Nokia Oops Cup Race 6 - Sjaelland Rundt

New speed record for badly hurt Nilson

The Swedish navigator Roger Nilson could put another record under his belt today. But he had to do it in the hospital as he was badly hurt during Sjaelland Rundt and Nokia Oops Cup.

Roger Nilson, navigator on the 60 foot trimaran Stena Sovcomflot, took the boat in to a record breaking time in the Danish classic Sjaelland Rundt Saturday. The Russian-Swedish team shaved over 7 hours off the old record that Klas Klabbe Nylöf on HiQ set in 2003. They finished the 275 nautical mile long course in just 13 hours and 21 minutes.

But the record didn’t come without a price tag.

- I was down below when the boat suddenly came to a stop in a wave. I was thrown forward and knocked out three teeth, and I probably also broken a couple of ribs, said Roger Nilson on his way to the hospital in Helsingör after the race.

Nilson is a doctor and navigator by profession and his latest achievement was breaking the round the world non stop record on board Orange II with Bruno Peyron.

The incident on Stena Sovcomflot happened 5 hours into the race, but they didn’t abort the race to get Nilson to hospital. Stena Sovcomflot just kept on racing with the injured navigator down below.

- The pain was so strong that I almost fainted, but luckily enough I had some strong tranquilisers on board to take the pain away, says Nilson.

Nilson was also on board HiQ when they established the old record in 2003. Then they took over 8 hours of the old record.

– Stena Sovcomflot is much faster than the 2003 edition of HiQ was. We also had better winds with much less tacking this time around the Danish island. We have a very skilled crew and Steve Ravussin is a magician when it comes to getting this tri up to max speed, says Nilson.

The Swiss skipper certainly knows his boat and topped out during the record race at 43,6 knot. The other trimarans in Nokia Oops Cup that participated in Sjaelland Rundt followed right behind Stena Sovcomflot. HiQ ended up, the Finnish project TietoEnator came third and had a hard battle with Knut Frostad on Academy, who finally had to bite the bullet and end up on fourth place.

Results Själland Runt:

1) Stena Sovcomflot, Russia/Sweden, Steve Ravussin, 13 hours, 21 minutes, 08 seconds
2) HiQ, Sweden, Klas Nylöf, 14.40.54
3) TietoEnator, Finland, Thomas Johansson, 14.56.49
4) Academy, Norway, Knut Frostad, 15.00.07
5) Bonduelle, Poland, Roman Paszke, 16.20.30
6) Nokia, Sweden, Magnus Olsson, 17.44.36

Nokia Oops Cup after 6 of 11 races:

1) Stena Sovcomflot 9pts
2) Academy 15pts
3) HiQ 18.5pts
4) Nokia 21.5pts
5) TietoEnator 22.5pts
6) Bonduelle 29.5pts