Ali Baba leads Scandinavian Gold Cup, with two victories in four races

In a tense second day of racing in Benodet Ali Baba (Flavio Marazzi, Julie Marazzi and Eline Marazzi) and Artemis (Kristian Nergaard, Johan Barne and Trond Solli-Saether) both notched up race wins in the Scandinavian Gold Cup.

Artemis won the first race of the day, gaining a ticket to the next round in which only the first three boats to win a race are able to compete. She therefore joins yesterday’s two winners, John B (Gavin McKinney, Lars Horn Johannessen and Justin Cunningham) and Ali Baba. 

The unique nature of the Scandinavian Gold Cup, in which the first boat to win three races takes overall victory, requires different tactics and strategy to conventional regatta racing. In particular, it tends to reward those who take tactical risks in an effort to win one of the first three races and therefore avoid elimination.

“We agreed to be very aggressive and be very determined on what we believed in,” says Nergaard. “We went to the right hand side and hit a good shift there. We were in the lead on the first upwind leg, and then we sort of kept the lead all the way round to the finish.”

Race four saw a tacking duel between John B and Artemis, with the former leading around the first windward mark by a couple of lengths. On the run John B initially looked to be pulling ahead, while staying well to the left of the other boats, but lost out as the north-northeasterly wind eased to 5-7 knots.

At the same time, Ali Baba came back into the game from the right hand side on the downwind leg. When she crossed gybes with Artemis in a port and starboard situation they were so close the on-water International Jury awarded a penalty against Artemis. 

By the time Artemis had completed her turn, Ali Baba was three lengths ahead at and maintained the lead to the finish. After a rocky start, Julie Marazzi says they, “gradually kept coming up to the other boats and all of a sudden we were in the lead – that was amazing.”

“It's really tricky racing. Only a win counts, so you have to do everything to win this race and look for all possible opportunities,” adds her father, Flavio, a former Olympic sailor in the Star class. “For sure you have to take more risk in tactics when two boats are fighting, like we saw on the fourth race. We have to separate if we're behind, or control them if we're in front. It's a very cool kind of racing – I like it.”

Ali Baba now only needs one more race win to clinch the trophy, while each of the other two boats remaining in contention need two. There's everything to play for tomorrow and tantalisingly close tactical racing is assured.

At the same time, the older 5.5 Metres in the Evolution and Classic divisions have been competing for the Hankø Evolution Cup and the Royal Haag Classic Cup, both of which have conventional regatta formats.

In the Evolution fleet another Ali-Baba (Wolf-Eberhard Richter, Beata Kallkowski and Jorg Grunewald) has notched up a straight run of four race wins. However, the fight for second place is very tight, with three boats just one point apart. Another multigenerational family crew here in Benodet is sailing local boat Joker (Adrien Polaillon, Eric Polaillon and Jean-Baptiste Polaillon). They took two second places today and now lie second overall.

Today Joker led at the first windward mark, before loosing ground on the second upwind leg. “We are comparing well with other competitors, the French, and an Italian boat that’s always very, very close to us,” says Polaillon.

Italian boat Manuela V (Guido Tommasi, Matteo Barison and Andrea Racchelli) has a clean score of victories in the Royal Kaag Classic Cup, ahead of Korrigan (Gurvan Jaoen, Alexandre Desaubliaux and Kentigwern Jaoen) and Twins Xll (Jean-Philippe Gervais, Eric Gaiani and Philippe Guittonneau).

Racing continues tomorrow for these trophies, ahead of next week’s 5.5 Metre world championship, which is also hosted by the Yacht Club de l’Odet in Benodet.