Artemis takes lead at 5.5 Metre World Championship in Lavrion, Greece to lead into final day
Artemis (NOR 57, Kristoffer Spone, Trond Solli Sæther, Anders Pedersen) dominated the fourth day at 5.5 Metre World Championship in Lavrion, Greece to lead into the final day. They took a 2,3,1 on light winds on Thursday to take a four-point lead over Aspire (POL 17, Przemek Gacek, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Kilian Weise) into the final day. Girls on Film (GBR 41, Louise Morton, Charlie Cumbley, Sam Haines) won the second race to move up to third, while John B (BAH 26, Gavin McKinney, Lars Horn Johannessen, Bjørn Mørland-Pederson) won the opening race.
After a week of strong winds, it was literally a sea change to see flat water and no wind on Thursday morning. An early postponement was raised but by early afternoon a light southerly developed, and the fleet set out to sail three races in 5-11 knots, though it was quite patchy with some big shifts.
Following a great start, John B led all the way in Race 4 after close fight with Artemis. Girls on Film and Ali-Baba (SUI 224, Flavio Marazzi, Julie Marazzi, Eline Marazzi) fought for third. Regatta leader Aspire crossed seventh.
Into the next race and this time the left paid with Girls on Film rounding first from Ku-Ring-Gai III (AUS 66/ USA, Jay Cross, Rob Scrivenor, Andrew Palfrey). Artemis got out of jail on the left after a bad start a while Aspire was again deep. Girls on Film extended to win from MELX IV (GRE 6, Stavros Papagiannopoulos, Christoph Burger, Panagiotis Kampouridis) and Artemis.
The wind was stronger at the start of Race 6 but got lighter during the race. Artemis made the best of the start to lead all the way. Aspire came through from fourth at the top to cross second with Ali-Baba close behind in third. It was a very close finish for top 10 boats.
But the main consideration was that after several days of doubt, the championship was secure with three more races completed.
Gavin McKinney said, “It was fantastic that we got three races in. They were all challenging, like any race, you know, a little mistake can turn into a big mistake. And the race, we managed to win, we got a very good start and got our nose out and we were able to control when we wanted to tack. Our speed was pretty good and we managed to win.
“It was light air and the pressure was up and down and there were some wind shifts. And, you know, you just had to try and guess what looked to be the right way to go. It’s about keeping your head out of the boat and watching what's happening around the racecourse, to see where the pressure is. And if you do get in front, try and make the moves to defend your position.
“We got a great start, and we seemed to be sailing high and fast. And when we got around boats, we just seemed to have a little bit of an edge. And that gave us more breathing room and able to take our time to decide when to tack.
“Maybe one more race, I'm told, tomorrow. So, I think the positioning is quite set. I think first and second are already taken, but there's a bit of a fight for third place.”
On Ali Baba, Eline and Julie Marazzi are sailing with their father Flavio, a multi world champion in the class. They won the Scandinavian Gold Cup two years together ago.
“It was really fun. It was a bit of a challenge. We kept looking out for the same boats, especially for the Aussies and obviously the Polish and the Norwegians. We relied a bit on the right side for wind, but I think it went well in the end. At one point of the race there wasn't a lot of wind, I think in the second race. But it was really well.
“I think, especially in comparison to yesterday, there was very little wind. It was a bit hard to estimate and assess which sails to use, which spinnaker to use and especially which tactics. Especially, we had way less waves than yesterday, which was a bit of a challenge trying to adjust differently. It was really hard to adjust because we haven't sailed for like two years. The day before yesterday was the first day back on the ocean.”
Is it getting easier to sail with their father now?
“Definitely. I think we've matured a little bit. Also, he trusts us a little more now that we have the gold cup. It was really chill and we have a good setting together. Not just us, our dad also matured. He calmed down a bit. It's just really fun because I think we're all on eye level and he also regards us more as adults now. So it's way more fun now.
“It's really nice to come back every year and see all the familiar faces. Our grandfather and our family have known these people for 40 plus years. It's really familiar and I love to come back every year. It's a fun boat, obviously not as fast as other boats that our dad has sailed, but it's always fun, it's very tactical and it's very nice to see the details in everything.”
Louise Morton said, “Well we had quite a good race in the first race, we came third and we had quite a good battle with John B who was really hard to pass but they went on and won that race and then the second race, I've got no idea what happened because I was just looking at the front of the jib pretty much for an hour and a half and so my friend Charlie here will tell you what happened.”
Charlie Cumbley, middleman, said, “We just got a nice bit of pressure on the left hand side, came off towards the pin end and we were able to kind of tack across but the bulk of the fleet was on the right hand side and that pressure sort of stayed on that left hand half of the race track at the time so we just defended that a little bit through the rest of the race and it was quite nice because the boats behind us were having a bit of a battle so we were just kind of keeping them clear out the front which was always a nice place to be. Louise did a great job, pretty hard, concentration levels were really high today so I think that's a very, very good job. It's teamwork.”
The forecast for Friday is again for light southerly winds. The question is how many races can sailed before the time limit.
Results after 6 races
1 Artemis (NOR 57, Kristoffer Spone, Trond Solli Sæther, Anders Pedersen) 10
2 Aspire (POL 17, Przemek Gacek, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Kilian Weise) 14
3 Girls on Film (GBR 41, Louise Morton, Charlie Cumbley, Sam Haines) 18
4 Ali-Baba (SUI 224, Flavio Marazzi, Julie Marazzi, Eline Marazzi) 18
5 Ku-Ring-Gai III (AUS 66/ USA, Jay Cross, Rob Scrivenor, Andrew Palfrey) 23