Local hero Bank stays ahead

Sean McNeill reports from day two of the Swedish Match Tour's Danish Open match racing

Day 2 of the Danish Open, Stage 2 of the 2005-’06 Swedish Match Tour, was a day of flags and flagging fortunes. Not one of the eight flights of three matches was penalty-free. In all, 20 were imposed while the umpires waved away 17 more with a green flag.

Flavio Favini (ITA), of Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team, with no fewer than six penalties must’ve felt he was awarded with a disproportionate number. He remains bottom of the field, winless after nine races.

With 17 of the 22 flights of the double round robin completed at Skovshoved, the big guns dominate the leaderboard. Only four from the field of 12 go through to the knock-out semifinal which gets underway Saturday as soon as the five remaining flights of round robin races are complete.

Jesper Bank (DEN) of United Internet Team Germany continues at the head of the field with a 7-1 win loss record. Alinghi’s Jochen Schuemann (GER), Dean Barker (NZL), Emirates Team New Zealand, and Thierry Peponnet (FRA), K-Challenge, are tied for second with 6-2 records.

With their respective three and two Olympic gold medals Schuemann and Bank are the greats in this field. And despite an event with four home nation competitors, Bank cuts an iconic figure in Denmark. His dry humour, delivered dead-pan, works as well in Danish as it does in English. That’s why the audience appreciated his races, a ripple of applause running around the Skovshoved venue each time he lead around a mark.



There was good support too for local hero Lars Nordbjaerg, so local that his parent’s house is just 1 km from the Royal Match Race Center at Skovshoved. He’s sailed on these waters for 20 years and has helped build up the center since it was opened just over 15 years ago. “Last year six wins was enough to make the semifinals, but this year I don’t think it will be,” he said.

Nordbjaerg started strongly with a win over Barker thanks to the Kiwi incurring a pre-start penalty. “A simple mistake in the dial-up,” said Barker, who caught up with a gybe on the first run and attempted to wipe-off the penalty. Instead of losing the flag he got another. “The umpires said there wasn’t room. It happens,” said Barker philosophically. The TNZ crew were not done. Even after dropping their spinnaker to off-load their second penalty, they were only two boatlengths behind at the finish.

There were flags, too, in Barker’s clash with Chris Law (GBR) and his Team Shosholoza crew. First Law picked up a pre-start penalty and was required to take it immediately after the gun by a red flag from the umpires since he was smothering Barker to leeward. But Law bounced back and in action at the second windward mark, Barker got a penalty of his own as the pair slowed the game down by turning head to wind. Bearing away, Barker got round the mark narrowly in front. “The umpires said we turned too quickly,” said Barker. “That was a bit tough. But there was contact so one of us had to get it.”

The trails of the unfortunate Favini are too numerous to list. Suffice it to say that in his match with Bank, collecting three penalties meant that he had to offload his second flag on not just one occasion but twice. Though the instances were different, he ended up in exactly the same predicament in his next race against BMW Oracle Racing’s Gavin Brady (NZL). “We’ll have better days!” said Favini afterwards. “We were not as fast the others - we’re 40kg under minimum crew weight - and we were out of phase too often.”

Favini acknowledged his mistakes in the Brady match but the decision in the Bank race wrankled the Italian. “He was to leeward and behind and our observer signaled ‘No overlap,’ yet Jesper’s spinnaker touched our backstay. The second time was the same situation. We should have been right, not wrong.”

With the winner of the first stage of the competition picking his semifinal opponent, Saturday’s remaining round robin flights see some intriguing match-ups. Bank, Schuemann, Barker and Peponnet are all scheduled to meet each other.

Given the closeness at the top, it’s quite possible that the 66th and concluding round robin race, between Bank and Barker, could determine which of them advances as the top qualifier.


Danish Open Standings
(After 17 of 22 scheduled flights)
1. Jesper Bank (DEN) United Internet Team Germany, 7-1
(Crew: Henrik Blaksjaer, Thomas Jacobsen, Mike Mottl, Jan Schoepe)
2. Jochen Schuemann (GER) Alinghi, 6-2
(Crew: Claudio Celon, Yann Guniot, Matt Mitchell, Peter van Niekerk)
= Dean Barker (NZL) Emirates Team New Zealand, 6-2
(Crew: Don Cowie, Jared Henderson, Terry Hutchinson, Grant Loretz)
= Thierry Peponnet (FRA) K-Challenge, 6-2
(Crew: Cameron Appleton, Matt Cornwell, Herve Cunningham, Jim Turner)
5. Gavin Brady (NZL) BMW Oracle Racing, 5-3
(Crew: Rodney Daniel, Ross Halcrow, Ed Smyth, Brad Webb)
6. Lars Nordbjaerg (DEN) Team Nordbjaerg, 5-4
(Crew: Jeppe Blak, Jesper Feldt, Niels Gramkov, Thomas Hartvig)
7. Henrik Jensen (DEN) Team Jensen, 5-4
(Crew: Nils Bjerregård, Mads Juhl, Erik Lund, Anton Wester)
8. Chris Law (GBR) Team Shosholoza, 4-5
(Crew: Ian Ainslie, Michael Giles, Golden Mgedeza, Mark Sadler)
9. Jesper Radich (DEN) Desafio Espanol, 3-5
(Crew: Jaime Hansen, Hartwell Jordan, Pablo Rosano, Mikkel Røssberg)
10. Philippe Presti (FRA) Luna Rossa Challenge, 3-6
(Crew: Thierry Fouchier, Fred Guilmin, Fabrice Levet, Matthieu Renault)
11. Pierre Mas (FRA) China Team, 1-8
(Crew: Jean Marie Dauris, Xavier Husson, Philippe Mourniac, Piotr Przybylski)
12. Flavio Favini (ITA) Mascalzone Latino – Capitalia, 0-9
(Crew: Alberto Barovier, Lars Borgstrom, Antar Vigna, Vasco Vascotto)

Swedish Match Tour partners include Swedish Match, BMW and the Match Race Association. Swedish Match Tour Official Sponsors include Musto, Sebago and Travel Places.