5.5m IC World Championship - Kristian Nergaard wins Symonette Trophy

by Deike Maria Flemming on 13 Sep 2012 5.5m IC World Championship - The Norwegian crew of Artemis XIV (NOR 57) not only won the Symonette Trophy during but also charged ahead to first position in the overall results after the discard. Flavio Marazzi’s Ali-Baba (SUI 224) drops to second overall and Jochen Schümann (GER 55) remains in third place.

The Symonette Trophy is a prize that is awarded during one of the World Championship races each year in memory of Bahamian Bobby Symonette who dies in 1998. He won two world championships, represented the Bahamas at five Olympic Games and according to fellow countryman Gavin McKinney was the 'motor of the class'. Nergaard, this year’s winner of the trophy, knew Symonette personally.

Instead of giving a speech the Norwegian told a little story about a 1992 regatta at Lake Garda, where the start of the race was postponed several times. The two went to a restaurant and only after Symonette had already consumed two small bottles of red wine the AP was taken down. Questions were raised about how he was going to sail. Nergaard recalls Symonette’s witty answer: 'An airplane cannot fly with just one wing.'

Olympic gold medalist Schümann evaluates his chances at another world championship title in the 5.5 Metre class: 'I can only win if the two guys ahead of me get into a duel and fall far behind while I stay right at the front.' For Nergaard that situation would be detrimental to his title aspirations as they would have to count the 13th place from race two. The Swiss team which is only three points behind them on the other hand can afford to discard one of the last races as their worst result so far is only worth four points.

But Schümann also has to sail conservatively if he would like to keep his twelfth place in race four as his discard. Just before the start of the race his Genoa block had fallen off and had to be replaced at the last minute. 'Once the damage was fixed everyone else had already taken off', explains the skipper. Given those conditions being able to catch up with the fleet and managing to finish among the upper third is a remarkable result.

Criollo (GER 30) under Andreas Christiansen is slowly climbing in the results. With two 14th places they move up into 14th place overall, with a 33 point lead on the next boat of the Evolution division. Lutz von Meyerinck’s Blueprint (GER 33) drops one place to 21st but remains at the top of the Classic division.

Results:

1. Artemis XIV, Krstian Nergaard: 1, (13), 3, 1, 1, 3
2. Ali-Baba, Flavio Marazzi: 2, (4), 1, 3, 2, 4
3. Oro Nero, Jochen Schümann: 6, 3, 2, (12), 3, 1

Best Evolution result: 14. Criollo, Andreas Christiansen: 13, (29), 10, 14, 14, 14
Best Classic result: 21. Blueprint, Lutz von Meyerinck: 16, 18, 22, 22, (25), Norddeutscher Regatta Verein website