5.5 World Championship 2002 - Helsinki
Prepared to win ! (a report from Renato Marazzi)
Everything
started last autumn when we decided to build a new 5.5 mIC for our project to
participate in the 2002 5.5 World Champion. Jean- Claude Vuithier our
coach was the project manager and worked very closely with Sébastian Schmidt
the designer and Christof Wilke the builder of the new Boat. At Easter
time this year the whole team was really proud of the new all black ALI-
BABA. My brother Flavio Marazzi was the Skipper during the first
race at the lake of Thun in Switzerland, which he won.
So we prepared everything for the
Swiss Championship in Neuchâtel. It was very important for us to sail this
Championship get some practice in big Fleet for the Worlds. We sailed quite
well but not as constantly as our friend Jürg Menzi on the SUI 204. He
won the Swiss Championship for the fifth time in row.
After this Race we did some weekend
races in Switzerland and practiced alone on the lakes in Switzerland until we
went to Helsinki to test everything. We arrived in Helsinki one week before the
Worlds started and went to test the boat on the sea. One of the tests was the
smaller rudder that Wilke built for us at the last minute. We had a very good
feeling with the boat and were always fast against the others.
Four Days before the Worlds started
we sailed on a rock during our Practice in the middle of the Sea. So we had to
repair the front of the Keel during the whole night.
After repairing the front of the
Keel we were ready to sail the Finish Open. We won the two Races with a large
advance but in the first race we crossed the starting line too early and were
disqualified.
The World championship started on
Tuesday the 23rd of July. We won the first race but it was quite
difficult as on the second down wind our spinnaker rope broke. So we had to
take the spinnaker in and sail without it. However, we were very lucky as the
wind shifted forcing the other competitors to take the spinnaker off as well.
Back to the harbour we had to take the mast down and repair everything.
The next Day we had an excellent
day as we won the two races that took place. We had an excellent boat speed and
fortunately nothing broke this time. The following Day, on my fathers
Birthday, we made him a special Birthday present and won the fourth race also.
We were really happy, as we were able to win four races in a row.
On the fourth day, we had two races
again but it was a really difficult sailing day. The wind was very shifty and
we had to control the second boat. So the Bahamas team won the fifth race and Jürg
Menzi won the sixth race. But after this day, and despite finishing 5th
and second on these 2 races, we could already celebrate winning the World
Championship.
We participated in the last race
and had a lot of fun. We could take it easy and sail without any stress. But we
were still hungry for another victory in order to cancel out our worst race
score. We were happy to win the last race and this championship.
We would like to thank again Jean-Claude
Vuithier for helping us in thise project, Christof Wilke and Sébastian
Schmidt for having built this wonderful boat and North Sails for providing
us with such great sails that allowed us to win the 2002 5.5 World
Championship.
Renato Marazzi
Repairing our keel bulb.
