Ben Ainslie wins Allianz Cup

Photo (c) Allianz Cup/Bob Grieser photo

Ben Ainslie of Emirates Team New Zealand became the fifth first-time winner on the World Tour this season when he defeated Ed Baird of Alinghi in the final of the Allianz Cup Presented by Oracle. Ainslie won the five-race series 3-1, winning three straight after dropping the first.
Facing a 2-1 deficit, Baird got a late hook on Ainslie in the pre-start of Flight 4, but then let Ainslie off the hook. Ainslie tacked to port and Baird tried to follow but lost his boatspeed and nearly got stuck in irons. That allowed Ainslie to separate towards the race committee boat, tack to starboard and take a one and a half boatlength lead onto the racecourse. Ainslie covered relentlessly throughout the match for the series win.
Despite the loss, Baird moved into second place on the world championship leaderboard. His second place finish added 20 points to his scoreline and gives him 40 points total, 7 behind leader Ian Williams who placed 4th at the Allianz Cup. Paolo Cian and Jesper Bank are tied for third with 35 points. Ainslie slots in as 9th on the leaderboard with 25 points.

News from Russia, Evgeny Neugodnikov

Hi all
This afternoon we got an email from Russia, It's a Russian Press note we believe it has to do with the Team from Evgeny Neugodnikov, his participation on the match race in Berlin, the world tour and the ISAF conference in Finland.

We are very pleased to publish this text as we are getting more and more readers from Russia.

Good luck Evgeny Neugodnikov also called "The Lord of the sail"

Enjoy reading details in Russian on the teamsite

Baird up, Brits tied at Aliianz Cup

source by: Sean McNeill

America’s veteran match racer is up 2-0 and England’s wunderkinds are tied 1-1 in the Semifinal Round of the Allianz Cup Presented by Oracle, Stage 5 of the 2005-’06 World Match Racing Tour.
Ed Baird (St. Petersburg, Fla.) leads Denmark’s Jesper Bank 2-0 in one semifinal match. Baird staged a come from behind victory in their first race and then dominated the second race for the lead.
“We got an opportunity at the first windward mark,” Baird said of his first race. “He dialed us down hard on starboard. It was close whether we could cross behind him but were able to.”
Once around the windward mark, Baird’s crew snapped off a maneuver quicker than Bank’s. “We had a much better jibe and that was the race,” said Baird.
In the other half of the semifinal bracket 29-year-old Ian Williams, the match racing world championship points leader, is tied with triple Olympic medalist Ben Ainslie, also 29.

Read more at Match Race Events sections

BAIRD WINS GROUP B AT ALLIANZ CUP

(c) Allianz Cup/Paul Todd

source by: Sean McNeill

Ed Baird, a helmsman for America’s Cup defense syndicate Alinghi, won the Group B round robin at the Allianz Cup Presented by Oracle, Stage 5 of the 2006-’07 World Match Racing Tour.
Baird (St. Petersburg, Fla.) won all three of his matches today and finished with a 6-1 record. Baird tied for the win with Italian Paolo Cian of Team Viano Mercedes Benz – Shosholoza. Cian led yesterday at 4-0, but his lone loss was to Baird in Flight 5 which gave Baird the win.
“It was pretty light,” said Baird, the only skipper to finish in the Championship 8 every Tour season. “There was some current. The current was changing, and each race was different. That was part of the difficulty, to be comfortable with that. Especially in the starting area, it seemed to be quite different than on the racecourse. My guys did a great job of reading that and timing to the line. It gave me a lot of confidence to be in right place in the starts. We got ahead and stayed there today.”
Baird’s timing was the difference in the pre-start against Cian in Flight 5.
“They did an incredible job of time and distance to the line and were able to push us up and out of the line,” said Cian. “So the race was probably over at the beginning. I think we were pretty happy with six wins out of seven races. It’s just the way you read it.”
Denmark’s Jesper Bank, skipper of United Internet Team Germany, finished third at 5-2 and Australian Peter Gilmour, the reigning match racing world champion, was fourth at 4-3.
They advance to tomorrow’s Quarterfinal Round, which features some very intriguing matches. Baird will face Chris Dickson, skipper and CEO of BMW ORACLE Racing. Cian races Ben Ainslie, a helmsman for Emirates Team New Zealand. Bank takes on Peter Holmberg, another helmsman for Alinghi, and Gilmour goes against Ian Williams, the current leader of the world championship standings.
The winner of each match is the first to 3 points. The quarterfinals will be broadcast live on the Internet tomorrow at www.Sail.tv. The Webcast is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m., weather permitting.
The light winds from the north today inhibited the completion of more racing. The wind blew mostly between 6 and 8 knots, but died away in the afternoon which forced racing to be abandoned after Group B finished its round robin.
The event moves on to the quarterfinals without arguably its biggest attraction, Larry Ellison. The CEO of Oracle and founder of the BMW ORACLE Racing Team fell to 0-5 before closing out with two wins. He finished with a 2-5 record and in 6th place in the group.
“Actually, we’re kind of pleased with sixth place,” Ellison said to a packed press conference at the St. Francis Yacht Club. “Let’s here it for sixth place!”
Ellison said he hadn’t raced in J/105s before but enjoyed the regatta. He said that yesterday was a very humbling experience sailing in a cross current.
“It is very difficult and tricky sailing in a cross current,” Ellison said. “And sailing against this caliber of skipper and these quality teams, it’s quite astonishing how good they are at what they do. It was just an honor for me to be out amongst them.”
The Allianz Cup may not be Ellison’s last World Tour event. He received an impromptu invitation to Stage 6, the Monsoon Cup in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia, from Gilmour, the event’s technical director.
“Just yesterday I got word that Russell Coutts is unavailable to come because he doesn’t have a crew,” said Gilmour. “So Larry, there’s an opening for you. It’s known as the world’s richest event in sailing with a 1 million ringet ($275,000) prize money.”
“Are you serious?” replied Ellison.
“I guess that’s a yes,” Gilmour conclude.

