5.5 Metre class: Ku-Ring-Gai III wins 2024 world championship

Despite never winning a race, Ku-Ring-Gai lll (John Bacon, Joost Houweling and Edward Wright) sailed an impressively consistent series in a fleet that’s fiercely competitive, yet also has an enviable level of camaraderie.

Bacon’s team was the sole one to count only top five results and only one other boat, Artemis (Kristian Nergaard, Johan Barne and Trond Solli-Saether), made it through the championship with a scoreline entirely inside the top 10. Nevertheless, overall victory was never a foregone conclusion for Ku-Ring-Gai III, as they picked up a disqualification for a start line infringement under the U flag in the second race. As a result, unlike many of the top boats, Bacon’s team didn’t have the luxury of being able to discard a lack lustre race later in the series.

“We had no room for error today and there was lots of wind,” says Bacon, “but we had two good races, with a couple of moments where it didn't look so good. Most of the day we went pretty well, in solid breeze and rain. The rest of the regatta was pretty light – we were good in that and today we were even pretty good in the heavy air.

“We've had five or six years in 5.5s now and I can't believe we just won a world championship – I’m just so glad to be here,” he adds. “I’ve stood on a lot of shoulders to get here – we've got a great crew, with two good guys who got me off the start and made me look good, so I’m absolutely delighted. It was a great regatta, with 10 races and a bit of every weather.”

The Jean Genie (Peter Morton, Andrew Palfrey, Ruairidh Scott) excelled in today’s stronger winds, winning both races by a comfortable margin. In doing so they became the only boat at the championship to win three races. “After being here for 12 days, we got the conditions we like, which is 16–17 knots of breeze and we loved it,” says Morton. “It was rainy and a little bit cold, but still worth it with the breeze and the boat just loves those sort of conditions. We felt pretty comfortable today, especially in the second race.”

Nevertheless, in that race there was a wind shift to the right when The Jean Genie was on the left and side of the course. “At the top mark Kristian Nergaard (Artemis) was pretty close,” continues Morton, “and at the end of the run we had maybe 10 metres. Then we went right on the second beat and ended up 100 metres in front, which was a nice, comfortable lead to take down to the finish.” However, today’s performance was not enough to elevate The Jean Genie into a podium position and she finished the regatta in fifth place overall.

Two second places today lifted Artemis to second overall, eight points behind Ku-Ring-Gai lll. Artemis also didn’t win a race, but was nevertheless impressively consistent, with five podium results and she never finished outside of the top eight.

“It's been a long week with lots of different conditions – we had light airs and a couple of days with some good pressure, but today was the heavier day,” says Nergaard. “I think we've seen that all the top boats there had really high numbers at some point. John Bacon’s Australian team was vulnerable, given that they had a black flag on the first day, but they seemed to just be very consistent and did a fantastic job. They were always in the right place, especially in light airs, always on the right side, and they had a huge lead before the last day.”

Aspire (Przemek Gacek, Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Kilian Weise) took third overall in Gacek’s first 5.5 Metre world championship as helm, much to his delight, while Ali Baba (Flavio Marazzi, Julie Marazzi and Eline Marazzi) was fourth.

The accolade for first Corinthian team – equally as much of an achievement as winning the overall title – went to John B (Gavin McKinney, Lars Horn Johannessen and Mathias Dahlman), with Marie-Françoise XXII (Jürg Menzi, Jürgen Eiermann and Kim Chabani) second and Shaolin (Patrick Zaugg, Andreas Kindlimann and Hans von Werdt) third.

Manuela V (Guido Tommasi, Matteo Barison and Andrea Racchelli) lead the classic fleet in a boat he has owned for a couple of decades and completely restored. ChlikaChlikaChlika (Antonin Radue, Pascal Radue and Patrick Huguenin) took victory in the Evolution division, ahead of another Ali Baba (Wolf-Eberhard Richter, Beata Kallkowski and Joerg Gruenwald), and Joker (Adrien Polaillon, Eric Polaillon and Jean-Baptiste Polaillon).

“This project is all about youth trying to learn about boats and to recover a nice old boat,” says Pascal Radue of ChlikaChlikaChlika. “It was an ex world championship winning boat from 1989 that hadn't been really sailed properly for about 25 years. We refurbished it with a bunch of young people, including my two sons, who did it in a very young boatyard that just opened a few years ago and they learned a lot. It’s the first time we’ve competed in a 5.5 Metre regatta like this – it’s a nice atmosphere, we were in an absolutely stunning location and the organisation at the Yacht Club de l’Odet was very, very well done.”

Next year’s 5.5 Metre world championship will be held in Sopot, Poland and will be organised by Przemek Gacek, who helmed Aspire this year, while the 2026 event will be in Athens.