Frostad gets the upper hand

Win on home ground for Norwegian skipper in the Faerderrace, reports Jon Amtrup

After an intensive 11 hours of hard racing Knut Frostad and Team Academy secured their first win in Nokia Oops Cup 2005. Stena Sovcomflot, with the duo Bruno Peyron and Roger Nilsson in charge, was just a few metres behind over the finish line in the Faerderrace.

It was perfect sailing conditions for all the 1,028 boats that started this year over night classic Helly Hansen Faerderrace in Oslo, Norway. They had the northerly breeze pushing them out of the Oslofjord and the sun made sure that they got a first real taste of the Nordic summer.

The Faerderrace is a Norwegian classic that every year draws over 1000-boats and this year's was the 58th running of the race. The longest course, which takes the boats out to Faerder Lighthouse, is 83 nautical miles and the race finishes in Horten. The speed machines in the Nokia Oops Cup always draw special attention from spectators and fellow sailors alike, and this year was no exception.

Team Academy hit the starting line with perfect timing and soon all the six tris where flying their gennakers and speeding along in 15 knots in the light breeze in Oslo's inner harbour.

Team Academy and Stena Sovcomflot got a small advantage on the four other boats, and soon the rich got richer as they found new breeze on their way south. The Swedish HiQ with Klas 'Klabbe' Nylöf at the helm where the only boat that managed to threaten the leading two boats on their way towards the Norwegian-Swedish border. But they didn’t get close enough to really join the fight.

Frostad and Peyron stayed in shouting distance from each other almost all the way around the course, and several times switched places. On the final approach the adrenalin pumped fast as the two boats ducked and avoided smaller cruising boats as they also tried to get first.

"If the wind had picked up and turned to reaching condition Stena Sovcomflot would have caught us. They did, but we managed to keep them behind us by tacking in front of them all the way in to Horten. We won by making fewer mistakes," said Knut Frostad with a big smile.

Frostad also won the tri-battle in the Faerderrace last year, but the competition was not nearly as hot as the 2005 edition. The victory gives Frostad and his crew a push back up to second place in the overall standing in Nokia Oops Cup. Stena Sovcomflot is still in the lead with a healthy 4 point lead.

HiQ secured a third place in the Faerderrace. The three last boats also had a massive battle on the course. The Finnish 60 TietoEnator, with Thomas Johanson at the helm, finally got the better of Magnus Olsson on Nokia and Pole Roman Paszke on Bonduelle.
The next event in Nokia Oops Cup is Oslo City Race on Sunday.

Results Faerder Race:
1) Academy, Norway, Knut Frostad
2) Stena Sovcomflot, Russia/Sweden, Bruno Peyron
3) HiQ, Sweden, Klas Nylöf
4) TietoEnator, Finland, Thomas Johanson
5) Nokia, Sweden, Magnus Olsson
6) Bonduelle, Poland, Roman Paszke

Nokia Oops Cup after 4 of 11 races:
1) Stena Sovcomflot 5 points
2) Academy 9
3) Nokia and HiQ both 11,5
5) TietoEnator 18
5) Bonduelle 18,5