“Ladies Only 2006“: Women’s Match Race in Hamburg 3rd-5th November 2006

From the 3rd until the 5th of November at the ”Ladies Only“, organised by the Hamburger Segel-Club (HSC). Competitors from all over Europe will show exciting duels boat against boat.
“The European Championship in October was a big success for us and we are looking forward to have high-class female sailors here for our women’s event as well“, stated Manuel Huensch from the HSC, organiser of the “Ladies Only“. Some of the best sailors from Denmark, Great Britain, France, Poland, Finland and Ireland will join the German competitors.
The titleholder Silke Hahlbrock from Hamburg is one of the top favourites.
The 22 years old student is currently ranked sixth in the women’s world match race ranking list. Among others, she will be competing the number eight in the world Josie Gibson from Southampton/Great Britain who wants to take revenge at the “Ladies Only“. Because Silke Hahlbrock sailed against the British team in last years final and won. “It was very close“, said Hahlbrock, “Josie got along with the Streamline very well even though she did not sail the boat before. It won’t be easy to win against the highly competitive teams this year“, adds Hahlbrock, “As everybody learnt a lot in the meantime“. There will be three more German teams fighting for the crown:
Suzanne Willim (34th in the world ranking list), Ulrike Firk (32nd in the world ranking list) and Ulrike Schümann (Vice world champion in the Olympic Yngling-class and number 59 in the Match Race world ranking).

Competitors of the Ladies Only 2006
Ranking, Team, Skippers Name, Country
6 Team Musto HSC Silke Hahlbrock Germany
8 Gibson Josie Gibson GreatBritain
16 Team sail 4 cancer Gemma Farrell Great Britain
17 YCPR Marseille Delphine Casas France
20 Team Ulrikkeholm Camilla Ulrikkeholm Denmark
21 Team Silja Lehtinen Silja Lehtinen Finland
30 O'Laughlin Mary O’Loughlin Ireland
31 Team SW Susanne Ward Denmark
32 GERUF1 Ulrike FirkGermany
34 Kemt Suzanne Willim Germany
36 Czarniawska Maja Czarniawska Poland
59 Schuenn-Crew Ulrike Schümann Germany

Ian Williams wins Group A at Allianz Cup

source by: Sean McNeill

The leader of the match racing world championship standings won today the Group A round robin at the Allianz Cup Presented by Oracle, Stage 5 of the World Match Racing Tour.
Ian Williams, the 29-year-old skipper of Team Pindar, won the group with a 5-2 record. He topped a three-way tiebreaker with Peter Holmberg of Alinghi and Ben Ainslie of Emirates Team New Zealand, two syndicates for the America’s Cup, for the win.

