2025 Six Metre World Championships at Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club - Day 4
by Fiona Brown 26 Sep 2025 06:20 BST
September 22-26, 2025
Three races for both divisions on the penultimate day of the 2025 Six Metre World Championships at the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, produced some great competition and a new race winner. With six of eight possible races completed the single discard comes into play, and the leading packs are now becoming established.
Racing was initially delayed for two hours to allow some squally rainstorms to go through, but threatened lightning failed to materialise. At 12.30 Race Officer Shannon Bush and the SCYC Race Committee got proceedings under way in the last of the rain and a broadly southerly breeze, which varied from around 6 to 20 knots and shifted constantly as the various fronts rolled through.
In the Open Championship Dieter Schoen's new Judel/Vrolijk designed Momo II took two race wins and a third place, which she now discards, to consolidate her overall lead, an impressive performance for a team that only took delivery of their new boat just in time for this regatta. The other Open Division race winner was Laurence Clerc's Duclop, skippered by Eric Monnin, a 1981 Pelle Peterson design, which led race four from the off and defended her position fiercely all the way to the line. With a second and third in the following races, Duclop moves up from fourth into second overall, five points behind Momo II. Just one point behind her though is Rainer Müller's elegant new Ian Howlett designed Eau Vive, being sailed this week by Jamie Hilton and his reigning World Championship team, who have dropped from second to third thanks to a 5, 3, 2 score today. Still very firmly in contention for a podium finish is Foti Lykiardopulo's 1989 Pelle Peterson designed Aera, who's 2, 5, 4 score today leaves them in fourth, only two points adrift of Eau Vive.
Momo II's Dieter Schoen was happy with, but by no means complacent about, their day's racing saying, "It was a long, shifty, patchy, very difficult day and the weather here you never know what's happening, so we take it race by race. Obviously, it was a super day of sailing and in the end we are happy with our performance. It feels good but we know that we need to keep working, not just to do a good day tomorrow, but also to learn more from the boat. The boat is brand new so we're learning a lot each day. We keep on that mode, the team mood is good, so we take it day by day, tomorrow is another race."
His Majesty King Juan Carlos of Spain's 78-year-old Arvid Laurin designed Bribon had another great day winning races five and six and placing third in race four in the Classic Championship. This puts her into a four-point lead over fellow Spaniard Mauricio Sanchez-Bella's Titia, which came away from the day with a straight set of second places, enabling her to move up from fourth to second overall. Today's other Classics race winner was 95-year-old Sprig, a Clinton H Crane design sailed by Greg Stewart. This is Greg's third World Championship with Sprig, but it is the first time they have ever won a race. They followed up with a third and fifth and now lie in third place overall, eight points behind Titia, but only one point ahead of Thomas Kuhmann's 1939 Christian Jensen designed Flapper, who has dropped from third to fifth.
Greg Stewart broke off from his team's celebrations at the bar to tell us, "Today went very well. This morning, we said we were going to go out and really work on getting some better starts. And in the first race we had a good start, and we were up in the front of the group with the King and the other top boats, and we ended up winning the first race which is the first ever worlds race that I've won. I've done the worlds in 2009 in Newport when out top score was a seventh, our top score in Vancouver in 2017 was a second. I didn't want to jinx it so I didn't say anything until we crossed the line, but as soon as we realised the whole team was ecstatic. In the next race we got a third so that was our third-best result ever. So a great day for us."
It was a very long day, with the boats not making it back into the harbour until dusk. But everyone was relieved to now have sufficient races completed to validate the championship and allow a discard. And they were also delighted to have enjoyed three really good, challenging races in a variety of conditions.
Back ashore Ute Monnin-Wagner was particularly pleased with how Duclop's championship is going, saying, "We've now won two races, so we are quite happy. It was fun sailing today with three races so that was good. Every time you go out sailing there is something you can tune or do better so it's all about learning I would say. Racing in this class is quite tough, but it's a world championship so everybody wants to be in front, everybody wants to win, everybody wants to be as good as possible or even better. Performance is everything."
Flapper's Thomas Kuhmann concurred saying, "Today was great. Three races was tough though and we had very changeable conditions, very shifty winds. And then towards the late afternoon it got stronger and there was some rough sea, so we had all sorts of wind and sea today. The racing is very tough. There is a top group that is the usual suspects that probably will win the championship and go on the podium. There is a tough call between them all the time, and we happen to be part of them but not quite at the top. So, we have a goal to improve!"
The championship concludes tomorrow with two final races remaining to be sailed, so there's still plenty of room for manoeuvre on the scoreboards. The first start is scheduled for 10.30 and the forecast indicates the sun will make a welcome return, and the breeze will be light to moderate from the west-northwest, so hopefully a final day rather more typical of the lovely late summer conditions for which this area is renowned.
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Provisional Results after Day 4: (top ten, 6 races)
Open Championship
1 - IBV145 - Momo II - Dieter Schoen - 2, 2, 1, (3), 1, 1 = 7pts
2 - SUI100 - Duclop - Laurence Clerc/Eric Monnin - (8), 1, 5, 1, 2, 3 = 12pts
3 - SUI144 - Eau Vive - Rainer Müller/Jamie Hilton - 1, 4, 3, (5), 3, 2 = 13pts
4 - GRE1 - Aera - Foti Lykiardopulo - 4, 3, 2, 2, (5), 4 = 15pts
5 - USA105 - Jane Ann - Basil Vasiliou - 6, 5, 4, 4, 7, (8) = 26pts
Classic Championship
1 - ESP16 - Bribon - Real Club Nautico Sanxenxo - (3), 1, 1, 3, 1, 1 = 7pts
2 - ESP72 - Titia - Mauricio Sanchez-Bella - (11), 3, 2, 2, 2, 2 = 11pts
3 - US43 - Sprig - Greg Stewart - 5, 5, (6), 1, 3, 5 = 19pts
4 - USA171 - Flapper - Thomas Kuhmann - (6), 4, 3, 6, 4, 4 = 20pts
5 - US56 - Jill - Alessandro Maria Rinaldi - 1, 6, 4, 6, 5, (7) = 22pts