fivepointfive - April 2023

2022 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP - HANKØ, NORWAY
Twenty-three International 5.5 Metres prepared
to race in a brilliantly sunny Hankø for the
World Championship. Nine of the ten scheduled
races were sailed over five days in what
looked like being a fairly breezy week, but the
weather played up on three days to create a challenging
championship for sailors and organisers, though it
ended with some of the best days of sailing the fleet had
experienced in many years.
NEW MOON LEADS AFTER OPENING DAY
The first day opened windless with extensive cloud cover and
was never forecast to deliver much except an easy start to the
week. After a very light and patchy opening race the breeze built
to 12-14 knots for a great second race, though still quite shifty.
Caracole (SUI 214, Bernard Haissly, Nicolas Berthoud, Daniel
Stampfli) got the best of the first beat in race 1 to round with a
nice lead, but New Moon II (BAH 24, Mark Holowesko, Christoph
Burger, Anthony Nossiter) had legs downwind to round the gate
level and then overtake up the second beat to lead down to the
finish. Ku-Ring-Gai 3 (AUS 66, John Bacon, Terry Wetton, James
Mayjor) held on to third for the majority of the race.
The wind increased for race 2 with a large left shift out
of the start. Artemis hooked into it straight away and sailed
away from the line on port, leaving a muddle of boats at the
pin. However New Moon II also escaped and the two traded
tacks up the beat with New Moon II rounding ahead. The two
fought all the way round to build a useful lead on the fleet
but Artemis could not find a way past. The all-girl crew on
Girls on Film (GBR 41, Louise Morton, Annie Lush, Hannah
Diamond) also had a good start and first beat to round third
and sailed well to protect that in the increased wind.
After the first day New Moon II held the lead from Caracole
and Artemis.
Anthony Nossiter stood in as bow man on New Moon II due
to sickness to mark his first day sailing the boat, though he had
been coaching them for some time.
Girls on Film was in fourth overall after a 7,3 and
Anthony Nossiter: “It was always quite flaky and tricky
with difficult speed builds and tough starting. We had some
difficult starts but we ended up free and had wheels and
found some shifts and were fortunate at times, but just
sailing the boat normally and letting the opportunities roll and
keeping it quite flexible. The boys did a good job. I was more
of a passenger. It was my first time sailing a 5.5, so nice to
fill in and keep the boys strong. Downwind I was working out
where to go to keep the air clear and keep the modes good
and upwind I am hiking.”
were delighted with their first day ever of 5.5 Metre World
Championship racing. Annie Lush said, “It was really light in
the first race and we were conservative and just wanted to get
a counter. We got a seventh and it was good to come out alive.
And then in the next race the wind came up, and we were still
on quite a light set up. There was a big left shift out of the start
and we managed to get a good start and tack onto port early,
and we were kind of in third for most of the race, but it wasn’t
as easy as it looked. Definitely challenging out there but we are
loving the boat.”
APRIL 2023 • fivepointfive • 17