Group A Provisional Standings
(After 7 of 7 flights)
1. Ian Williams (GBR) Team Pindar, 5-2
(Crew: Bill Hardesty, Gerry Mitchell, Chresten Plinius, Mark Williams)
2. Peter Holmberg (ISV) Alinghi, 5-2
(Crew: Rodney Ardern, Curtis Blewett, Peter Evans, Lorenzo Mazza)
3. Ben Ainslie (GBR) Emirates Team New Zealand, 5-2
(Crew: James Dagg, Terry Hutchinson, Jeremy Lomas, Tony Rae)
4. Chris Dickson (NZL) BMW ORACLE Racing, 4-3
(Crew: Zach Hurst, Jann Neegaard, Kazuhiko Sofuku, Paul Westlake)
5. Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team, 4-3
(Crew: Johan Bäckman, Martin Berntsson, Matthew Gregory, Björn Lundgren)
6. Staffan Lindberg (FIN) Alandia Sailing Team, 2-5
(Crew: Nils Bjerkås, Magnus Hanson, Martin Krite, Carl-Johan Uckelstam)
7. Chris Perkins (USA) Team St. Francis Yacht Club, 2-5
(Crew: Scott Easom, Steve Marsh, Russ Silvestri, Darren Ward)
8. Björn Hansen (SWE) Team Apport.net, 1-6
(Crew: Mathias Bredin, Gustaf Tempelman, Johan Quiberg, Magnus Woxen)

Read more at Match Race Events section.

Women MR Europeans from "the kitchen"

EUROSAF Women Match Race European Championship was held this year in Mondello-Palermo in Sicily from 20 to 24 September. The European Champion title was taken by Italian skipper Sabrina Gurioli and her team.
Today we talk to Luigi Bertini, one of the organizers and also both PRO and Umpire during Women Match Race Europeans in Sicily, about the preparation to the event, its brights and shadows. In one word, let's see how the event looked from "the kitchen" side :)

Sofia: How did you find the MR Women Europeans in Sicily from organizers' side?
Luigi: Good enough from the technical side on water. Just the social side could be better as we had some delays with food after races
What were the main goals and challenges for you to organize such an event?
I organized a lot of MR events and I used this event to improve more my experience. Also I wanted to help the Italian Sailing Federation and the club in it.
What was the main difficulty?
To find the umpires (there was 6 international MR events in Europe in the same time) and to find the competitors (in the previous week there was the StQuay INT Fem MR and the following week there was the Lake Constance INT Fem MR.
What boats did you use and how did the competitors find them?
We used the FIV555, the official Italian Sailing Federation boats. The reports from the competitors were good but we had very light condition.
What did you enjoyed the most?
The competitors was a really fantastic group, very kind and correct.
Who gave you the biggest support?
Paolo Speciale (secretary of the Club) and Laura Serretta (in charge to support competitors and umpires)
Do you think such Europeans are good promotion of women match racing?
Yes indeed!
Next events in Sicily?
We will organize three MR events next year in Sicily, one of this will be the CentoCup, a traditional grade 1.
Thanks for sharing with us some more info. about Women MR Europeans!

Allianz Cup - entry list presented

source by: Sean McNeill

The Allianz Cup Presented by Oracle brings the World Tour to the U.S. for the first time. Hosted at the St. Francis Yacht Club, racing will be held in J/105s on San Francisco Bay. The 16 teams represent a mix of America’s Cup syndicates and the next generation of match-race sailors.

Entry list
Ben Ainslie (GBR) Emirates Team New Zealand — Placed 3rd at Brazil Sailing Cup in March
Brian Angel (USA) King Harbor Match Race — Winner Nations Cup North American Final
Ed Baird (USA) Alinghi — Tied for 8th in World Championship standings
Jesper Bank (DEN) United Internet Team Germany — Tied for 8th in World Championship standings
Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team — Won ACI Cup in May
Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Viano Mercedes Benz — Tied for 5th in World Championship standings
Chris Dickson (NZL) BMW ORACLE Racing — Tied for 5th in World Championship standings
Cameron Dunn (NZL) Mascalzone Latino — Capitalia Team – Placed 4th at Toscana Elba Cup in July
Larry Ellison (USA) BMW ORACLE Racing — Founder of BMW ORACLE Racing Team
Peter Gilmour (AUS) PST — Reigning match racing world champion and World Tour champion
Björn Hansen (SWE) Team Apport.net — Placed 6th at Bermuda Gold Cup two weeks ago
Peter Holmberg (ISV) Alinghi — Placed 6th at St. Moritz Match Race in July
Staffan Lindberg (FIN) Alandia Sailing Team — Ranked 7th in World Championship standings
Chris Perkins (USA) — Local qualifier from St. Francis Yacht Club
Mathieu Richard (FRA) Saba Sailing Team — Ranked 2nd in World Championship standings
Ian Williams (GBR) Team Pindar — Ranked 1st in World Championship standings

First matches start tommorow

Monnin wins the Geneva Int. Match Race 3/0 against Morvan

Photo (c) commeleau.com

Short day on water today in Genava, with light wind condistions have been sailed the Final days.
Tthe final was decided after 3 match
Monnin win 3/0 against Morvan
The petit final had a clear autcome too
Psarofaghis win 2/0 against Weiller

