Two races in light winds and two protests were the talk of the day at the IMS 600 World Championship on Wednesday (24 August) at the Rolex Baltic Week in Neustadt/Holstein. The Dragons, however, had yet another idle day. Once again, they lacked sufficient wind for their world championship races, now being two races behind schedule.

The final day of the IMS 600 worlds today may hold up to four races with many points to score, but it looks like it will be a duel between Al Cap One III of Einar Sissener from Oslo and the Spanish-Italian Movistar, that is being helmed in turns by owner Lorenzo Bressani and skipper Pedro Campos. The Norwegians lost a point each in the two races of the day. On top of that, the South Europeans crew had the advantage of a much higher discard out of race four and are now only 1.5 points from the lead.

The biggest surprise of the day, though, was the Luffe 43 Transit Express of Thetje Ancker from Kappeln. With a win in race eight, she advanced to rank four and now is by far the best-placed German boat, as Matthias Müller von Blumencron from Hamburg and his Moonshine slipped from fifth to eighth position. Now the Kiel-based L M Hispaniola of Horst Mann is on rank seven scoring a bullet in race seven.

“Everything went perfectly right from the start, even though we were not in front most of the time”, reported tactician Thomas Jungblut from Hamburg. Only when crossing the finish line, they were 27 seconds ahead of the Swedish Hagstroemer of Gutta Johannsen on elapsed time. The yacht from Saltsjöbaden moved ahead to rank three, but did not get too close to the top two because of a black flag disqualification.

The crew protested against the disqualification, as they felt they had been blocked at the start by the Hanseatic Lloyd of Christian Plump/Bremen). The two boats had even touched. “Hagstroemer has caused the collision,” said helmsman Albert Schweitzer, and filed a protest, too. In the end, the jury disqualified the German team, as they had given their competitors no chance of staying clear. Thus, Hanseatic Lloyd remained ninth. The international jury, however, stuck to the rules and did not give to the Swedish appeal for redress.

The Hanseatic Lloyd Dragon World Championship only saw enough wind to try a couple of starts and half a race, but it had to be cancelled when the breeze died down. The fleet cheered when they heard the forecast for the next day: Thursday is said to bring Southerly to South-Westerly winds of four to five with strong gusts, which should allow the Dragons to complete two races.

Results

IMS 600 World Championship (overall after eight races)

1. Al Cap One III, Einar Sissener (Oslo, Norway) 27,25 points; 2. Movistar, Lorenzo Bressani (Trieste, Italy) 28,75; 3. Hagstroemer, Gutta Johannsen (Saltsjöbaden, Sweden) 39,5; 4. Imagine, Peter Rudbäck (Stockholm, Sweden) 42,4375; 5. Transit Express, Theetje Ancker (Kappeln, Germany) 42,50; 6. Abraxas, Eivind Haugan (Nesbru, Norway) 43,25; 7. L M Hispaniola, Horst Mann (Kiel, Germany) 45,75; 8. Moonshine, Matthias Müller von Blumencron (Hamburg, Germany) 51,6875; 9. Hanseatic Lloyd, Christian Plump (Bremen, Germany) 52,5; 10. Ocean Warrior, Sverre Valeur (Bergen, Norway) 54,25

Dragon World Week (overall results after two races)

1. Florian Jacob (Berlin, Germany) 4 points; 2. Thomas Metzing (Berlin, Germany) 7, 3. Hans-Walter Kröger (Hamburg, Germany) 8