Wolfgang Stolz and his crew of the Farr 40 Opus One was the team of the day at the Rolex Baltic Week sailed overnight on the Bay of Neustadt.
In two races with very little wind the skipper from Frankfurt, Germany, was the best at the helm, scoring a bullet after a fourth.
He moved up from seventh to third place with an overall score of 34 points behind Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad (USA, 22), which extended her lead over Sue and Lang Walker’s Kokomo from Australia to six points..
Barking Mad scored a 5th and a 2nd while Kokomo came in with a 7th and 4th.
“The course was covered with a couple of minefields,” said US boat captain Mark Sims from Opus One, “Always and everywhere there was the danger of getting into a calm or catching an unfavourable wind shift.”
After two good and two bad races the day before, the crew and helmsman got more and more used to the tricky conditions and “demonstrated what we are capable of”. Sims: “The fickle and difficult conditions are a valuable test for the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship in Copenhagen. Our World’s team is more or less complete on board.”
Australia’s other entrant, CYCA Commodore Matt Allen’s Ichi Ban, was one to suffer in the light airs, finishing 8th and 9th in the two races overnight and dropping from fourth overall to seventh – which includes a DNF in race one.
The Rolex Baltic Sea Regatta is also the final series in the 2007 Farr 40 European Circuit. After the second day and before the last three races, Barking Mad is only three points short of snatching the overall lead from Kokomo.
“Focussing on a match race with Kokomo would be just too early at this stage,” said Richardson with a glance to the high level competition in the class. “The one design boats are so equal in their speed potential. Just make a single tactical mistake and you loose ten places.” – RegattaNews/Peter Campbell
Overall ranking of the Farr 40 class after six races:
1st, Barking Mad (Jim Richardson, USA) 22 points
2nd, Kokomo (Lang Walker, Australia) 28
3rd, Opus One” (Wolfgang Stolz, Germany) 34
4th, Groovederci (John Demourkas, USA) 37
5th, Sirwagusawa” (Olli-Pekka Lumijäaevi, Finland) 38
6th, Fiamma (Alessandro Barnaba, Italy) 38
7th, Ichi Ban (Matt Allen, Australia) 41
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