Final Ranking is:
1. Eric Monnin SUI
2. Pierre Antoine Morvan FRA
3. Arnould Psarofaghis SUI
4. Manuel Weiller ESP
5. Tino Ellegast GER
6. Michael Cohen FRA
7. Przmek Tarnacki POL

See more pictures

Geneva International Match Race, Morvan and Monnin in the final

Photo (c) commeleau.com

Here are the results from Saturday Day 2:
1st round robin completed, in light wind conditions. Right for the LGT Sponsor race a nice breeze came back, the winner of the sponsor fleet race was Michel Cohen.

Photo (c) commeleau.com

After the sponsor the race office Pascal Monnet started the second round robin, he managed to get done 5 of 7 flights before 4 pm until the start of the semifinals.

Standing after 1 round robin a 5 flights of the second
1. Morvan 6 points
2. Weiller 4.5 points
3. Monnin 4 points
4. Pfarofaghis 3 points
5. Ellegast 1.5 points
6. Cohen 1 point
7. Tarnacki 1 point

Semifinal results:
Morvan / Psarofaghi 2/0
Monnin / Weiller 2/0

The pairing for the today final will be:
Morvan / Monnin
Weiller / Psarofaghis

See more pictures

TARNACKI Racing Team finishes Geneva Int. MR

TARNACKI Racing Team again had a bad day. Polish sailors for the second time won only one out of five races and did not manage to qualify for semifinals.

"Geneva International MR has already finished for us and we cannot treat it as a good event in terms of results. We take conclusions out of it and we are looking forward to more training and another event in Riva del Garda where we go in 8 days." - said Przemyslaw Tarnacki, the skipper of TARNACKI Racing Team.

Geneva International Match Race Day 1

hello from Geneva

yesterday we ha a good day we almost completed the 1st round robin, due to the wind we could only start racing in the early afternoon.

The big surprise of the day was the performance of the young Spanish sailor M. Weiller who won 5 of 6 races.

Today we plan the sail the last maches of the 1st round robin, going in to the second one and arounf 4pm we plan to go in to the semifinals.

The actual ranking is:
1. Morvan
2. Weiller
3. Monnin
4. Pfarofaghis
5. Tranacki
6. Ellegast
7. Cohen

See more pictures of the event

Tarnacki Racing Team at Geneva International MR

Today first matches of ISAF Grade 3 event Geneva International Match Race started. The event is organized by Societe Nautique de Geneve - the club of defenders of America's Cup. Jurg is there to keep us updated from first hand and I would like to make the event closer to you from the competitors' side where among all we have Przemyslaw Tarnacki, Polish skipper of Tarnacki Racing Team. Polish Team raced 5 matches today and won only one:
"We were missing some good luck today, did not see too many wind shifts when afloat and furthemore this is the first time when we sail in Polish - Swiss Team." - said Przemyslaw Tarnacki.
"Our bowman is Swiss member of the club Peter Stucki. As a consolation of today's defeats we can look at Americas' Cup that is safely hiden behind the bulletproof glass and guarded by cameras in the club's hall". - continues Przemyslaw Tarnacki.
Tommorow second round robin is planned.

World Champions at Allianz Cup

source by: Sean McNeill

Past match racing world champions Chris Dickson and Peter Gilmour, along with BMW ORACLE Racing team founder and owner Larry Ellison, are among the entrants for the first Allianz Cup Presented by Oracle, Stage 5 of the 2006-’07 World Match Racing Tour.
Sixteen teams are entered in the $100,000 Allianz Cup, scheduled Oct. 25-29 at the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco. The winner earns $25,000. The teams represent a mix of America’s Cup syndicates and the next generation of match-race sailors.
“We think we’ve assembled an outstanding field for our first event in the USA,” said World Tour President Scott MacLeod. “There are eight teams representing Cup syndicates and it’ll be fun to see whether the younger sailors can upset the Cup veterans.”

Read more in Match Race Events section

The quarter final of our life…so fare

(c) Photo matchrace.ch

A special day was waiting for us on Friday October 13, as we had to compete against James Spithill in the quarter finals. We never faced him but of course we were aware that we had a best of five series against one of the worlds very best match race sailors.
The tension was high but bad weather with either no wind or strong thunderstorms made the racing impossible Friday, all races were postponed to Saturday....

Read more about how the team Monnin managed to win 3-2 aginst James Spithill

Geneva International Match Race Gr 3

Next weekend will be sailed the 2006 Geneva International Match Race on the Surprise boats.

