third.

After seven days of strong northerlies, curtailing all training and racing, the 5.5 Metre fleet finally completed three races on Wednesday in some great conditions with 15-20 knots, big waves, sunshine and slick race management.

Girls on Film (GBR 41, Louise Morton, Charlie Cumbley, Sam Haines) was the early leader in race 1, in the strongest wind of the day at 16-20 knots, starting at the pin and leading round the top. Artemis took the lead downwind and extended to win from Ali-Baba and Aspire.

Ali-Baba then led race 2 at the top in slightly lighter winds but Aspire led at the gate to extend and win from Ku-Ring-Gai III (AUS 66/ USA, Jay Cross, Rob Scrivenor, Andrew Palfrey) and Artemis. In the final race of the day, Aspire led all the way to win from Otto (NOR 68, Bent Christian Wilhelmsen, Herve Cunningham, Lasse Berthelsen) and Girls on Film.

From Artemis, Pedersen said, “It was a big first race, from 16 to 20 knots. It was a nice race; we managed to take the lead on the first run and kept it on the second beat and on the last run and we won. The second race we were in the mix, a bit more conservative and picking a third place, so that was good. The last race we had some more trouble finishing sixth, so we're going to straighten that out tomorrow. We’ll take it race by race and see the conditions.

“It was a difficult race course, it was quite patchy actually, with bigger spots, with less breeze and some gusts. But it was big and nice waves, so when the wind picked up, we got some good surfing downwind, so that was quite fun. It was quite heavy upwind, so that was a big day. But finally, we're racing after some days ashore.”

“I heard some rumours that tomorrow we're going to have some southerly breeze, so it's going to be a new scenery.”

From Aspire, Przemek Gacek said, “The conditions were fantastic. I think we haven't had such amazing wind and sun for ages in the 5.5. Warm water, very nice, very nicely sailable conditions. Of course, the wind was strong, but not as much as the last week when we have been waiting. But for us, for our team, we really enjoyed this kind of sailing conditions. We had three good starts, so we are very thankful to the race committee that they extended the start line. So, there was not really much fighting, everyone had pretty much a clean start.

“In the first race, half of the fleet went to the left. It was very crowded on the first top mark, but then we did very well on the downwind. Then we had some issues going around the bottom mark, so we had to let Artemis go. We came third in the first race, and then two others, we played left. It wasn't so easy to helm the boat on the first race. But then we just improved, we went better and we had an amazing day. I think the left side played quite well, was better than the right. So, we are quite happy, the first day is over, we didn't lose so many points. I look forward for the remaining two days.

“We really enjoyed the racing. I think the other really strong boats we enjoyed sailing especially downwind against Flavio Marazzi on Ali Baba. Of course, Artemis was very strong as always, from Norway. Louise was doing quite well as well. So, lots of very good sailors and it's just three races down and probably there will be at least four or six left and in a very different sailing conditions tomorrow and on Friday”

“So, we just do what we can, get the energy back and hopefully we'll be racing good tomorrow as well.”

The forecast for Thursday and Friday is for lighter southerly winds, which no one can quite imagine. Three races are scheduled for Thursday with a 12.25 warning.

Results after 3 races
1 Aspire (POL 17, Przemek Gacek, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Kilian Weise) 5
2 Artemis (NOR 57, Kristoffer Spone, Trond Solli Sæther, Anders Pedersen) 10
3 Ali-Baba (SUI 224, Flavio Marazzi, Julie Marazzi, Eline Marazzi) 13
4 Girls on Film (GBR 41, Louise Morton, Charlie Cumbley, Sam Haines) 14
5 Ku-Ring-Gai III (AUS 66/ USA, Jay Cross, Rob Scrivenor, Andrew Palfrey) 16