Serafino Barlesi and his co-pilot Francesco Calo could have gone to lunch at the fabulous Restaurant Vadskjæret that overlooks the finish line and still taken the gold medal back to Rome such was their advantage going into the last round. As true racers though they joined the fleet heading out in what had become very blustery conditions, a total transformation from the morning’s practice session.

Barlesi’s closes rival throughout the championship was the French team of François Pinelli and Saul Bubacco onboard Espace Power. They made the best possible start and took an early lead hoping that the World Champions ‘in waiting’ would settle for second place.

What Pinelli hadn’t considered was the frailty of his Mercury engines and just after the first turn mark, they began to lose power. He would push on regardless as he was mindful that his silver medal was now in reach of the Norwegian team of Erik Sundblad Johansen and Pål Virik Nilsen.

Once again though Virik Nilsen had fluffed his lines in the start run.

The start boat was telling all of us to slow down so I back off the throttles just as the green flag was raised, the engines were in totally the wrong torque range and so once again we had to battle our way through the field.

With Serafino and Calo now in a commanding lead, the race was all about the silver and bronze places. Any chance that Alfredo Amato and Roberto Lo Piano onboard D-69 Marco could repeat their race four result of a second place were done for when yet again the aging gearboxes failed, and they headed back to the race pits.

By now Sundblad Johansen and Virik Nilsen had moved into second place and were looking comfortable, whilst Pinelli and Bubacco were desperate to hang onto their silver medal chances, certainly a tough ask as this was the longer race of the two in Larvik.

Finally, to the French team’s relief they saw the chequered flag, which meant that the medal was theirs.

We had no chance today. Sure, we got to the top turn first but that was it. Then it was buoy, rocks, Serafino, buoy, rocks, Serafino, it was tough out there in that technical sea. I should be happy with silver but now we concentrate on the European Championships in Italy where we will have a new team, it will be a surprise.

For Sundblad Johansen and Virik Nilsen collecting the bronze medal was an excellent achievement bearing in mind it was a brand-new boat and just how little seat time they had together.

Considering the fact that it’s the first time we have raced together it’s an amazing result. It was rough at the end of the course. North, South, East, and West, the waves were coming from all directions I was really pleased I had Pål Virik in there with me today. I know the boat handles the turns differently to how he is normally making them, it’s something we will have to resolve.

Once again, the race winners showed that it’s all about balance and Barlesi knew exactly how to go about it.

Into the wind my balance won. At first, we were step by step with the French. Then after lap nine my boat was super speedy as I had planned to push ahead of the pack at that point.

Another ‘masterclass’ delivered by the Roman Emperor.

The UIM President Raffaele Chiulli, who had held meetings earlier with members of the Norges Motorsportforbund including Harald Halvorsen, NMF’s international member of Cominoff, paid tribute to the way the clubs hosted two weeks of offshore class 3 racing.

The clubs have done an outstanding job and we can say that with good cooperation we reached our goal. Norway has not been an organiser of offshore 3D since the 1990’s and after these momentous events let’s hope we don’t have to wait too long to return.

Photos supplied by Chris Davies/PRW

Polo Shirts supplied by Mr. Lars Inge Graver.

It’s fair to say that the race certainly did not go the way that the Banca Generali backed team had planned, when they made an error in counting the laps they had completed.

Even after radio messages from the team and race control had advise Barlesi and his co-pilot Francesco Calo that they had completed the ten laps, the pair carried on and completed a further two, much to everyone’s surprise and amazement. It was almost like they were doing a ‘lap of honour.’

When the triumphant pair reached the harbour, their boat including the pilots were weighed. It was only at that point they realise that they were underweight by twenty-five kilogrammes.

The race officials then proceeded to double-check all their measurement’s but even after an extremely thorough review they still concluded that the entry was under-weight and could potentially face disqualification.

Now their fate lay in the hands of the Race Jury headed up by its Chairman, Mr Harald Halvorsen along with input from the UIM Sport Commissioner, Mikael Lundblad and the UIM Technical Commissioner, John Lasschuit.

