Bumblebee 5 loses sting in light winds of the Mediterranean

by Peter Campbell on 23 May 2002 The Australian yacht Bumblebee 5, overall winner of the rugged 2001 Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, has moved up to seventh place overall despite finishing seventh on corrected time in the 170 nautical mile third race of the Rolex IMS Offshore World Championships being sailed on the Mediterranean.

Bumblebee 5, owned by Sydney yachtsman John Kahlbetzer and skippered by Iain Murray, is the only Australian boat in the fleet of 86 yachts contesting the prestigious event.

However, the 62-footer designed by Murray Burns Dovell and built by Sydney Yachts, has had a week of mixed fortune in the light airs and flat water as she contests the IMS Offshore Worlds, based on Italy's Isle of Capri.

She placed 18th in Division A of the first short offshore race, then won the second to be ninth overall after the first day.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia-registered Bumblebee 5 finished third across the line today at the end of the slow 170 nautical mile race, but could not break away from the fast 50-footers which dominated provisional results announced by Yacht Club Costa Smeralda.

Nevertheless, the Australian boat has moved to seventh overall and, after discarding her first race 18th, she is holding fifth place overall in Division A.

Leading the series in Division A after three races is Pasquale Landolfi's Farr 49, BravaQ8, the defending IMS world champion, followed by Onorato Vincenzo's Farr 51, Breeze, and King Harald V of Norway with his new Farr 50, Fram XV.

Those three yachts placed in that order on corrected time in the long race after crossing the finish line off the Isle of Capri less than two minutes apart and only 25 minutes astern of Bumblebee 5.

In Division B, the overall leader is the Greek yacht, Okyalos VII, an IMX 40, with the Italian boat, Team Revolution, a modified Beneteau First 36.7, a close second.