Nokia Oops Cup Race 9 - Sandhamn-Sopot Doublehanded race

Stena Sovcomflot wins Doublehanded

Bruno Peyron and Steve Rauvssin on Stena Sovcomflot won the Doublehanded race in Nokia Oops Cup with a six minutes margin on Klas Nylöf and Andreas Andersen on HiQ.

– It was quite easy to sail these boats this time actually. The winds was perfect and we only had to do one jibe between Sandhamn and Sopot, says Steve Ravussin on Stena Sovcomflot.

Together with Bruno Peyron the two world class multihull sailors took the lead after a couple of hours after the start from Sandhamn, and managed to fight the other teams off all the way to Sopot in Poland.

- I know my boat very well and it was only in the light winds after the start that we had Nokia and Academy in front of us. When the wind filled inn we where off. I’m not sure what the other boats did, laughs Rauvssin, who also it the owner of the 60 foot trimaran.

Swedish HiQ was the only one who where able to hang on to Stena Sovcomflot all the way to the finish line.

– The conditions where perfect. Just the right wind and a very hard fight with Stena Sovcomflot. But at the end of the race we where a little to far behind to really get a shoot at the first place. Our boats have the similar speed and we only needed for the to make a little mistake. But Bruno and Steve doesn’t make any mistakes, says Klas Nylöf.

Academy, with Knut Frostad and Espen Guttormsen, reached the finish line just about an hour after the winner. After that Nokia, Bonduelle and at least TietoEnator followed in to Sopot.

Stena Sovcomflot has now a healthy six points lead on Academy in Nokia Oops Cup, and with only two races left they have more than a fair chance of winning the cup.

– I have been racing far to long to take victories in advance. It looks good right now, but anything can happen, says Steve Ravussin.

Sandhamn-Sopot Race Results:

1) Stena Sovcomflot, Russia-Sweden, 16 hours 52 minutes
2) HiQ, Sweden, 16.58
3) Academy, Norway, 17.51
4) Nokia, Sweden, 18.36
5) Bonduelle, Poland, 18.42
6) TietoEnator, 19.12

Nokia Oops Cup after 9 of 11 races:

1) Stena Sovcomflot 14pts
2) Academy 20pts
3) HiQ 26,5pts
4) TietoEnator 36,5pts
5) Nokia 37,5pts
6) Bonduelle 45,5pts