Not even a shorter daggerboard could stop Knut Frostad and his crew on the Formula 60 trimaran Nokia Academy claiming victory in Gothenburg’s Fleet Race – Round 4 of the Nokia Oops Cup.

In winds of 20-24 knots, Nokia Academy won three heats out of four in Nokia Oops Cup Fleet Race on a course sailed outside Gothenburg’s harbour yesterday. Interestingly Nokia won the race with one daggerboard 1.5m shorter – the result of damage sustained in the offshore race from Norway. Commenting on the bizarre situation Frostad said: “We could not go as high as we wanted, but it worked out anyway.”

But it was Klas Nylöf and HiQ who started the event on good form by winning the first heat, just a couple of boat lengths ahead of Nokia Academy and TietoEnator Audi.

In the second race, Nokia Academy started from the leeward end of the line at high speed flying two hulls and went on to win while Thomas Johanson, Finland, and his TietoEnator Audi team were virtually at a standstill at the start.

The Finnish team soon took their revenge and had what looked like a safe lead but Nokia Academy sailed another superb race to overtake TietoEnator Audi on the last leg and claim their second victory of the day. Johanson from TietoEnator Audi commented: “It was exciting, but we had problems with getting the gennaker in and then Knut passed by us.”

The fourth and last race became the most exciting with all three boats neck and neck throughout the race. But on the second lap TietoEnator Audi had rig problems leaving HiQ in the lead fighting it out with Nokia Academy, and just one metre before the finish line Nokia sailed through into the lead once again to claim her third victory.

Results (fleet race Gothenburg and overall Nokia Oops Cup standings)
1. Klas Nylöf, HiQ, 1-3-3-2 (10 p)
2. Knut Frostad, Nokia Academy, 2-1-1-1 (9 p)
3. Thomas Johansson, TietoEnator Audi, 3-2-2-3 (5 p)