BY DAHALIA SMITH, NG Sports Reporter , dahalia@nasguard.com

Team Norway must be quite satisfied winning the regatta named after their hometown, the Scandinavian Gold Cup over the Netherlands and Great Britain at the International 5.5 Meter World Championship sailed under the auspices of the Bahamas Sailing Association (BSA).

In the end the Norway team, captained by Sebastian Schmidt, won three out of five races including races two, four and five to take their title back home.

According to the regattas' chairman John Lawrence, Norway won by at least four boat lengths ahead of the Netherlands, who were ahead of Great Britain which finished third. Great Britain won the first race of the series and the Netherlands won the third race.

When the Scandinavian Gold Cup began there were eight boats sailing for the title, however, the Scandinavian Gold Cup's format only allows the winners in the first three races to sail for the title. There were seven races scheduled in the series.

After the third race, the only countries eligible to continue competing in the series were Norway, the Netherlands and Great Britain. Meanwhile The Bahamas along with the other four countries were ousted from the series after the third race.

Lawrence told the Nassau Guardian that the competition in the Scandinavian Gold Cup was fierce.

"The races were very long stretching at least 12 miles," he said. "We held two races on Thursday (four and five) and Norway won both. In the first race Norway moved away from the rest of the fleet by the time they reached the first win ward marker.

"Then in the second race competition was very close between the Netherlands and the Norway. They were practically close to each other for the entire race. At one point in the second race the Netherlands got ahead of Norway about half way through the race.

"Soon thereafter Norway regained their lead. Once they got their lead back they retained it for the remainder of the race. Norway's lead heading towards the finish line was a comfortable one and they held on for the title," Lawrence said.

Lawrence added that three races in the Bahamas Open National Championship and Duke of Edinburgh Cup commenced on Thursday.

He explained: "In addition to concluding the Scandinavian Gold Cup we simultaneously began the Bahamas Open National Championship and Duke of Edinburgh Cup series. So the winner of the Open National Championship will be presented with the Duke of Edinburgh Cup.

"This Cup in particular was presented to the Nassau Yacht Club by the Duke of Edinburgh years ago so it is a special Cup that he had presented for the 5.5 regattas. However we decided not to race on Friday because the wind was too strong," Lawrence said.

The results have been released for the first three races of the Bahamas Open National Championship and Duke of Edinburgh Cup five race series. The team sitting in first place, out of 18 participating countries and after the first set of races, is the Netherlands on the 'Feng Shui' that picked up two wins and one third.

The Bahamas team made up Gavin McKinney, Peter Hauff and Lars Horn Johannesen is in second place picking up one win, a second and fifth-place finish.

The Swiss, onboard the 'Marie Francoise XVII', is sitting in second place registering one second place, a third and fourth place finishings.

The fluctuating wind conditions are something that will be problematic to team Switzerland when the World Championships kick off next week according to Swiss captain Andrew Oberdanne.

Nonetheless Oberdanne noted: "This is our first time racing in The Bahamas and we are very excited. I have sailed in countries all around the world such as Helsinki, my homeland and several other European countries. However we are very excited about racing in these beautiful waters."