6mR World Cup at Royal Swedish Yacht Club - Overall

German Courage IX are the new world champion

Finally, we did it!

The new champion, GER 118, Courage IX, played it safe to make it to the top in the neonode 6mR WC. Skipper Dietrich Gruenau, helmsman Alba Batzill and tactician Eddy Eich had one thing in their minds for today’s race, stay close to Battlecry. No further behind than four boats. The strategy worked and the gold belongs to Germany.

Two years ago in France it was the other way around, Courage had a great chance to win before the last race and lost it to Swedish Notorious.

The crew has been sailing together since 1999 and has always been among the top three though they never won.

- We’re very happy, especially when this is the first season with the new boat, says Alba Batzill.

A bit disappointed to begin with, Ben Clothier and his crew on Battlecry came in to shore.

- We tried so hard to keep a distance to Courage, says Ben Clothier. We did all the right things but it wasn’t enough. But on the other side, this is the best result we’ve ever made and we lost to a very good boat and an excellent crew.

The winner of the last race was SUI 77, Fleau, securing the bronze medal just ahead of S 115 May Be XIV, best Swedish boat in the championship. May Be XIV had a chance for the silver. They decided to go for it.

- We’ve played safe during the whole regatta, says Patric Fredell, skipper May Be XIV. Today we went for it. Rather take the chance for a silver and lose than play safe. I’m satisfied with our fourth place in this competition.

The last day of the regatta saw clouds, a few raindrops and winds from east-northeast, 8 - 12 knots.

Final results after eight races:

1. GER 118, Courage IX 27 pts
2. GBR 89, Battlecry 30 pts
3. SUI 77, Fleau 33 pts
4. SWE 115, May Be IX 33 pts
5. SWE 133, Jungfrun 41 pts

Danish Sunray wins classic 6metre

After eight very varying sailings in light and sunny, wet, rainy and very windy weather, the classic 6metre class was finished on Saturday.

27 out of the 29 entered boats finished the race. The oldest boats, Norwegian Mosquito from 1913 and Swedish Gulldisken from 1922, chose to withdraw from three and six respective sailings. The excitement was still very high between the remaining boats, who produced even fights in the last races.

Before the last race, Danish Sunray in first place had 20 points, German Lillevi, 22, points, and Finnish Toy in third place, had 23 points.

The final and deciding race on Saturday finished with Sunray winning the championship for classic 6 metres with 22 points. Skipper on Danish Sunray is the Norwegian ship broker Hans J Oen, who lives in New York since 1965. Sunray is owned by Danish Jörgen Jensen and is therefore sailing under Danish flag.

Hans is very pleased with the result and with all arrangements in Sandhamn. But he is somewhat irritated over the criticism that Sunray has received for being a newly built classic boat, especially from the Finnish sailors.

- The Finns are bad losers, Hans says, there are only two or three of the Finnish crews, for example Toy, who have been here to congratulate us.

The measurement certificate, which the Finns criticizes, is all according to the rules signed by a certified and experienced international measure man.

- Furthermore, all classic boats are rebuilt and often new hulls and new rudders have been added, so there are many boats that are not in accordance with the original spirit, Hans says.

Plans were that Hans should have sailed his own classic 6metre Elisabeth X, from 1947, designed by Bjarne Aas, who among other participated in the Olympics in Helsinki 1952. But the two owners didn’t succeed to pull together two crews and therefore chose to sail only with Sunray.

Finnish boats came in both second and third place, Toy second with 26 points, and Fridolin third with 30 points. Best of the Swedish boats was Fågel Blå, who came in fifth with 37 points.

Final results after eight races:

1. DEN 64 Sunray 22pts
2. FIN 44 Toy 26pts
3. FIN 12 Fridolin 30pts
4. GER 68 Lillevi 30pts
5. SWE 6 Fågel Blå 37pts