Gaastra Dutch Open MR

source: Scuttlebutt Europe

On Saturday, October 6, the Gaastra Dutch Open Match Racing 2007 starts with a competitive international fleet. During two days, twelve teams will compete on the Kralingse Plas. Six of them have a foreign nationality. With seven competitors from the international top 100 and quite some Dutch talents it is guaranteed to become an exciting weekend. The organization will have J22s at its disposal to sail the races, which are led by Theo Smits from the Rotterdam Sailing Club.

The highest ranking skipper is Carst Kemmling from Germany, who is 13th on the ISAF World ranking from August 2007. After him comes Jelle Roos (46), who recently won three Grade 3-events with Klaartje Zuiderbaan on the foredeck. -- Diana Bogaards

Skippers list:

1. Cartsen Kemmling (FRA), 30th place ISAF Ranking
2. Jelle Roos (NED), 46th
3. Max Gurgel (GER), 56th
4. Christian Ponthieu (FRA), 58th
5. Rui Boia (POR), 59th
6. Fabio Mazzoni (ITA), 68th
7. Marcus Bohren (SUI), 98th
8. Gaston Loos (NED), 146th
9. Jeroen den Boer (NED), 175th
10. Persijn Brongers (NED), 218th
11. Jurjen Feitsma (NED), 282th
12. Lennart Gernand (NED), -

Hola Argentina

Today I got a mail from Argentina, they will run the nationals end of September, we will get every day some news, so lets stay tuned.....who wouln't like to go for a match race to Argentina.

Team link: http://www.tagheuersailingteam.com/

Event link: http://www.match-race.com.ar/

Benvenido on matchrace.ch Argentina

Jürg

Read more on matchrace events

Not only matchracing...need some change

Photo (c) Juerg Kaufmann go4image.com

Last weekend I had a special sailing experience, no it’s not about match racing no particular move just normal sailing but on very special boats. Had the chance to be in the jury of the Monaco Classic week and as this boats are not so aggressive in the maneuvers, as onboard observer ;-) you have plenty of opportunities to take good shots and enjoy the seamless class of this boats.
On the first day I was on Wayward an old schooner and the last day I spend on Mariquita, a real treasure.

To enjoy the pictures click here

Jürg

Spithill unbeatable at Latium Match Cup

James Spithill and his Luna Rossa team consisting of Joe Newton, Michele Ivaldi, Magnus Augustson and Andy Fethers won Latium Match Cup held in Italy taking the prize money of 55,000 EUR and adding 25 points to World Tour leaderboard.

It is not however the victory that is worth attention but the style in which Spithill's team beat his opponents. During 14 matches that were sailed by Spithill he lost not a single one and gave his rivals no chance to cross the finishing line in front. That is an outstanding performance by Spithill's Luna Rossa team. Sebastian Col, ranked 4 in ISAF ranking, admitted that it is very hard to beat Spithill and no mistakes have to be made if you want to achieve this goal.

Final results of Latium Match Cup 2007:

1. James SPITHILL (AUS) Luna Rossa – 14-0
2. Sebastien COL (FRA) Areva Challenge – 10-8
3. Sten MOHR (DEN) Rudy Project Sailing Team – 8-5
4. Magnus HOLMBERG (SWE) Victory Challenge – 8.5-7
5. Paolo CIAN (ITA) Shosholoza – 5-5
6. Ian WILLIAMS (GBR) Team Pindar – 10-7
7. Peter GILMOUR (AUS) PST – 7-8
8. Ian AINSLIE (RSA) Shosholoza – 3-7
9. Mathieu RICHARD (FRA) – 6-6
10. Jure OREL (SLO) – 2-8
11. Victor LANIER (FRA) – 2-8
12. Michael HESTBEK (DEN) – 2-8

Alinghi's Baird looking to add Gold Cup

source by: Sean McNeill

With one month remaining to the start of the King Edward VII Gold Cup, Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Commodore Andrew Cox today announced that Ed Baird, the America’s Cup-winning helmsman from Alinghi, has entered the $100,000 match race regatta.

