5.5 Metre Worlds resumes in Hankø

New Moon II (BAH 24, Mark Holowesko, Christoph Burger, Anthony Nossiter) extended their lead on day 3 of the 2022 5.5 Metre World Championship at Hankø Yacht Club, Norway. Artemis (NOR 57, Kristian Nergaard, Johan Barne, Trond Solli Sæther) won the first race of the day to move up second overnight while, Jean Genie (GBR 42, Elliot Hanson, Andrew Palfrey, Sam Haines) won the second race to move up to third.

After the second day was lost to strong winds, it remained windy early in the day but was forecast to moderate through the day. It was definitely a day of two halves though, separated by a wet intermission.

Race 3 was started in a solid 15-18 knots and huge waves, which eased through the race. Jean Genie had legs out of the start on a big left shift and led all the way until the closing stages when Artemis closed up as the wind died and  sailed through. New Moon II took third a very close third.

Then a huge storm cloud passed over, bringing unstable conditions and a few showers, as well as a two hour wait. Finally, the breeze returned from the west and quickly built to 17-20 knots and huge waves. The same three boats were close together at the top mark while Jean Genie and New Moon II broke away downwind. Jean Genie favoured the right on the second upwind and took the lead as the boats crossed near the top. Last week’s Scandinavian Gold Cup winner then led down to the finish for her first race win of the week. New Moon II took a very close second with Artemis in third.

Nergaard said, “That first race was interesting with a big left shift, starting at the pin and tacking right out,. We did that with the English covering each other all the way to the top mark. They had good boat speed in that big breeze and then New Moon was about 200 metres behind. On the second beat New Moon had good boatspeed and picked up on both of us.

“When the wind then died to about 4 metres, the English boat started to have speed problems and we got up to them, but they rounded the top mark first and then it was just playing some shifts downwind and finding where the pressure was, and we managed to get past them. That was very close, so we were happy with that

“The shower the just delayed everything but that second race was typical Hankø weather. But at least we got in two races today and looking forward to tomorrow.”

John Bacon, from Ku-Ring-Gai 3, came off the water with two fifth places, but later one was scored OCS.

“It was a long day and we had a long wait between races. The first race was pretty moderate and we had good a good start and held our place and were pretty happy with fifth. Then we hung around couple of hours waiting for the wind and it finally settled in. Actually we had a bit of a gust come through at the start and then it settled down and again we got ourselves aligned pretty well to hold fifth.

“This is our first regatta in this modern boat and for us to be up there with all the good guys is absolutely fantastic.”

Racing on Monday has been brought forward to 10.00 with strong winds again forecast for the afternoon. Racing continues through to Tuesday 5 July.

Results after 4 races
1 New Moon II (BAH 24, Mark Holowesko, Christoph Burger, Anthony Nossiter) 7
2 Artemis (NOR 57, Kristian Nergaard, Johan Barne, Trond Solli Sæther) 12
3 Jean Genie (GBR 42, Elliot Hanson, Andrew Palfrey, Sam Haines) 22
4 Ali-Baba (BAH 23, Craig Symonette, Flavio Marazzi, William Alloway) 22
5 Caracole (SUI 214, Bernard Haissly, Nicolas Berthoud, Daniel Stampfli) 24

Full results here: https://www.manage2sail.com/en-US/event/986fac28-ab5a-4b0c-907e-b05de27b4eeb#!/results?classId=1ba29110-7fbd-4f0d-a9f5-f5b558b227e7