Match Racing in the fatherland

Anne Hinton previews Match Race Berlin

Match Race Berlin, the German capital’s premier match race event of the year, gets under way from the Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee on Friday. This ISAF Grade Two event, now in its 13th edition, has a number of top-ten ranked and America’s Cup competitors and sponsorship from, among others, the local BMW centre - Riller & Schnauck. The event is sailed in the three-man International H-Boats - ideal for match racing given their handling characteristics and relatively slow response times.

Last year’s winners, Markus Wieser and team, can expect plenty of competition as they seek to retain the trophy. Mathieu Richard (France - no. 4 on the current rankings list) was runner-up last year and will be back hoping to go one further. Also in the last four last year was, top match racer and seven times DN ice yacht world champion, Karol Jablonski (Poland - now ranked no. 5). Britain’s Ian Williams (ranked no. 7 in the world for match racing by ISAF), who was runner-up two years ago, but finishing a disappointing sixth after an ‘off’ day last year, will also be in the running.



Slightly further down the ranking list, at no. 12, is Lars Nordbjaerg (Denmark), who was formerly with the match race centre in Copenhagen. East Berlin sailor Stefan Meister (currently ranked at 23) will be competing this year with Jochen Schuemann’s former Soling crew on his team, Ingo Borkowski and Gunnar Bahr. Last year Schuemann joined up with his old Soling crew for this event, but, like Williams, had a bad day and finished fifth. This enabled Borkowski to crew for Markus Wieser on the final day, as Matti Paschen, Wieser’s middleman, had to dash home to Hamburg in time to witness becoming a father for the first time and missed the last day of racing. Borkowski ended up with both first and fifth placings from the event as a result!

Both Alinghi and the prospective German America’s Cup challenger, Fresh Seventeen, are well represented at the event. Fresh 17’s Technical Director, Ebse Magg, is Wieser’s third crew member (as last year), while German Match Race Champion, Andreas Willim (prospective Fresh 17 helmsman, currently ranked at 23 on the ISAF lists) is competing for the first time, along with another prospective Fresh 17 helmsman, Jan-Eike Andresen, who gained entry through the qualification event.

Alinghi is represented by Jochen Schuemann, who will be sailing with Bernard Labro and regular Alinghi match race crew, Nils Frei. Both Frei and Labor crewed for Jordi Calafat at the recent Geneva International Match Race, but Calafat has the ‘two Dutch Petes’ from Alinghi with him at this event - Pieter van Niekerk and Peter van Nieuwenhuysen.

Completing the line-up are the young New Zealander Simon Minoprio, from Vision Yachting (who was 2003 Australian Match Race Champion, after defeating the Ozboys’ helmsman-designate Michael Dunstan in the final), and H-Boat stalwart, Hans-Juergen Swoboda, who gained the last qualification spot at the H-Boat match race event two weekends ago.

Last year’s event was held in the week after the Bermuda Gold Cup and was remarkable for having temperatures 20degC colder than in Hamilton, but with many times the number of spectators. A week later this year, conditions are currently sun/cloud with light to moderate breezes and air temperatures of 10-12degC over the Wannsee, and are expected to remain similar for most of the event. The ready supplies of gluehwein (mulled wine), tea, coffee and soup, help to keep competitors and spectators alike glued to the action, and revive anyone who should happen to fall into the very cold lake water (as did happen last year)!