It was certainly a day of mixed fortunes for those battling to be crowned a UIM Class 3 World Champion at Tvedestrand, Norway. After all the ‘Pit talk’ it was finally time to bolt on what you had hoped would be the ‘perfect’ propeller to deal with the rough and smooth.
First to head out to the muster area just off Tvedestrand were the 3B and 3C competitors and just like their first race on Wednesday Fredrik Groth Fyro and Fillip Eriksson (C-86) were late again having to deal with an electrical issue. Once again their last-minute drama resulted in another podium finish, though this time it would be the top step.
When they spoke to PRW they did say that they would have preferred to have not had the time-consuming issue. Perhaps though they are now superstitious and will be the last to join the fleet come Saturday to try to secure another podium position.
They also commented that they were even more surprised with race two’s result.
We thought the other teams would have more speed in the flat as we chose a small propeller. Then in the on the first lap we got a good feeling in the rough and knew all we had to do was keep that tempo.
Following them home were Victor Jansson and Sebastian Hogberg (C-80) who had opted to run the same prop that saw them finish in third place the previous day.
We knew we had good speed in the flat parts of the course, know are we can hope for is that the conditions remain the same for Saturday.
Much to the delight of the local supporters the Norwegian team of Jonas Hanson and Kristian Hagen (C-94) were third across the finish line.
Swapping to a new engine for race two did not solve Erik Sundblad Johansen and Frank James Wilson (C-55) problems after finishing a disappointing fourth, the team will now spend the Friday ‘lay-day’ completely stripping out the fuel system to rectify their issue.
Following their victory, the previous day Sebastian Groth and Josefin Due Boie (C-45) were forced to retire when a blade snapped off their propeller halfway round the second lap.
Running alongside the 3C competitors were those chasing the 3B crown and at first it looked like the race victory would go to Rasmus Hamrén and Madeleine Samuelsson (B-32).
Heading round the lighthouse turn all the 3B runners were close together but once back inside the protection of the fjords it was Hamrén and Samuelsson that found the required speed to pull away from the pack. Their moment of joy though was short lived as fuel starvation began to hinder their progress. The pair soon discovered that their engine was only getting fuel from their left tank and nothing from the right hand one.
Meanwhile Anton Modin and Christoffer Groth (B-82) who had propped for the rough soon took the lead, which running a smaller pitch propeller meant once out in front the rest of the pack would struggle to stick with them out in the open sea.
It was really rough out there, particularly around the lighthouse turn. When we got back to the pits, we found that we had taken about twenty kilos of water on board. I know Hamrén will come back fighting for victory on Saturday after scoring no points today, but we now have a great advantage over him in the battle for the title.
Following them across the line were the Norwegian pair of Greger Mathisen Lauvvik and Eirik Nilsen who had barely got the raceboat wet before heading to the world championships.
We have never raced in those conditions before. So, our result today was totally unexpected and let’s hope for the same on Saturday. Go big or go home.
Third to finish were Urban Lagerstrom and Andrine Goderstad.
Race Three for the 3C competitors and Race Two for the 3B teams will take place on Saturday 9 July at 13:00 local time and can be followed via the Live Stream on the Tvedestrand Racing Klubb Facebook page.
Photos: Chris Davies/PRW
