Anton Modin and Christoffer Groth in B-82 have taken a giant leap ahead of the pack all chasing down the 2022 UIM 3B World Championship title after they took the chequered flag in race two held in Tvedestrand, Norway.
The Swedish pair will now head back to Öregrund where earlier on in the year they beat their rivals Rasmus Hamrén and Madeleine Samuelsson in B-32 by over a minute.
It almost didn’t go to plan for Modin and Groth because as they reached the muster area they had some fuel issues which they only just managed to solve before the start boat began its journey down the fjord before setting the fleet on its way.
As they reached the lighthouse turn for the first time, they were side by side with Hamrén and Samuelsson. As the rounded the northly mark Modin opted to take a tighter line around the buoy but in doing so they span out handing Hamrén a huge advantage.
Fortunately, Modin and Groth remained upright and had opened a gap back to the third-place team of Urban Lagerstrom and Andrine Goderstad allowing them time to collect their thoughts and head off after the leaders.
By now the wind had decreased in speed which had caught Hamrén and Samuelsson out as they had chosen a propeller that would work better in breezy conditions. This allowed Modin and Groth to close in on the leaders as they had opted for a propeller that would suit the fjords and they were soon past them and headed off to take victory number two.
We worked hard out there today in that fickle breeze, it felt worse to race the boat in the fjords than out in the open sea today. We deliberately swoped to a bigger prop as I thought Hamrén would have shot off into the distance, but he seemed to struggle out there today.
After the prize ceremony Rasmus Hamrén admitted that the weather he had been expecting just didn’t materialise.
It was really windy at the start but then two laps later it slowed dramatically. We pushed it to the limits on that last lap, but we still couldn’t close the gap. I’m happy that we did score some points today and in a small way I’m happy that Modin won. What makes me sad though is the thought that this could very well be our last ever UIM 3B World Championship because so little teams are racing this class now.
The Norwegian pair of Greger Mathisen Lauvvik and Eirik Nilsen in B-73 did enough today to maintain their grip on second place in the points table, which very much pleased them bearing in mind just how little testing they had undertaken before heading to the championships.
Just nineteen points behind the Norwegians are Lagerstrom and Goderstad, so there is still plenty at stake before the UIM medals are awarded next month.
Photos by Chris Davies/PRW
Helicopter supplied by Helitrans, the country’s largest domestic helicopter companies with bases spread around Norway.
