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

Saturday’s race in Tvedestrand probably proved to be the knock-out blow to Frenchman François Pinelli chances when gearbox failure reduced his progress to a crawl around the fjords after just two laps. To score any championship points he needed to complete over seventy per cent of the race but more importantly his last lap must have had an average speed of not less than fifty per cent of his fastest one.

Unfortunately for Pinelli his fastest average lap was 80.8 knots and his last one was thirty-five meaning he took away no points.

Barlesi knew that the sea had changed on the outer sections of the course. The one and half metre rolling sea state had gone, to be replaced with smooth water conditions. He also knew that Pinelli had the quicker boat more suited to those conditions, so he changed the balance of his catamaran and tried a completely different propeller set up.

The changes paid off, but he wasn’t entirely happy.

The twisty nature of the fjords can make forward visibility at over one hundred and twenty kmph a bit tricky, and although the race organisers had re set the course to allow the competitors and spectator boats a better chance of spotting each other Barlesi had to twice back off the throttles to avoid encroaching spectator boats.

With a course like this it’s almost impossible for the race organisers to cover the entire track, they do a very impressive job with over thirty marshal boats, but it only takes one or two idiots to think they can race us. Perhaps I sell them my boat and they can try again next year.

After the demise of Pinelli and Saul Bubacco, it was up to Alfredo Amato and Roberto Lo Piano onboard D-69 Marco to take the fight to Barlesi but they were more concerned about getting points on the table.

When Alfredo Amato spoke to PRW he said

The team have worked extremely hard to improve the boat, we all deserve that place on the podium. It’s a new boat for me and Roberto, this is just the fuel we need for the next race in Larvik. We are now ready to go after the other boats.

The penultimate round for the 2022 UIM 3D World Championship gets underway in Larvik on Thursday 14 July.

Photos by Chris Davies/PRW

Helicopter supplied by Helitrans, the country’s largest domestic helicopter companies with bases spread around Norway.

Having come away from the opening two races in Rodi Garganico, Italy with a decent points haul, Serafino Barlesi racing his Banca Generali backed Victory built catamaran now has the Frenchman François Pinelli breathing down the back of his neck after winning the third round.

Pinelli, who had Saul Bubacco sat alongside him in their Victory built catamaran Espace Power (D-1) described the race as beautiful.

Flat then rough is perfect for us. We had good speed in both sections. Yes, it’s a very technical lap but thankfully our boat is balanced well, it proved very stable when the conditions changed.

For Barlesi though he was not a happy Italian after both he and Pinelli went for the same line into the turn opposite the town on the opening lap. In the impact his right-hand sponson was holed but worse was the fact that his power steering was damaged, leaving them to complete the race with no assistance.

We won’t protest but yes, we have a hole to fix before Saturday.

With just thirty minutes between the UIM 3C World Championship race and the 3D race, Erik Sundblad Johansen reset his focus and joined Jan Trygve Braaten for their third race together in their Enegima sponsored catamaran. The ‘local hero’s’ felt that they had made a good propeller choice but still needed seat time.

Perhaps I’m a little disappointed to finish in third place but I can’t feel the boat yet. I need to get more friendly with it because it does not cope well in the tight corners just yet.

Fourth place went to the Rautti catamaran Marco driven by Alfredo Amato and Roberto Lo Piano. Their Mercury outboard engines were down on power giving them little chance of keeping up with the fleet.

Race Four for the 3D World Championship competitors will take place on Saturday 9 July at 14:30 local time and can be followed via the Live Stream on the Tvedestrand Racing Klubb Facebook page.

Photos Chris Davies/PRW