Bank on a roll

Sean McNeill reports on an intriguing opening day on the water at the Swedish Match Tour's Danish Open

In grey, chilly conditions more like April than August, Day 1 of the Danish Open, Stage 2 of the 2005-’06 Swedish Match Tour, belonged to Jesper Bank, the Danish double Olympic gold medalist.

With nine of the 22 scheduled flights completed in the round robin, Bank and his crew from the United Internet Team Germany America’s Cup team won all five of their races from the first group of three pairs.

No one was so dominant in the second group which managed four flights in the afternoon. Dean Barker (NZL), Emirates Team New Zealand, Thierry Peponnet (FRA), K-Challenge, and Lars Nordbjaerg (DEN) all managed three wins.

All day long the wind huffed and puffed from as little 5 knots to as much as 15, bringing pronounced flicks in direction or "helicopter shifts" as Gavin Brady’s (NZL) of BMW Oracle Racing described the breeze that came down on the water before fanning out.

Bank, who’s in his second Cup syndicate, says he doesn’t have a settled crew yet, not that you would have believed it from the smooth way he rolled through the day.“We are not even close to having a crew yet,” he said.

Having been the last Cup team to post a challenge, Bank and the German syndicate have been pushing hard to assemble all the elements, even a sailing team. “It’s a long process to test a lot of people for the crew,” said Bank.

Bank was involved in the most interesting match of the day when he met Philippe Presti (FRA), Luna Rossa Challenge. Presti was a penalty down as the pair closed on the finish. Presti took Bank outside of the pin end of the finish line. “The race was lost for him,” said Presti. “We were very comfortable about how we were going to take our penalty turn. And then Jesper did something I’ve never seen before!”

Whereas Presti beat upwind to pass outside of the pin before coming back through the finish line, Bank realised he was closer to the committee boat and so sailed past the stern and around the bow before bearing away through the line. Presti asked for redress, believing his opponent had neither crossed the finish correctly nor sailed the course properly, but the jury let the Dane’s win stand. “I’ve never done this before or seen it,” said Bank. “There was a case before under the old rules and now I guess there is another under the current ones!”

With four Danes in the field, local interest is high. This is especially true of Lars Nordbjaerg who took wins off fellow countrymen in the second group - Henrik Jensen and Jepser Radich - as well as Flavio Favini (ITA), of Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia Team.

But it was Jensen who ended the day on a high by claiming the scalp of Barker. Jensen, whose best result in a Grade 1 event was a 5th at the 2002 Danish Open, did not race last year as he was devoting his time to a new baby and his medical production software company. He’s in the field as a wild card and really enjoyed knocking over Barker. “A win against Dean is just great,” he said.

Having started strongly, Jensen led off the line and was content to let Barker split. “We picked the shifts and didn’t get nervous when Dean split. We believed in what we did,” Jensen said. By the first mark Jensen held a six-boatlength lead over Barker and went on to take one of the biggest winning margins of the day.

“The shifts were difficult but I don’t want to make excuses,” said Terry Hutchinson, Barker’s tactician. “It’s hard to lose the last race of the day but it gives us something to go away and talk about to see how we can improve in order to win the regatta.”


Danish Open Standings
(After 9 of 22 scheduled flights)

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