Aeolus makes his presence felt as 5.5 Metres gather for 98th Scandinavian Gold Cup
by Robert Deaves 29 Sep 23:37 PDT
1-4 October 2026
Scandinavian Gold Cup and World Championship © Robert Deaves
For the first time in its history, the 5.5 Metre class is heading to Greece, with the 2026 Scandinavian Gold Cup and World Championship taking place over the next 10 days.
The 98th Scandinavian Gold Cup is scheduled for this coming week, with the World Championship to follow next week. Twenty teams from across the world are beginning to gather at Olympic Marine, in Lavrion, about 50 km south of Athens.
The Scandinavian Gold Cup is scheduled to open on Thursday 1 October. Its unique event format rewards only race winners. The first to three races wins takes the cup, and after three races only race winners are left in the competition. It went right down to the wire in the last two years, with the maximum of seven races sailed. Ali Baba (SUI 224, Flavio Marazzi, Julie Marazzi, Eline Marazzi) won in 2024 but could not defend last year in Poland. The win there went to Marie-Françoise XXII (SUI 233, Jürg Menzi, Jürgen Eiermann, Christof Wilke). Both are in Lavrion.
Artemis (NOR 57, Kristian Nergaard, Anders Pedersen, Trond Solli-Sæther) last won in 2020 in Australia (with Johan Barne instead of Trond Solli-Sæther). Nergaard is the most prolific winner of the trophy, with nine victories as skipper. Peter Morton won in 2023 in Sardinia but is back sailing the Quigley designed Girls on Film (GBR 41) with Charlie Cumbley and Sam Haines. His previous boat, GBR 42 won in 2022, with Elliot Hanson sailing with Andrew Palfrey and Haines.
So, if you are keeping count, virtually all the crews and boats that have won in the past six years are in Greece. Perhaps the only anomaly is that the 2023 World Champion winning boat, Aspire (POL 17, Przemyslaw Gacek, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, Kilian Weise) has never won, though they got close a few times.
The Scandinavian Gold Cup is the second oldest international trophy in the sport of sailing. The Cup was originally established by one of the oldest Finnish yacht clubs, Nyländska Jaktklubben in 1919, to celebrate newly achieved Finnish independence. It has been used for the 5.5 Metre class since 1953 and in two years' time, the 100th event will be celebrated in Cannes, France.
World Championship
The 2026 5.5 Metre World Championship follows on directly with a 10-race series from 5-9 October. Peter Morton won last year in GBR 43, but is not sailing this year, but fourth placed last year, Louise Morton back the helm on Girls on Film (GBR 41, Louise Morton, Charlie Cumbley, Sam Haines).
Kristian Nergaard, on Artemis, will be looking for his 11th world title as skipper, while Flavio Marazzi on Ali Baba will be looking for his sixth as skipper. Other former world champion crews include John B (BAH 26, Gavin McKinney, Lars Horn Johannessen, Mathias Dahlman), Marie-Françoise XXII, and Aspire.
After regular top 10 placings in past years, all eyes will be on Otto (NOR 68, Bent Christian Wilhelmsen, Herve Cunningham, Lasse Berthelsen) after their decisive victory last month at the Multi-Nations at Malcesine. To further add to the mix, last year's winning crew Andrew Palfrey is at the front of the 2024 world championship winning boat, being sailed for the USA with Kuringai III (AUS 66/USA, Jay Cross, Rob Scrivenor, Andrew Palfrey).
The events in Lavrion have come about due to the unbridled enthusiasm of Stavros Papagiannopoulos, who joined the class seven years ago. As well as taking a leading role in putting these events together he is also competing on MELX IV (GRE 6, Stavros Papagiannopoulos, Christoph Burger, Panagiotis Kampouridis), which is never an easy mix, even on home waters.
Everything is set to go; the only problem is Aeolus. Strong northerly winds have been in place for several days and show no sign of abating before the weekend. Weather can of course change fast, but if anyone has a hotline, then now is the time to use it!