Bent Christian Wilhelmsen has been racing 5.5 Metres for nine years, picked up a handful of minor event wins along the way, and never once taken a major title. That changed at Malcesine, on Lake Garda, where his boat Otto dominated the inaugural 5.5 Metre Multi Nations from start to finish.
Sailing with Lasse Berthelsen and Herve Cunningham, the Norwegian crew never let the regatta turn into a contest. Poland’s Aspire, sailed by Przemek Gacek, Mateusz Kusznierewicz and Kilian Weise, took second, campaigning consistently enough across the series to hold the runner-up spot without ever seriously threatening the top of the leaderboard. Switzerland’s Caracole, with Bernard Haissley, Nicolas Berthoud and Daniel Shampfli aboard, took third after three separate races, a run of results steady enough to hold the final podium place.
It’s a class that rewards exactly this kind of long apprenticeship. The 5.5 Metre fleet is thick with sailors who’ve been in the boat for a decade or more, and a first major win after nine years in the class isn’t a fluke result, it’s what patience in a genuinely difficult one-design eventually pays out.
