5.5m Alpen Cup at Fraglia Vela Riva Day 2 - The Jean Genie extends lead
by Robert Deaves 3 May 09:42 NZST
1-3 May 2025
The Jean Genie (GBR 43, Peter Morton, Andrew Palfrey, Ruairidh Scott) extended their lead to 11 points after three more races on Friday at the 5.5 Metre Alpen Cup at Riva del Garda, Italy. Artemis (NOR 57, Kristian Nergaard, Trond Solli-Saether, Johan Barne) moves up to second with Aspire (POL 17, Przemyslaw Gacek, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Kilian Weiss) down one in third.
Despite the clear skies and high temperatures, the wind again was not quite true Garda conditions with 12-14 at the start line and 8-10 at the top mark with some big shifts to be found. Despite that, The Jean Genie, took two race wins, while Caracole (SUI 214, Bernard Haissly, Nicolas Berthoud, Daniel Stampfli) won the last race.
Starting at the pin end of the line, Otto (NOR 68, Bent Christian Wilhelmsen, Lasse Berthelsen, Herve Cunningham) lea up the first beat to round first and extend downwind. However, The Jean Genie made up a lot of ground on the second beat and then after a gybing match downwind just got the overlap before the gate to lead into the finish. Artemis crossed a close third.
In the second race, Aspire lead round, but had a spinnaker problem, which let The Jean Genie into the lead, which they held all the way round. Shaolin (SUI 226, Flavio Marazzi, Andreas Kindlimann, Patrick Zaugg) finally crossed second with New Moon III (BAH 25 Mark Holowesko, Christoph Burger, Peter Vlasov) third.
The final race was won by Caracole after the left paid for the first time. They decided on the left hoping the heating on the mountains would benefit them and it worked on both upwinds, while some still favoured the right. They probably even extended on the second beat to lead down to the finish, while Marie-Francoise XXII (SUI 233, Jurg Menzi, Jurgen Eiermann, Kim Chabani) sailed a great race to cross second, just ahead of Artemis.
Christoph Burger on New Moon III said, "We've had six races in beautiful Ora conditions, maybe generally lighter than usual but I think we have some moisture in the air that breaks down the pure Ora a little bit, but it's never less interesting. Usually at the top might it gets light and tricky and at the bottom there is more pressure so you get everything in one race, which is interesting and fun to sail.
"We're looking at this event as pre-worlds regatta, which is going to be in one month time [in Sopot, Poland]. Everyone is here and there is not much space on the starting line and I don't expect anything different in Sopot, but we have a lot of fun racing all the top teams from all over the world."
One of the new faces here this week is Arkadii Kistranov who is sailing his first 5.5 regatta with MELX IV. He said, "It's a really nice boat, super complicated and difficult, and I am learning every day, and really enjoying it. Today we were trying some new tuning. We started not as good as we wanted but by the last race we found out how it should work and the speed was a lot better and we got a fifth.
"I am very happy about it. I think we are performing a lot better than we thought being a new team, so I hope we will be in good condition for Sopot."
Otto picked up a couple of good results today. Bent Christian Wilhelmsen said, "In the first race we started at the pin and that turned out to be very good for us. We were first at the top mark and kept first first place all the way until Morty caught up with us. The second race was OK, but then in the third race we banged the right corner, and we were with the top group into the top mark and had a good second upwind fighting with Caracole.
"Wind wide it was not easy. We had this shifting wind which we find difficult at times, but we just keep at it, and we managed to keep fourth position, and we were happy with that. A good day's sailing."
Two races remain on Saturday. The Jean Genie takes an 11 point lead into the final day, but Peter Morton is just one race away from an unprecedented fourth Alpen Cup win.
Results after Day 2: (top five, 6 races)
1 The Jean Genie (GBR 43, Peter Morton, Andrew Palfrey, Ruaridh Scott) 8pts
2 Artemis (NOR 57, Kristian Nergaard, Trond Solli- Saether, Johan Barne) 19pts
3 Aspire (POL 17, Przemyslaw Gacek, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Kilian Weiss) 22pts
4 Shaolin (SUI 226, Flavio Marazzi, Andreas Kindlimann, Patrick Zaugg) 23pts
5 Girls on Film (GBR 41, Louise Morton, Charlie Cumbley, Sam Haines) 24pts