Considering the fuel weight lost through their miscalculation of the number of laps, they concluded that a three-minute penalty should be applied to their race time.

This meant that Erik Sundblad Johansen and Pål Virik Nilsen inherited the race victory and were both understandably delighted to be on the top step of podium at the awards ceremony.

When PRW spoke to Virik Nilsen he said.

As you can understand we were both incredibly happy with getting a second place. Then when Barlesi got a penalty, and we got first well it’s just the perfect bonus. I take any victory I can get but I do feel sorry for him but that’s racing sometimes.

Making his debut in the Rashed Al Merri built catamaran, sponsored by Energima Gruppen AS, Virik Nilsen also said that they had a dreadful start to the race.

I had to back off just before the green flag went up. When I then pushed again on the throttle, I had no power and all the competitors passed us. Anyway, we managed to overtake them all except Barlesi. We tried to catch him and were remarkably close on several occasions. I felt I had to push over the limit to really catch him. At the stage we are now it’s not worth it because we need more time in the boat and not ruin the good start we have now made.

Barlesi’s closes rival in the championship was the French team of François Pinelli and Saul Bubacco onboard Espace Power but reliability doubts had begun to creep during the mornings practice session.

Yesterday I had no issues, today I have no rpm.

It wasn’t long after the race had got underway before the French pair were limping back into the harbour. One engine was down on power, and the other engine had snapped a drive shaft inside the gear case. Pinelli was far from happy.

Never in my entire racing career have I broken a gearbox, now I come to Norway and in less than a week I brake two, c’est incroyable.

Gearbox woes also accounted for Alfredo Amato and Roberto Lo Piano onboard D-69 Marco. They will now go into the final round on Saturday with everything still to play for in the medals table.

Photos. Chris Davies/PRW

Burgers supplied by Mr. Lars Inge Graver

As well as being the ‘main man’ behind the race Inge Graver has since 1998 managed Virik Nilsen racing activities. When PRW spoke to him today he had this to say.

I’m really happy to see him racing here as we recently spoke about what race he should do next, as his options this year are limited with so few events on the calendar. It’s extra special for me to have him here as I know full well what he’s capable of.

Virik Nilsen will sit alongside Erik Sundblad Johansen in the Rashed Al Merri built catamaran sponsored by Energima Gruppen AS who specialise in finding solutions for ventilation and cooling systems for commercial buildings.

Sundblad Johansen was delighted to have Virik Nilsen onboard.

We have only been testing together for a short while but already I can feel he has a lot of experience with this kind of boat, it’s like it’s in his DNA. We know that the boat has the speed and I know he can get the best out of it, so I’m really excited to have him in the cockpit with me.

For the highly experienced Virik Nilsen, who only lives five minutes from the racecourse, he is really relishing the opportunity of getting back out on the water.

I have been around these water on several occasions but only in a pleasure boat as there has never been an offshore race here in Larvik before. So technically it’s my ‘home race’ but that’s no real advantage.

His first impressions from testing were that this catamaran takes the corners totally different from what he is more used to in an XCat hull.

This boat actually feels similar to a Twister catamaran I had where you needed to keep the speed up in the turns by drifting it around the buoys. In an XCat you can almost pin the turn marks like a circuit boat. Just to be out in a raceboat is so positive plus I have the added bonus of supporting my manager here in Norway. Erik is so calm and precise with his driving that I know we can have a great working relationship together.

As Virik Nilsen climbed in the cockpit his presence in the pits did not go unnoticed by the Italian crews. Serafino Barlesi, who currently leads the UIM 3D World Championship title race was quick to praise the Norwegian.

I have seen him in XCat and Class 1 he’s an exceptionally good pilot, the perfect choice.

When PRW pressed him about his race strategy for the final two championship races here in Larvik he said

Of course, for me usually we take it one race at a time, but I will always go into every race looking to win it. I hope it’s rough on Thursday so we can see what the opposition are made of.

Photos: Chris Davies/PRW