Royal flush

Anne Hinton reports from the Royal Match Race in Copenhagen

Sunday, 9 May, dawned bright, sunny and warm in Copenhagen with light northerly breezes. This marked the day of sailing events as part of the Wonderful Wedding Week celebrations leading up to the nuptials of Crown Prince Frederik and Tasmanian Mary Donaldson on 14 May. The brilliant weather and excellent spectating venue of Langelinie Quay on the edge of central Copenhagen brought out 10,000 people to watch the events. In addition, the afternoon’s sailing was covered live in a three hour programme on the Danish television network.

Events commenced with youth sailors racing 29er boats. While the sailors were all Danish, symbolically the Bethwaite design was Australian. After the race, the sailors all capsized their boats to a whistle and then brought them back upright on a second whistle.

Next on the agenda was a match race in old 12 metre boats, built in the 1930s, between John Bertrand in the Danish boat (because, as Jesper Bank put it ’Danes speak English!’) and Jesper Bank in the German 12 metre (Bank speaks fluent German as well as Danish and English). The crews on the 12 metres were the people who normally sail the boats.

At this stage, winds were from just east of north but only 2-4 knots. Bertrand was on starboard entry, with Bank on port. In the pre-start, Bank sailed past Bertrand to windward - there was no dial-up - and carried on out to the right. Bertrand sailed to the left-hand end of the starting line and then went back towards the right. At the starboard end of the line he found Bank coming back towards him and Bank subsequently chased Bertrand to the line. Both were on starboard and on the line at the start, with Bertrand to leeward.

They headed out to the wall of Langelinie Quay, with Bank to windward. Bertrand tacked first, then Bank tacked beneath him and ahead. Bank gradually luffed to force Bertrand into his dirty air and make Bertrand go beneath Bank. This ploy worked well and Bank rounded the top mark first.

Bank then reached downwind, whilst Bertrand elected to sail on more of a run. Bank was several lengths ahead at the bottom mark and extending all the time.

The same pattern was followed on the second windward-leeward round, during which the wind dropped to only two knots, leaving Banks boat ghosting, with sails full, at a much faster rate than Bertrand's 12 metre. Bank finished the race, which had very short 0.15 nautical mile legs, in 24.5 minutes; Bertrand was about four minutes behind at the finish.

The 29ers were then brought out again, followed by a number of other acts, including some very impressive water-skiing, with crossovers and pyramids. The Royal Yacht was moored nearby, dressed overall, with the sailing royal families from Norway, Spain and Greece reportedly adding to the spectators aboard.

The official royal match racing took place in the Copenhagen match race centre’s DS match racers. Crown Prince Frederik, a world top ranked Dragon sailor, took the helm of the Danish boat, giving Jesper Bank the role of tactician. His Australian fiancée, Mary Donaldson, however, left the role of skipper helmsman in the capable hands of John Bertrand, while she crewed on the boat, together with other Danish sailors, doing the mainsheet at times, among other things. By this time the wind strength had increased to around 10 knots, while it was still warm and sunny, giving a perfect sailing conditions.

In race one, the Crown Prince, on port entry, got the better of Bertrand at the start and then stayed just ahead around the course. On the run, Bertrand tried a desperate measure of gybing on to starboard and then rapidly luffing the Danes. He was given a penalty for his pains by the two Danish match umpires, Bjørn Anke Møller and Jesper Wilken. Subsequent to this incident, the Danish boat, which had generally better crew work, sailed away and Bertrand finished in their wake, without completing the penalty.

Race two saw the Crown Prince’s starting technique improve yet further, as he sailed Bertrand out to beyond the pin, starting on the layline to that buoy himself and so ensuring that Bertrand crossed the line in his wake. The Danish crew was well ahead but, on the second beat, the Crown Prince went right and Bertrand left, towards Langelinie Quay. Left was the place to be, and Bertrand reaped the benefits. In spite of significant gains downwind, the Danes could not catch Bertrand who finished a boatlength ahead.

The crowds added energy and vibrancy to the proceedings, with applause whenever one of the boats came near the Quay interspersed with chants of ’Go, Mary, go!’ and ’Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oy, oy, oy’ for the very popular soon-to-be Danish royal. There was also live commentary of the event in Danish. In the last two races, the Crown Prince’s father, Prince Henrik, another top Dragon sailor, came along for a closer view in the royal launch.

After a pause for lunch, the sailors came out again for a deciding race in slightly lighter winds and a breeze which had shifted to the left. What actually occurred was almost a repeat of race two. The Danes won the start by pushing Bertrand beyond the pin. Later in the race, Bertrand overtook by sailing up the wall while the Danes went out into the harbour in search of non-existent extra breeze. Result: the Australians overtook and could not be caught, giving a scoreline of 2-1 to Mary Donaldson over her royal fiancé.

Bank had just sailed once with the Prince before, but had also competed against him in Dragons. Bank confirmed that the Prince had only practised pre-starts on one occasion and that in gale force winds and was full of compliments for his helmsman, saying "this was the first time ever that he did it with time on distance and sort of put himself in a windward or leeward position or wherever, so I think it has been amazing to see a good sailor fit straight into a boat and get straight into match racing the way he did. I’m surprised that it’s possible still. It’s a pity that you need a winner and a number two in all of this, ’cause with the backgrounds so different I don’t think we gave him full credit. We got more or less what we wanted [with the starts] and we cleaned them off in the second start in a way that probably not even I would have been able to."

"We practised the last few days, with different crews against us," said Bertrand. "Thank goodness for this as my re-learning curve was very, very steep. These boats place a huge emphasis on the racing rules, which is great, but it was a huge test of knowledge of the boat just to be competitive and we were able to be that way. Crown Prince Frederik is a very good sailor. That combination with Jesper Bank and his Soling gold medal team on the boat, they know the game very, very well, so it was great thrill to be able to knock off that final race." Bertrand had not sailed previously with Mary Donaldson, but said "she integrated beautifully into the team. She was running the stopwatch, running the flags for protests, running mainsail and she was also trimming. She was all over the boat. It was a real pressure to have her involved. She’s very, very keen; a very enthusiastic young woman."

He added, "I enjoyed this match very much. I think we’re going to have a re-match in Australia. It has yet to be decided, but Crown Prince Frederik is keen for it to happen and I’m keen and it’s a great opportunity."

The whole event was a great on-the-water spectacle and family fun day out. Such events can only serve to bring the sport of sailing into the lives of non-sailors and give them appreciation for the sport. The Danes have as much coverage of sailing as the Kiwis in the national media, Jesper Bank told me. (Bank was based in Auckland with the Swedish Victory Challenge during the last Louis Vuitton Cup.) This broadening of involvement of people in sailing is a theme that John Bertrand is working on in Australia. Under his patronage, Skandia Geelong Week (the southern hemisphere’s smaller, but much more festive, version of Britain’s Cowes Week) has really taken off as a fun event for all the family.