He extended his lead in the Wally class with another victory on Thursday. The British "Magic Carpet2" under tactician Jochen Schümann remained in third place after a break in the spinnaker furling system and thus still only in the runner-up role. In the Super-Maxis, Hasso Plattner's "Visione" was able to celebrate a victory in the ORC classification based on both sailed and calculated time. Plattner remains in third place in the overall standings.
After two days of heavy weather, the area around the Mediterranean island of Sardinia offered the crews on the superyachts perfect conditions this time with sunshine and wind speeds of between 18 and 22 knots. And the race organisers sent the large yachts on a 28-mile course along the coast: "It really was the most beautiful sailing through the islands, with great scenery," reported "Magic Carpet2" tactician Jochen Schümann. "But we're not entirely satisfied because we were in the lead at the first mark, but then had to let the others go when the furler for the spinnaker exploded and we had to change the spinnaker." The additional manoeuvre caused a lot of time to be lost, which the 28.80 metre long "Magic Carpet2" was unable to make up against the almost two metre longer competition on the "Y3K", either in terms of sailed or calculated time. "On the spinnaker courses, it's difficult for us to maintain the lead anyway due to the disadvantages of the shorter waterline. And once the others have gone, it's impossible to catch them."
Naturally, the mood on the "Y3K" was completely different: "We certainly had the necessary bit of luck today that the others had problems and we were washed to the front as a result. But the crew work went very well and that was the key to success today," said "Y3K" tactician Thomas Jungblut from Hamburg. The crew on the 30.50 metre long Wally 100 has therefore come a big step closer to its goal of a hat-trick off Sardinia.
Second place in the Wallys on Thursday went to the "Dark Shadow", also a Wally 100 from André Auberton (France), which was behind the "Magic Carpet" at the finish but still managed to push ahead of the British yacht. In the overall standings, however, the "Y3K" is ahead of the "Magic Carpet".
In the Mini Maxi class, the "Rán 2" defended its lead in the Mini Maxi Rolex World Championship. Although the Swede Niklas Zennström had to cope with a fourth place in the fourth race, he remains well ahead of Peter Ogden's "Jethou" and the "Alegre" (both Great Britain). Günter Herz from Hamburg is already well behind the leaders in fifth place on the "Allsmoke".
In the Supermaxis category, Hasso Plattner's "Visione" (Walldorf) was once again the fastest yacht on the course. She finished seven minutes ahead of the "Saudade" of Albert Büll from Hamburg, the largest ship in the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup at 45.19 metres. According to the ORC handicap classification, the "Visione" was also in the lead. According to the IRC classification, however, she had to give way to Otto Happel's "Hetairos" (Hamburg), which was built on classic lines and was 40 minutes slower. The British "Nilaya" is still ahead in the overall Supermaxis standings in the combined IRC/ORC classification. She is followed by the "Hetairos" and the "Visione", with the "Saudade" in sixth place.
The last and decisive race will take place on Saturday (10 September).
Lars Bolle
Chief Editor Digital
