John B and Ali-Baba take one race each on opening day of Scandinavian Gold Cup

John B (Gavin McKinney, Lars Horn Johannessen and Justin Cunningham) and Ali Baba (Flavio Marazzi, Julie Marazzi and Eline Marazzi) each notched up a race win in the first two races of the Scandinavian Gold Cup at the Yacht Club de l’Odet in Benodet, after a day of challenging light winds.

Both boats therefore head the field in this unique contest in which the first to win three races takes overall victory.

The fitful sea breeze only briefly reached 10 knots and they were plenty of patches of very light airs that were liable to catch out the unwary. This was therefore a day for keeping your head out of the boat. Yet the standard of sailing in this fleet, which includes former Olympians and many world champions, is such that many spent time among the leaders, as well as among the back markers.

“We started close to Caracole, who we consider to be a very fast boat, and we kind of stuck with them,” says McKinney. “They got a little bit ahead and tacked onto port in front of us, but we went behind and just got a little bit better pressure and at the weather mark we had an inside overlap.

“We chased each other downwind and we went to the right hand gate, they went to the left hand gate.” John B then tacked on a heading wind shift, giving McKinney’s team an advantage they held to the finish.

In addition to being very welcoming to newcomers, the 5.5M fleet has many established owners who have sailed in the class for generations. One of these is Flavio Marazzi, who won the trophy racing with his father in Sydney some 20 years ago. He is now back for the first time since then, racing with his teenage daughters, Julie and Eline, and took victory in today’s second race.

Most of the hot competition took the pin end of the start line, with The Jean Genie (Peter Morton, Andrey Palfrey, Ruairidh Scott) hitting the line at speed to gain a useful early advantage. However John B arrived at the windward mark at the same time.

The Marazzi family then drew ahead on the first downwind leg. After that Flavio says, “there was a big fight among the second, third and fourth boats, so that allowed us a pull out bit more distance on the next upwind leg.”

“This is our first time at the Scandinavian Gold Cup after qualifying last year at the world championship in Porto Cervo – we were extremely lucky to be the best Swiss team there,” says Eline. “That was our first time sailing this boat internationally – it was a very cool experience,” adds Julie.

Racing is also taking place this week for the Hankø Evolution Cup and the Royal Haag Classic Cup, for older Evolution boats and Classic 5.5 Metres respectively.

A beautifully restored classic 5.5 Metre, Manuela V (Guido Tommasi, Matteo Barison and Andrea Racchelli), had two excellent races, even beating all the newer Evolution boats in the first. “In the afternoon we had very, very good wind,” says Tommasi. “We were lucky because we made two good races with a classic boat and I'm very happy. I bought this as an old boat in 1998 and I have worked hard since then – now she is sailing very well.”

In the Evolution fleet another Ali Baba (Wolf-Eberhard Richter, Beata Kallkowski and Jorg Grunewald) took two first places today. Grunewald says the first, “…was a very good race in light winds, so quite challenging to find the right sides and the right areas, but a beautiful race.”

Ali Baba also started well in the second race, but lost out going up the left side of the first windward leg. “We caught up on the downwind leg,” continues Grunewald, “then found a strong wind shift and we made it – but it was a tough race. I thought it was big, big fun and a beautiful day. Really enjoyed it.”

Racing for the Scandinavia Gold Cup, Hankø Evolution Cup and Royal Haag Classic Cup is scheduled to continue for two more days, ahead of the 5.5 Metre world championship, also hosted by the Yacht Club de l’Odet, next week.