Baird is one of 24 skippers entered in the centennial anniversary Gold Cup, scheduled Oct. 9-14 on Hamilton Harbour. Other entrants include last year’s finalists, England’s Ian Williams of Team Pindar and France’s Mathieu Richard of the Saba Sailing Team. Williams defeated Richard, 3-1, last year in the first Gold Cup final for both skippers.

More at Match Race Events

Tom Schnakenberg As New AC Boat Class Consultant

The ACM today announced the appointment of Tom Schnackenberg to consult on the troubled 33rd Protocol's new boat class.

RC44 CHAMPIONSHIP TOUR - SLAM CUP

Santa Margherita (IT), 7 September 2007 – Big blue sky and warm sunshine – perfect weather for a beach party. Instead it meant challenging conditions for the RC44 fleet in the first round of match racing at the RC44 SLAM Cup. Following on from yesterday’s fleet racing, the professionals stepped up the to plate and met their rivals on the start line for five close races.

All bets were on for the showdown between three-time America’s Cup winner, Russell Coutts and Luna Rossa’s talented former helmsman James Spithill in flight three. The sharp Australian versus the legendary Kiwi did not disappoint spectators. It was a straight forward pre-start, but thanks to a bit of local knowledge from guest crew member, Corrado Isenburg, Team OMEGA smoothly won the match.

Spithill and Team Ceeref swiftly shifted gears for the next flight and were the only team of the day to beat fleet leaders Team AQUA, helmed by Cameron Appleton.

After the racing, Coutts was quick to admit that he was feeling “a bit out of practice”, but that this was about to change. Coutts indicated that he sees more match racing in the future for the RC44 Class as more America’s Cup sailors, possibly even teams, join the fleet. “We are even considering the possibility of splitting the fleet and match racing next year,” added Coutts.

Japanese Team Beecom were the only team to beat both Coutts and Spithill on the water today. While Team Cro-a sail with helmsman Jesper Radich, another sailor at the top of the World Match Racing Tour leader board, also expressed satisfaction with three out of five wins today.

This evening, the teams will enjoy cocktails at the Yacht Club Italiano in Portofino before returning to Santa Margherita- the perfect setting for tonight’s crew party at Delano Beach hosted by SLAM.

RC44 SLAM Cup
Overall Fleet Racing Results - Provisional Ranking – no discard

1) Team Aqua (1,1,1,2) 5 points
2) Team Ceeref (4,2,2,3) 11 points
3) Team Omega (3,4,4,1) 12 points
4) Team Beecom (6,3,3,4) 16 points
5) Team Lightbay (Magia), (2,5,5,5) 17 points
6) Team Cro-a-sail (5,6,7,6) 24 points

Match racing final results: (Name of team, wins, losses, points)

1) Team Aqua (4/1) 4 points
2) Team Omega (3/2) 3 points
3) Team Cro-A-Sail (3/2) 3 points
4) Team Beecom (3/2) 3 points
5) Team Ceeref (2/3) 2 points
6) Team Light Bay (0/5) 0 points

Polish Match Tour Racing about Yava Trophy...

source: www.atomic.sails.pl

Polish Team Polish Match Tour Racing, ranked 31, helmed by Marek Stańczyk and crew of Dominik Niśkiewicz, Michał Szmul, Maciej Kołosiński took 9th place in ISAF Grade 1 event „Yava Trophy” held in Russia.
Here is what they have to say about regatta performance:

Maciej Kołosiński, trimmer: „Since the beginning the event was accompanied by strong wind. I did very bad in the first match with Torvar Mirsky - lousy technic, mistakes during tacks - but luckly the rest of the crew did a brilliant job and we won the race. Torvar won the last event we did together, French Nationals, and was a difficult rival so this victory was very precious to us.”