The list of invited skippers is:

1) Pierre-Antoine Morvan, FRA, 18
2) Eric Monnin, SUI, 24
3) Tino Ellegast, GER, 29
4) Orel Jure, SLO, 38
5) Michel Cohen, FRA, 41
6) Przmeck Tarnacki, POL, 55
7) Manuel Weiller, ESP, 126
8) Arnaud Psarofaghis, SUI, 128

Geneva International Matche Race 2004 © Loris von Siebenthal

See more pictures from the previous years

Ian Williams wins the Bermuda Gold Cup

Eric MONNIN raises both fists in exultation after defeating
James SPITHILL in the quarter-finals:© Gold Cup/Charles ANDERSON

Ian Williams has won the 58th annual King Edward VII Gold Cup with a 3-1 defeat of Mathieu Richard in the final. Williams grabbed the lead on the first upwind leg and never gave Richard an option to pass.
The championship is Williams’ first event win on the World Tour in two tries. He also made the final of the Elba Cup in July, but lost.
Mathieu Richard pulled a stunning comeback in Flight 3 to keep the final of the Gold Cup alive. The race looked glum for Richard at the start, who was pushed over the line early by Ian Williams and also had a penalty from a pre-start incident. But he stayed patient, unloaded the penalty approaching the leeward mark, and then gained big separation on the second upwind leg to pass Williams on the right side. Richard then extended to a roughly 40 second lead at the third windward mark for an easy run to the finish.

Bermudian Blythe Walker pulled a similar Houdini act in the Petite Final. Carrying a pre-start penalty, Walker took the lead shortly after the start. The match was close for the first of the three laps, but he slowly extended on the second upwind leg. At the third windward mark he led by almost one minute. All that was left was for him to complete his penalty turn at the finish line, which was easily done for a 3-2 victory over Eric Monnin and third place overall. Monnin finishes fourth overall.

Bermuda Gold Cup: Eric Monnin beat James Spithill 3-2 in the QF

Eric Monnin and Blythe Walker pulled stunning upsets in the Quarterfinal Round of the Gold Cup. Monnin, from Switzerland, took down the reigning event champion James Spithill of Italy’s Luna Rossa Challenge for the America’s Cup, 3-2.

Walker, the local hero, defeated Staffan Lindberg of Finland, who finished third overall on last year’s World Tour, also by a 3-2 count.

Monnin and Walker both faced 2-1 deficits before rallying for the victories.

In the other quarterfinal matches, Ian Williams of Great Britain defeated Bjorn Hansen of Sweden, 3-2, and France’s Mathieu Richard downed Chris Law of Great Britain in straight sets, 3-0.

The winds have been mostly light today, blowing from the west between 5 and 8 knots.

This afternoon’s semifinals pit Monnin versus Williams and Walker against Richard.

Team Monnin: Qualified for the QF and facing James Spithill

We had a very close first match agains Ian Williams. The key moments were at both top marks where Ian was leading on the left side but unable to cross in front of us coming starbord. At the second windward mark he tried to pass behind but touched the mark after that.
The second race against Jes Gram Hansen was much more difficult. We broke the tiller extention during the prestart. It was very difficult to steer the boat properly being inside the boat. We had a collision during this prestart which caused a small damage on the boat. We were able to keep the game close until the end but had no chance to do our penalty. Unfortunately we gont penalized for 0.5 points after that because of the collision, which was correct decision from a formal point but very hard for us considering that we had problems on our boat.
This little detail made that we face James Spithill today. We are happy with that as we never faced him until now. We hope do be able to show our best match racing skills and...who knows...?

At the moment heavy rain with thunderstorms are alternating with dry and moments without winds so we are in standby for getting out on the water...

Best regards

Team Monnin

Alvaro Marinho, skipper of Seth.pt Team, writes from Bermuda

Seth.pt Team doesn't get trought to quarter-finals by one victory!
For the second time this year, Seth.pt Team went to the World Match Racing Tour event, this time in Bermuda. As it happens in Portugal Match Cup, the Seth.pt Team make 3 wins, one against nº5 in the world, the British Ian Williams.
"Was a great start for us in the King Edward VII Gold Cup. We make 3 wins on the first day, but unfortunely we couldn't get in the quarter-finals by loosing with Paula Lewin and Torvar Mirsky. We are learning a lot with this great sailors" says Álvaro Marinho, skipeer of Seth.pt Team.
"My team makes a great job on this dificult sailing boats, the IOD class! We hope to come to Bermuda next year to try again our chance to get into a next stage." he continues.
"It is great to be here sailing against very experience sailors as James Spithill, Jes Gram Hansen, Chris Law. Also it is fantastic to see the organization working. They are all very professional!".

