Introducing The Twelve Days of FiveO Christmas
by Dougal Henshall 11 Dec 2021 00:00 AEDT
Mike Holt & Rob Woelfel win the 2014 SAP 505 World Championship in Kiel © Christophe Favreau / SAP
2022 is already shaping up to be a great year for the 5o5 Class, for after being forced by Covid to cancel their last two World Championships, scheduled for Sweden and Bermuda, the good news is that this event will return to Cork, in Southern Ireland next August. This will be the third time that the Royal Cork Yacht Club will have hosted this prestigious event, with both the 1964 and the 1982 World Championships being regarded as classics, held across a wide range of conditions.
With the Royal Cork being acknowledged as the world's oldest yacht club, it is fitting that mid-championship next year that they will be hosting the launch of the long-awaited book telling the story of the 5o5, and how it has come to dominate the performance dinghy scene.
There is a very good saying that warns readers to 'not judge a book by its cover' but this is one occasion when the cover itself will have a big part to play, as it will lead the reader into the detailed narrative set out in the book. There are lots of fantastic pictures of FiveOs out there, as the boat has always been very photogenic, but for the book cover something special will be needed.
Luckily, Christophe Favreau, the famous international marine photographer has long enjoyed a close association with the 5o5 Class, and over the years has captured the best of the action at events around the world. Now, as the book moves towards being launched, Christophe has generously donated a selection of some of his iconic photos, one of which will be selected at the book cover.
For The Twelve Days of FiveO Christmas each day will see one of Christophe's pictures posted, then at the end readers will be allowed to comment with suggestions as to which picture they think should grace the cover. The picture shown above shows how hard a task of choosing the right one will be, for these are all great pictures, but more importantly they all say something about the FiveO.
Below, the photo features yet another of the highly competitive female helms that are such a part of the 5o5 story of today. Yet, if you go back nearly 70 years to the very first international event held in UK waters, one of the races was won by a lady helm; since then, the class has consistently shown a rich diversity in the make up of the crews.
The narrative surrounding the 5o5 has to be of the great as-yet-untold sea stories, but such a tale will need the very best of pictures on the front cover... which of the twelve will it be?