Dominik Niśkiewicz, bowman: „After race with Torvar we had 4 more matches on the first day among which we won one against Indian skipper Mahesh Ramchandran. We were beaten by winner of Yava Trophy Staffan Lindberg who had much heavier crew. And cosidering the wind reaching 35 knts that turned out to be very useful in having better control of the boat."

Michał Szmul, trimmer: „The crucial match was against Pierre Antoine Morvan. French got two penalties on the pre-star - one for touching the mark and second for not sailing into the box in time. It seemed that we couldn't be more lucky. Unfortunately, just after starting signal it was now us who touched the pin. Result- penalty and waste of time that allowed the French to win the match."

Marek Stańczyk, skipper: "Marks were definately badly anchored as every few matches somebody was catching the lines and touching the marks. One decision of umpires was just hilarious when after one of this "actions" they allowed resail when Russian team lost a match and at another occasion they disagreed when Russian team was the winner and risked the failure(...)."

That was the 10th event of Polish Match Tour Racing this year. Further starts will be two Polish Match Tour events in Poland and Polish Nationals.

Lindberg wins Yava Trophy; TARNACKI Racing takes 10th place

source: www.yachting.com.pl

Staffan Lindberg (FIN) won ISAF Grade 1 event Yava Trophy that was held in Moskow, Russia. Lindberg beated in the final Russian skipper Andriej Arbuzov.

Polish team TARNACKI Racing took 10th place. The team had a problem with overall physical condition which was probably the effect of flying to Russia just after Knickerbocker Cup in New York. TARNACKI Racing had huge difficulties to win a single match. They managed to do it finally in the matches with another Polish skipper Marek Stańczyk and Indian Mahesh Ramchandran.

The lead in Moskow was hold by Russians who daily train on specyfic and technically difficult yachts Ricochet that are used for Yava Trophy. Nevertheless despite the fact they caused a lot of problems even to higher ranked teams Lindberg managed to beat his Russian rivals.

Final results of Yava Trophy 2007:
1) Staffan Lindberg, FIN
2) Andrej Arbuzov, RUS
3) Eugeniy Neugodnikov, RUS
4) Siergiej Musikhin, RUS
5) Pierre Antoine Morvan, FRA
6) Jure Orel, SLO
7) Torvar Mirsky, AUS
8) Simon Minoprio, NZL
9) Marek Stańczyk, POL
10) Przemek Tarnacki, POL
11) Aleksie Stupka, RUS
12) Mahesh Ramchandran, IND

YAVA Trophy – 2007 International Match Race ISAF Grade I

The 14th YAVA Trophy – 2007 International Match Race ISAF Grade I has started on the 28th of August in Moscow Sailing School on the water of Klyazminskoe reservoir.
Twelve best skippers from eight countries are taking part in this event: Staffan Lindberg (Finland, 7th), Pierre-Antoine Morvan (France, 9th *), Jure Orel (Slovenia, 21st *), Torvar Mirsky (Australia, 26th *), Simon Minoprio (New Zealand, 39th *), Mahesh Ramchandran (India, 47th *), athletes from Poland – Przemek Tarnacki (42nd *) and Marek Stanczyk (30th *), and also athletes from Russia – Evgeniy Neugodnikov (6th * ), Sergey Musikhin (62nd * ), Andrew Arbuzov (18th *) and Alexey Stupka (456th *).
The races started on the 29th of August and will be continued up to the 2nd of September. Event format is as follows: round robin for all the participants which mean that each skipper meets another skipper once. Skippers ranked in the top six will qualify for the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals will be a round robin where the skippers sail each other once. This will determine the top four teams to race in the semi-finals and later in the finals.
The total prize money of 75 000 US dollars will be allocated among the participants according to ISAF recommendations. The winner of the Regatta will get the prize money of 18 000 US dollars and the participant ranked 12th in the Regatta will get the prize of 750 US dollars.
A VIP fleet-race with sponsors and skippers ranked in the top six will be held additionally. The total prize money for the fleet-race is 5 000 US dollars.