Artemis clinches 5.5 Metre Alpen Cup on dramatic final day at Riva

Artemis (NOR 57 Kristian Nergaard, Trond Solli- Saether, Anders Pedersen) won the 5.5 Metre Alpen Cup at Riva after two final races were sailed on Saturday afternoon to end a perfect event on Lake Garda. Aspire (POL 17, Przemek Gacek, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Kilian Weiss) ended up second with Marie-Françoise XXII (SUI 233, Jurg Menzi, Jurgen Eiermann, Kim Chabani) in third. The final two race wins went to Marie-Françoise XXII and Caracole (SUI 214, Bernard Haissley, Nicolas Berthoud, Daniel Stampfli).

The breeze was further left than previously and the first attempt at Race 7 was abandoned after a big left shift. The breeze was also very shifty, and most teams put in a lot more tacks than usual near the top of the course, with some very close (sometimes too close) roundings, while the wind varied from 8 to 23 knots during both races.

Marie-Françoise XXII got it right at the restart and led round to win their second race of the event from
Shaolin (SUI 226, Flavio Marazzi, Andreas Kindlimann, Hans von Werdt) and Artemis.

The best way to describe the final race is messy. To snatch the win, Aspire had to win the race, but they started badly, made a few errors on the strategy and trailed at the top. However, there was a lot else going on and they worked through to third. Artemis only had to make sure Aspire didn’t win, but also started badly, went the wrong way and got into numerous situations to lose ground, despite getting into the top three at some stage. Surrounding all this was the calm demeanour of Caracole, who sailed the cleanest race and kept clear of all the trouble spots, and though they made a mistake on the second upwind, losing the lead to John B, they made the best of the final downwind to take the inside line to the gate and win the race. With Aspire in third, the 2026 Alpen Cup went to Artemis.Nergaard explained, “Today was a tough day, last day. Again, nice breeze and a little from the left. This time around it wasn't all the way right on the first race, so actually going to the left was good.

“We were back in the pack in the first race but managed to get third. And then we had a couple of points on the Polish guys, and then in the last race, everything was a chaos and we were off the clock on the start, so unfortunately, we didn't have a good start. And a lot of things happened in that race, but it didn't really matter because the Polish guys got fourth in that race, and therefore we were okay in the end, so we could just throw out the last race.

“It’s always nice to be here at Garda, with nice racing, and we hope that we see more boats coming next year.”

This year’s Alpen Cup marks the 20th anniversary of the event. The Alpencup, actually a quite heavy silver tray, was presented to the class by Jürg Menzi in 2006 to create an important annual event on Lake Garda. Initially held at Circolo Vela Torbole, the event moved to Fraglia Vela Riva three years ago

Menzi won it that first year in 2006, while it has also been won by Kristian Nergaard, Flavio Marazzi (twice), Gavin McKinney and Mateusz Kusnierewicz, all present this year. However, in recent years it was been dominated by Peter Morton whose boats have won it five times between 2019 and 2025 – but he was not taking part this year.

Thanks to the initiative of Jürg Menzi, two decades ago, the Alpen Cup has become the traditional European season opener regularly attracting the biggest names in the class to compete on Lake Garda.

The Alpen Cup was also the first event in the 2026 5-Nations Cup. The second is the North American Championship, now underway in Galveston, Texas. Then it moves onto Cowes, UK for the British Championship before heading south again to the German Open on Chiemsee in August, followed by the innovative Multi-Nationals at Malcesine, in September, held just before the 2026 World Championship in Lavrion, Athens, Greece.

It’s going to be another busy year for the 5.5 Metre class at some iconic and some exciting new venues. More details on all events (entry open for most) at: 5.5class/regattas/calendar.

Final results after 8 races:
1 Artemis (NOR 57 Kristian Nergaard, Trond Solli- Saether, Anders Pedersen) 17
2 Aspire (POL 17 Przemek Gacek, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Kilian Weiss) 19
3 Marie-Françoise XXII (SUI 233, Jurg Menzi, Jurgen Eiermann, Kim Chabani) 24
4 John B (BAH 24 Kristoffer Spone, Mathias Dahlman, Lars Horn Johannessen) 27
3 Shaolin (SUI 226, Flavio Marazzi, Andreas Kindlimann, Hans von Werdt) 31