Bojsen-Møller keeps Hunger at bay on a shifty day

SAP 505 Worlds report

The Danish brothers needed to sail out of their skins if they were to stop the German team of Wolfgang Hunger and Julien Kleiner running away with the regatta. The Bojsen-Møllers scored a 2nd and 1st in light offshore breezes which were shifting up to 40 degrees from the north-west.

“It was a bit scary sailing today,” said Jorgen, “because the wind was very, very shifty. So I’m happy not to have done a bad race. At one point we thought Hunger had already won, but actually he is not there yet.” The Germans now sit on 12 points overall, after scoring a 5,2 today, with the Bojsen-Møllers now on 14 points. With two races to go, and with two discards from a nine-race series, Hunger cannot afford too many mistakes, although mistakes are not usually in his repertoire.

Having said that, the three-time 505 World Champion came back from some very deep positions - calling on all his experience to get himself back into contention. “We had some scary moments today,” said Hunger, “but we did some good work to recover from bad positions at the first mark, coming back from 25th to 5th in the first race, and then 17th up to 2nd in the other race.”

The biggest concern today for the series leaders was, surprisingly, a lack of speed out of the start, as Julien Kleiner explained. “We were fast downwind but our upwind performance was very poor. Still, we have been really enjoying sailing here. What’s really good is we have had two strong wind days, one medium day and one light wind day, so everyone gets a chance to sail in their favourite conditions. You definitely need to be an all-round sailor to do well in Aarhus, and fortunately we like sailing in all types of weather.”

Kleiner’s girlfriend, Meike Schomaeker, continued her progress up the fleet. Crewed by former 505 World Champion Holger Jess, she now sits in 5th place overall despite also complaining of a lack of upwind speed in today’s tricky conditions. Sitting ahead of her in 4th is 1999 World Champion from the USA, Howie Hamlin crewed by Andy Zinn, and continuing to lie in 3rd overall are former World Champions Ian Pinnell and Ian Mitchell from Great Britain. The Brits kept themselves in championship contention with a last-gasp race win in today’s first race, moving to within 5 points of Hunger, although a 17th in the next race has knocked them back again. Such is the points gap in front of and behind them, the Brits look destined to stay in the bronze medal position for the remainder of the regatta.

Certainly Hunger is beginning to view this championship as a match race against Bojsen-Møller, who would dearly love to add the prize of a 505 world title to his trophy cabinet, which includes a gold and bronze Olympic medal from his days in the Flying Dutchman class. “In fact we already started match racing the Bojsen-Møllers on the previous day, and we will be looking closely for them for the next races,” said Hunger.

Will the superior upwind boatspeed of the Danish or the better downwind speed of the Germans be the deciding factor? Both teams have looked good across the wind range, so there isn’t much to separate them. “It’s good sailing here,” said the German. “Today the situation was shifty winds which was very difficult, but you have to deal with the winds that you get. Overall, across all the different winds we’ve had, we can be sure that the best sailor will win the week.”

The SAP 505 World Championship takes place in Aarhus, Denmark, from 30 July to 5 August. This regatta is the latest in a series of major sailing championships hosted by the City of Aarhus over the past 10 years, with the Volvo ISAF Youth Worlds having taken place here in 2008 and with a number of major championships scheduled in the near future, including the A-Class Catamaran Worlds in 2011.

The 2010 SAP 505 World Championship is organised by Sailing Aarhus in cooperation with Sport Event Denmark, Sport Aarhus Event and the Danish Sailing Association. With a strong focus on innovation and new technology to promote sailing to a wider audience, Denmark and the City of Aarhus are bidding for the ISAF Worlds 2014, the most prestigious regatta next to the Olympic Games.

Top 50 results: