Germany pulls back

But Jim Richardson's Barking Mad still tops the leaderboard among the Farr 40s at Rolex Baltic Week

Wolfgang Stolz and the crew of his Farr 40 Opus One was the team of the day at the Rolex Baltic Week today. In two races with very little wind the skipper from Frankfurt proved himself to be best on the helm, scoring a bullet after a fourth on the Bay of Neustadt. He moved up from seventh to third place with an overall score of 34 points behind Jim Richardson's Barking Mad, which extended her lead over Sue and Lang Walker's Kokomo to six points. The start of the European Championship of the international Melges 24 class was cancelled due to the lack of wind over the whole bay in the afternoon.

"The course was covered with a couple of minefields," said Opus One's American boat captain Mark Sims. "Always and everywhere there was the danger of getting into a calm or catching an unfavourable wind shift." After two good and two bad races the day before, the crew and helmsman got more and more used to the tricky conditions and "demonstrated what we are capable of", says Sims. "The fickle and difficult conditions are a valuable test for the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship in Copenhagen. Our World's team is more or less complete on board."

The other top yachts are also already looking towards Denmark, where the peak event of the season will take place at the end of the month. But the Barking Mad and Kokomo teams are asking for more. "First of all, our goal is to win the Rolex Baltic Week," said the former's Jim Richardson, President of the International Farr 40 Class Association, "this is our top priority." But his other aim is to stop the Walkers from gaining the crown of this year's European grand prix series, the Farr 40 European Circuit. After the second day and before the last three races, Richardson is only three points short of snatching it from Kokomo.

"Focussing on a match race with Kokomo would be just too early at this stage," said Richardson worried by the high level competition throughout this fleet. Finland's Olli-Pekka Lumijaervi and his Sirwagusawa were the fifth team to win a race, when they came out on top in race six. Richardson: "The one design boats are so equal in their speed potential. Just make a single tactical mistake and you loose ten places."

Richardson also praised Terry Hutchinson for being a clever and careful tactician on today "when nobody could predict how the wind would development". Hutchinson explained his strategy: "Sometimes it is better to act conservatively in order to keep the position instead of risking everything."

After two tenth places Wolfgang Schaefer and his Struntje light from Lueneburg dropped to overall ninth. "Nothing at all worked out," said the skipper. "In the second race we started too early and had to make it back to the line again. In cases like this, the race is over before you know it."

Tomorrow, the last day of the Farr 40 regatta within the Rolex Baltic Week, the start is scheduled an hour earlier for 1000 local time. The last possible start will be at 1400. The start of the European Championship of the international Melges 24 class is planned at 11:00 h local time.

Overall results of the Farr 40 class after six races:
1st Barking Mad (Jim Richardson, USA) 22 points
2nd Kokomo (Lang Walker, Australia) 28
3rd Opus One (Wolfgang Stolz, Germany) 34
4th Groovederci (John Demourkas, USA) 37
5th Sirwagusawa (Olli-Pekka Lumijäaevi, Finland) 38
6th Fiamma (Alessandro Barnaba, Italy) 38