The King is king!

by Bob Fisher on 7 Jul 2005 King Harald V of Norway is the new European Champion of the IMS class - a fourth place in the 362 nautical mile Eurocard Gotland Runt was sufficient to lift the 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