More information from King Edward VII Gold Cup coming soon.

Quarterfinals in Bermuda are postponed...

We just got the message that quarterfinals of King Edward VII Gold Cup scheduled for today are postponed due to more thunder and lightning in Bermuda.. Just to remind that during first day of Bermuda's event one boat got a direct hit which resulted in a hole in the bottom. 4 sailors and 2 umpires were sent to hospital. For the moment participants of King Edward VII Gold Cup wait ahore until thunder passes by. It seems that Friday 13th is not a lucky day...

We will keep you informed as the things carry on...
Sofia

King Edward VII Gold Cup - quarterfinals are set

source by: Sean McNeill

The preliminary round robins are complete and the quarterfinalists set at the 58th annual King Edward VII Gold Cup, Stage 4 of the 2006-’07 World Match Racing Tour.
Advancing from Group A were reigning event champion James Spithill (6-1) of Australia., Finland’s Staffan Lindberg (5-2), Sweden’s Björn Hansen (5-2) and Chris Law (5-2) of Great Britain.
Frenchman Mathieu Richard (6-1) led the way in Group B, followed by Ian Williams (4-3) of Great Britain, Bermudian Blythe Walker (4-3) and Eric Monnin (3.5-3) of Switzerland.

Group A Provisional Standings
(After 7 of 7 scheduled flights)
1. James Spithill (AUS) Luna Rossa Challenge, 6-1
(Crew: Magnus Augustson, Torben Grael, Christian Kamp)
2. Staffan Lindberg (FIN) Alandia Sailing Team, 5-2
(Crew: Nils Bjerkas, Robert Skarp, Carl-Johan Uckelstam)
3. Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Team Apport.net, 5-2
(Crew: Martin Angsell, Pontus Meijer, Johan Tempelman)
4. Chris Law (GBR) The Outlaws, 5-2
(Crew: Karl Anderson, Mark Ivey, Scott Norris)
5. Brian Angel (USA) King Harbor Match Race, 3-4
(Crew: Eric Boothe, Payson Infelise, David Levy)
6. Scott Dickson (NZL) Dickson Racing Team, 2-5
(Crew: Whitlock Batchelor, John Hayes, Mark Strube)
7. Sandy Hayes (USA), 1-6
(Crew: Peter Bromby, Kim Hapgood, Cindy Olsen)
8. Jon Singsen (USA), 1-6
(Crew: Ben Bardwell, Kevin Horsfield, Nik Smale)


Group B Provisional Standings
(After 7 of 7 scheduled flights)
1. Mathieu Richard (FRA) Saba Sailing Team, 6-1
(Crew: Greg Evrard, Olivier Herledant, Yannick Simon)
2. Ian Williams (GBR) Williams Sail Racing, 4-3
(Crew: Bill Hardesty, Gerry Mitchell, Mark Nichols)
3. Blythe Walker (BER), 4-3
(Crew: Adam Barboza, Carola Cooper, Somers Kempe)
4. Eric Monnin (SUI) Team Monnin, 4-3, 3.5 points
(Crew: Simon Brugger, Fabien Froesch, Alain Marchand, Marc Monnin)
5. Torvar Mirsky (AUS), 3-4
(Crew: Nick Davis, Per Fyrkholm-Arr, Graeme Spence)
6. Alvaro Marinho (POR), 3-4
(Crew: Diogo Barros, Antonio Fontes, Miguel Nunes)
7. Paula Lewin (BER), 2-5
(Crew: Diana Mitchell, Lisa Neasham, Leatrice Roman, Peta White)
8. Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN) Mascalzone Latino – Capitalia, 2-5
(Crew: Pierluigi de Felice, Rasmus Kostner, Chresten Plinius)


Read more in Match Race Events section

Lightning "visits" Bermuda...

source by: Sean McNeill

The King Edward VII Gold Cup commenced today in varying conditions on Hamilton Harbour, but it’s safe to say that never in the previous 57 editions has it experienced a morning quite like today.
The event is in its preliminary round robin stages. In Group A Sweden’s Björn Hansen and Brian Angel of the U.S. dashed out to 2-0 records before racing for the group was prematurely halted around 11:30 a.m.
Group B took to the water at 1:30 p.m. and completed five flights. Frenchman Mathieu Richard and Ian Williams of Great Britain seem assured of advancing to Friday’s Quarterfinal Round. Both skippers went 4-1 in racing with just two flights remaining to complete the group.

