Update
Sam Davies and Initiatives Coeur were still sailing hard in the last weeks before the Vendée Globe. Davies’s boat first went afloat in 2010 and is now on her third-generation foils… which are enormous. The benefits of grandfathering a non one-design mast and the ballast layout combine to make for a potent package. Not the distinctive ‘lower loaded’ mainsail leech – one of this year’s must-haves
I am not saying that the 5.5 Metre is a scary boat, I am just alluding to the fact that on arrival in San Remo for the European Champion - ships, having never sailed a 5.5 Metre and with a new team I was definitely a little outside my comfort zone. Was there any cause for concern? Not at all. The welcome that
this class extends is super-friendly, incredibly open and in the current climate extremely refreshing. Current class luminaries Markus Weiser, Flavio Marazzi and Christoph Burger are so open and helpful that it is a struggle whenever talking to them not to have your wet notes at the ready. There is a refreshing diversity to the class, with strong fleets in Scandinavia, the European Lakes, the Mediterranean, Australia and the US. The Bahamas will host the 2022 World Championships. The development 5.5 Metre boat class that sailed in the Olympics
from 1952 till 1968, when the US and Sweden showed their strength, is barely recognisable in its 2020 guise. However, the class has managed to navigate through the years of design and technological development looking after the classic, evolution and modern divisions. We were sailing POL-17 Aspire, a 2017 Wilke boat. As you would expect from polished Swiss manufacturer Christof Wilke, the product is refined and efficient. The two newest boats in San Remo were Momo and Otto, both
also built by Wilke, and designed by his friend and neighbour Sébastien Schmidt. Construction is relatively straightforward with epoxy resin, AirEx foam cores and high-modulus multi-directional glass fibre forming the base of the construction. Female moulds are used with the boats vacuum bagged and cured at high temper- atures. As you would expect from Wilke, the carbon spars are beautifully engineered even if they are a little overbuilt due to the class’s minimum rig weight slightly lagging behind today’s ever- evolving technology. Sails are bespoke to each boat as displacement and length
essentially dictate the sail area. The sailplan is high aspect and, in some respects, a little odd in its appearance. However, as soon as you sheet in and drop over the side it is very clear that these boats are very efficient upwind. Downwind they are old school, moving more water for each boatlength sailed than even Archimedes thought was possible. However, they are still great fun and reward techniques that I am grateful still exist. Good too to see such a wide range of sail manufacturers represented. In terms of sailing the boats, while heavy, are eager to give the
18 SEAHORSE
helm and crew feedback as you change trim and settings. While drop hiking pretty much everything is to hand, enabling rapid adjust- ments. In our case we relied heavily on some basic intuitive principles and wherever possible lined up with boats we had ear- marked as fast. With so much rig and sail control at your fingertips in terms of strings, plus the trim tab on the keel, it is key to keep things simple and build your knowledge and settings to a level that enables swift repeatability. Skipper Mateusz Kusznierewicz and I would often check in with each other on jib car position, tab angle and rake, purely to close the loop and learn. As in any boat everything revolves around balance. The 5.5 Metre,
similarly to the Dragon, rewards accuracy and anticipation. While we had plenty of small keelboat knowledge to draw on and were learning at a pace in our three days of pre-regatta sailing, I can honestly say that come the first race I was again back a little outside my comfort zone. To confirm this as we lined up before the start I found to my embarrassment I had left my harness ashore and would have to sail the day relying on legs, arms and encouragement from Matty. Luckily our strategy and venue knowledge were strong and we won the first race. A huge relief for me and a real achievement for our middle man, Przemysław Gacek, as this was his first foray into racing! The rest of the week is, as they say, history as we tiptoed through
the minefield of a light-weather Mediterranean regatta. We occa- sionally lurched from drama to crisis including an OCS interspersed with moments of clarity and solid strategy, but overall we were lucky enough to be relatively consistent with our speed. Come the end of the series we had drawn on our ample experiences and basic principles to amass a winning points score. A great feeling. I look forward to being out of my comfort zone
again shortly.
A DIFFERENT KIND OF WEEK – Jon Emmett From the moment I got on the plane (wearing my face mask) I knew Kiel Week was going to be a bit different this year. To be honest I enjoyed the quiet airport and lounge and indeed the flight as I headed out to Germany. Even before jumping on a plane there was a host of regatta forms
to fill out. All made available in good time so everyone could have them printed out and signed to speed up the whole process of
ELOI STICHELBAUT
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