King Harald comes good

Bob Fisher reports on a successful outcome for the Norwegian monarch at the end of the European IMS Championship

King Harald V of Norway is the new European Champion of the IMS class. A fourth place in the 362 mile Eurocard Gotland Runt was sufficient to lift the King's Farr 53 above the previous points leader, Einar Sissener’s Al Capone III, by six and a quarter points.

Fram XV had led the 37 boat fleet from the start, as indeed as the top rating boat she had to do, but her position on corrected time scaled the heights and plumbed the depths. At the last tuning mark, Fram XV was 30th on corrected time.

But there are times when the weather wreaks havoc with handicaps, as it had done earlier when the big Farr 53 had commanded the corrected times. Once the King had crossed the finishing line at Skanskobb, at 18:42:51 yesterday, Aeolus conspired to reduce the pressure for the still-to-finish yachts and favour those who were home early.

The shut-off also worked in favour of the little boats that were able to carry their breeze up to and through the doldrums that struck the mid-sized boats. Among the latter was Al Capone III, for all the world looking set to retain her lead with less than 100 miles to go. The Grand Soleil 42R that had led the Championship from the opening race, 'stuck' until 01:57:52 this morning, giving her a corrected time eight minutes 49 seconds worse than Fram XV.

More importantly for King Harald was the fact that two other boats corrected out between them. The nine points, between fourth and seventh, difference that made (as the points for the long offshore race of the championship are trebled) put Fram in the number one spot and Al Capone III dropped to second.

The long race of the championship was won by Jukka Nieminen’s IMX-38 Tiamari,from Finland, but it was Mathias Blumencron’s IMX-40 Moonshine, in second place, that moved sharply up the overall rankings to third.

Final Results:

1. Fram XV King Harald V (NOR) 2-2-1-1-5-4 24.5 points
2. Al Capone III Einar Sissener (NOR) 1-1-2-2-3-7 30.75
3. Moonshine Mathias Blumencon (GER) 9-7-13-4-6-2 56
4. Hagstromer + Qviberg Eskil Degsell (SWE) 4-3-6-16-7-8 64
5. Data communication Ralf Aspholm (SWE) 6-4-3-14-4-11 70
6. Alfa Romeo Jani Lehti (FIN) 8-6-7-9-11-9 76

Drag race

The Gotland Runt gave new meaning to the words 'drag race to the finish' as Alex Thomson's Hugo Boss drifted across the finish line at an agonisingly slow pace. Hugo Boss rounded mark 7 some 31 miles from the finish at 21.10 last night and finally drifted across the finish line at 0424 in the morning.

The 2005 Gotland Runt has been hindered by unusually clement conditions with a huge high pressure sitting over the Baltic region. This has been incredibly well received by the Swedish holiday makers and residents of Sandhamn but not welcomed by the 200 plus yachts participating in a race that normally has the reputation of raging, icy seas and gusting winds.

Speaking from the pontoon of Sandhamn marina, Alex Thomson, skipper of the Open 60 grand prix yacht Hugo Boss commented. “On the whole it was okay. The first bit was terrible. It took so long to get to the first mark but after that it got better. By the end of it we got used to the conditions but we are pleased to finally finish.”

Glassy seas, with mirror like reflections have tested the patience of all the race crews who would prefer to be battered by gale force winds then endure the frustration of being becalmed. The middle part of the race gave some welcome relief to them as they were satiated with wind strengths of up to 12 knots which enabled them to sail downwind with spinnakers at a decent pace. Hugo Boss hit speeds of up to 17.5 knots but this is nothing in comparison to the 30 plus she is capable of when pushed to the max.

The crew in a great mood left Sandhamn at 0530 destination Stockholm central for a few days corporate hospitality.

Latest update:

The light winds of the Eurocard Gotland Runt have favoured the smaller IMS boats, but it needed considerable concentration of effort to cope with the vagaries of the fickle breezes.

Rauli Leino with the X-362 Sport Xantippa finished at 07:18:25 this morning, more than 12.5 hours after the first IMS boat to finish, but scooped the major prize in the 362 mile race. Xantippa’s corrected time was 12 minutes better than the next boat and she also took first place in IMS.

It was fellow countryman, Petri Jaaskelainen with the X-382 Elixir who finished 12 minutes ahead of Xantippa that corrected to finish second on handicap, making it a one-two for the Finns in this classic offshore race.

Only Charles Tillander in the Dehler 36 Stormsteg salvaged some face for the host nation by finishing third. The first four boats overall came from IMS 2 division and then three boats that were competing in the IMS European Championship, led by another Finn, Jukka Nieminen in the IMX-38 Tiamari.

King Harald V of Norway, who won the IMS European Championship was provisionally placed ninth overall in the Gotland Runt.