Read more at Match Race Events section

Eric Monnin: First day of Bermuda Gold Cup 2006

After 2 Flights in Group A the fleet got caught in a thunderstorm and a lightning was hitting some of the boats. The boat of James Spithill was most damaged with a hole in the bow (the charge went down the forestay and crossed the hull there) and some burned wood below the maststep. After the weather normalized our group B had 5 flights.
We were able to win three of them. Against Torvar Mirsky and Paula Lewin we could take a lead at the start and extending it. The Match against Blythe Walker was very close with a small advantage for us from the beginning to the end of the match.
A bad timing at the start was the reason of loosing against Alvaro Marinho.
The start against Mathieu Richard was very close as we were both over the line but he was on the right side after coming back to the line.
Surprising was the days result of Jes Gram-Hansen with 1 win and 4 losses.
We will face him tomorrow morning.
A win against him or in the next match against Ian Wiliams should allow us to pass into the quarter finals.

Best regards
Team Monnin

King Edward VII Gold Cup - choosing the Favourites

source by: Sean McNeill

As competitors took to the water yesterday for the practice rounds of the King Edward VII Gold Cup, dockside talk centered on who might be the favorite. The answer was easy: James Spithill.
The 27-year-old Australian is the reigning event champion. Last year he rallied from a 2-1 deficit to defeat Russell Coutts, the event's all-time leading winner with seven victories. The year before that he lost to Coutts, 2-1, in a series shortened by a tropical storm.
Today first matches will take place in Bermuda.
See also event website for the full story

Getting closer to King Edward VII Gold Cup

We are still missing information from Bermuda International Women's Match Race Chmpionship but in turn we got some news about participants of another event in Bermuda Kind Edward VII Gold Cup.
Please find below the list of participants and their short introduction:

Brian Angel (USA) King Harbor Match Racing Team — Competing in 4th Gold Cup
Scott Dickson (USA) — Competing in sixth Gold Cup
Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN) Mascalzone Latino — Capitalia – Placed 2nd in World Championship Standings
Björn Hansen (SWE) Team Apport.net — Ranked 8th in ISAF Open Match Race Rankings
Sandy Hayes (USA) — Ranked 19th in ISAF Women’s Match Race Rankings
Chris Law (GBR) The Outlaws — Winner of 11 Grade 1 match-race regattas
Paula Lewin (BER) — 5th place in 2002 is best finish by woman sailor in Gold Cup history
Staffan Lindberg (FIN) Alandia Sailing Team — Placed 8th in World Championship standings
Alvaro Marinho (POR) — Placed 11th at World Tour season-opening Portugal Match Cup
Torvar Mirsky (AUS) — Winner 2006 Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron International Youth Match Racing Championship
Eric Monnin (SUI) Team Monnin — Competing in 3rd Gold Cup
Mathieu Richard (FRA) Saba Sailing Team — Placed 6th at 2005 Gold Cup
Jon Singsen (USA) — Competing in 2nd Gold Cup
James Spithill (AUS) Luna Rossa Challenge — Reigning Gold Cup champion
Blythe Walker (BER) — Winner 2006 Bermuda National Match Racing Championship
Ian Williams (GBR) Williams Sail Racing — Placed 8th at 2005 Gold Cup

More information in Match Race Events section

Welcome to Bermuda

From today until 15th October Royal Bermuda Yacht Club will host top two Grade 1 Match Race Events: Bermuda International Women's Match Race and The King Edward VII Gold Cup.
Women's first races start on 7th October and finishes at 10 October. The King Edward VII Gold Cup will take place from 10-15 October.
During both events International One Design Class yachts will be used with mainsail, jib and spinnaker. The crew shall consist of 4-5 crew members.
Women participating in Bermuda Int. MR will be fighting for the first place which is the right to take part in The King Edward VII Gold Cup.

The crews already invited to The King Edward VII Gold Cup are:
James Spithill (AUS)
Ian Williams (GBR)
Mathieu Richard (FRA)
Bjorn Hansen (SWE)
Staffan Lindberg (FIN)
Eric Monnin (SUI)
Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN)
Brian Angel (USA)
Scott Dickson (NZL)
Torvar Mirsky (AUS)
Chris Law (GBR)
Paula Lewin (BER)
Blythe Walker (BER)
Sandy Hayes (USA)
Alvaro Marinho (POR)
Jon Singsen (USA)

New Match Race European Champion: Staffan Lindberg from Finland

It was a thriller on the water. The best twelve European Match Race sailors
competed from the 30th September until the 3rd of October on Hamburg’s river
Alster against each other. Finally the Nordic sailors decided the victory
among each other. Staffan Lindberg from Finland and his crew could beat
Swedish Björn Hansen in an exciting final. Eric Monnin from Switzerland
gained the third place in the petit final against the Italian Skipper Matteo
Simoncelli.

