Nokia Oops Cup Race 3 - Union Offshore Race

Hard beat to Oslo

Magnus “Mange” Olsson and Loic Peyron picked the right side of the last island up the Oslofjord and managed to pass Bruno Peyron and Roger Nilson on Stena Sovcomflot a few nautical miles before the finish line. All the way up along the Swedish and Norwegian coast the three leading trimarans where in shouting distance from each other.

- It was a very tight race all the way from Gothenburg to Oslo. We tacked on each other all the way, says Magnus Olsson, skipper on Nokia.

The six trimarans left Gothenburg Monday 20.00 hours local time, and after a short reach out to Vinga Lighthouse, the crew started the fight against 20-30 knots of northerly wind up to Oslo. Team Academy and skipper Knut Frostad where among the first boats round Vinga, but shortly after the halyard block for the staysail broke. Academy had to seek inn to calmer waters along the coast to give the guy in the mast a chance to replace the broken block.

TietoEnator with Thomas Johanson on the helm had the same problem, but they also got two holes in their main as the lashing from the staysail broke and came swinging back. That ended the race for the Finnish team as they now are limping towards the finish line in Oslo.

The three boats in the lead, HiQ, Stena Sovcomflot and Nokia, had a tight race all the way to the end Monday morning. All the three boats had different sailing configuration all the night and as the wind increased HiQ in to the morning hours, HiQ finally had to put in a reef. That gave Stena Sovcomflot and Nokia the little edge they needed to put some distance between them and the Swedish team.

The crew on Stena Sovcomflot felt pretty confident that they had their third win in the bag. But with Team Nokia a few hundred metres behind they wasn’t able to cover them any more in between all the islands, and ended up on each side of one. Magnus Olsson had picked the right side and came out in front of the Russian-Swedish team.

Results Union Offshore Race:
1. Team Nokia
2. Stena Sovcomflot
3. HiQ Sailing Team
4. Team Academy
5. Bonduelle
6. TietoEnator

Nokia Oops Cup Standings: (3 out of 11 races)
1. Stena Sovcomflot 2.5pts
2. Nokia 6.5pts
3. Academy 8pts
4. HiQ 8,5pts
5. Bonduelle 12,5pts
6. TietoEnator 14pts

Next race for the crews in Nokia Oops Cup is Speed Race Thursday, and Friday the Helly Hansen Færder Race kicks of.

More Information:

• www.nokiaoopscup.com