Final results, 3. Oktober 2006

Final (Best of 5):
1. FIN Staffan Lindberg 3:1
2. SWE Björn Hansen 1:3

Petit Final (Best of 3):
3. SUI Eric Monnin 2:0
4. ITA Matteo Simoncelli 0:2

Read more about the final day

Match Race Europeans: Favourites for the final day: Team Monnin from Switzerland

On Monday a strong south-westerly wind challenged the twelve teams taking part in the European Match Racing Championship on Hamburg’s river Alster.
Only the best six teams qualified for the next round. The Polish crew broke their mast.

Monday, 2nd October - Switzerland, Poland, Italy, Sweden and Finland made their way into the next Round Robin easily. But the final run for the last empty space in the top six was highly competitive: The skipper of the Danish team, Peter Wibroe needed a victory against the Germans in their last race to be ranked before the Croatians. But Andreas Willim, who only won two out of ten matches so far, accelerated in his last race and gained the crown against the 21 years old Dane. And Team Croatia moved on to the next stage instead.

Eric Monnin (31) from Switzerland did not have to sail one single race on Monday. On Sunday he proceeded already to the next Round Robin with nine wins in eleven races. „We like to be in the favourites position”, he said.
“We sailed a lot in the last days and feel very comfortable with the boat now. But we hope, that on Tuesday the wind will not be that strong, because we are a little light weight”, said Monnin, who sails with his brothers Jean-Claude and Marc.
Although they scored nine victories in the first Round Robin, the counting starts from zero on the final day.

The following teams go in to the nexts stage

Moving on:
SUI Eric Monnin 9
SWE Björn Hansen 8
POL Marek Stanczyk 8
ITA Matteo Simoncelli 7
FIN Staffan Lindberg 7
CRO Dario Kliba 5

Read more about the event

Team Monnin matchrace.ch are leading the Europeans

Team Monnin matchrace.ch had a good day, everything went as expected says Eric, with 9 wins they are leading the round robin and qualified as leader for the semis.
The Polish Crew from Marek Stanczyk managed to surprise the two top ranked skippers Matteo Simoncelli 3rd and Bjoern Hansen 4th ranked in the round robin.
Tomorrow will be sailed the remaining matches of the round robin.
Will there be any change in the ranking, today Staffan Lindberg, Peter Wibroe, Maxim Taranov are not in the top 4, does any of this teams will manage to find the way in to the semis?


Current standing of the ranking

Sui - Eric Monnin 9:2
POL - Marek Stanczyk 8:2
ITA - Matteo Simoncelli 5:1
SWE - Björn Hansen 4:1
FIN - Staffan Lindberg 4:3
RUS - Maxim Taranov 4:7
CRO - Dario Kliba 4:6
DEN - Peter Wibroe 3:5
GBR - Nick Cherry 3:6
FRA - Pierre A. Morvan 3:5
SLO - Jure Orel 2:4
GER - Andreas Willim 2:6

See more pictures of the event

Read more about day 2 of the europeans in the event section

Match Race Europeans Update from Team Monnin

First day in Hamburg with shifty winds. We were in the second group so we could see the first group racing with a lot of interesting matches and much lead changes.
The conditions remained unstable for our round. The race commitee abandoned our first race due to a wind shift. We were not so happy about that as we were clearly leading against Wibroe.
The second match was a desaster for us as we managed to lose a race despite leading at the last mark with our opponent Simoncelli still with an outstanding penalty. The match get closed before the finishing line and he was able to give us a penalty.
We had more success ont the last two races, even if against Lindberg the trapeze wire of our boat broke. JC took a swim in the brown water of the Alster, but we were on the right side with more wind and could win that race.
In the last race we took a comfortable lead at the start which we didnt give back.
All matches are very open and the level is even, difficult to predict who will make it through the final...

Team Monnin/matchrace.ch

Entry List
-Björn HANSEN, Team Apport.net - 8
-Staffan LINDBERG, Alandia Sailing Team - 11
-Matteo SIMONCELLI, Itway match race team - 12
-Andreas WILLIM, Team Willim - 17
-Pierre Antoine MORVAN, Team Morbihan - 18
-Peter WIBROE, Team Wibroe - 19
-Eric MONNIN, Team Monnin - 25
-Jule OREL, Slovenia MR Team - 38
-Maxim TARANOV, Team Taranov - 42
-Dario KLIBA, Croatia One - 43
-Marek STANCZYK, Team Stanczyk - 50
-Nick CHERRY Team Cherry 58