Bank and Richard early leaders

After day one of Match Race Germany

Jesper Bank and Mathieu Richard are the early leaders at the cold and windy Match Race Germany, Stage 7 of the 2005-06 World Match Racing Tour.

Bank and Richard top their respective groups at 3-1. Each is tied with another skipper, but owns the tiebreaker to hold the lead after four of five flights in each group. They survived chilly conditions that saw the temperature in the high 40s and winds anywhere from 4 to 20 knots, with intermittent rain. The wind was blowing west/southwest, off the snowcapped Alps, which made it so cold.

“It was close racing. We liked it when the breeze came up, we felt pretty quick,” said Bank, the Danish skipper of United Internet Team Germany. “I prefer cold and sailable to hot and windless. I feel good about the boats. After sailing a slow America’s Cup boat for a year, getting into a boat that is the same speed as the others and being able to sail fast is a good feeling.”

Bank won a close race against Peter Gilmour in Flight 3 to hold the tiebreak advantage. After a split tack start Gilmour won the first cross and sent Bank back to the right. Bank found a little better breeze on the right and leapfrogged Gilmour to lead at the windward mark.

The match was close throughout, but Bank held the lead. On the last leg to the finish they split sides of the course with Bank taking the left and Gilmour the right (looking upwind). Gilmour had better pressure and speed and made a furious charge. Approaching the finish he bore away but got nipped by one meter, according to Principal Race Officer Rudi Magg.

Gilmour disputed the call. He sought video evidence to support his case, but the video boat didn’t have a direct line of sight down the finish line, so the outcome stood. “They say Bank crossed first, so Bank crossed first,” Gilmour said.

Richard opened his account with a dreadful loss to Ian Ainslie. “We had a bad start, bad first beat and bad tactics. We also went to wrong mark. We didn’t bring enough clothes, we had to go out and buy hats this morning. Our brains are a bit chilled,” Richard said.

He rebounded with three straight wins, including one over Sten Mohr to hold the tiebreak advantage.

“The boats are totally different to Croatia. It’s quite tricky getting a feel for them,” said Richard, who placed runner-up at the World Tour event in Croatia last week. “The wind was difficult and it’s bloody freezing. But I’m happy with my day.”

Mohr, the Dane who’s an afterguard member of the BMW Oracle Racing team, ran off three wins before running into Richard. “It was a god day. I need to improve my starts, but the guys sailing with me are one level above. They’re talking all the time and the calls are good,” Mohr said. “The strategy is coming together. They’re watching and talking bout clouds coming off the shore. The boats are tricky to put a leebow on someone because they come out of tacks so slowly. You’ve got to work the strategy out, where you want to be on the racecourse before working out the boat-for-boat stuff.”

At the end of the day the cold weather was a hot topic of discussion. “All the scientists that believe in global warming should come to Langenargen to experience the ice age,” said Chief Umpire John Standley.

Racing continues tomorrow. The top three from each group will advance to the quarterfinals and bottom three to a repechage round, from which the top two advance to the quarters.

Match Race Germany 2006 Provisional Standings
Group A1 (After 4 of 5 scheduled flights)
1. Jesper Bank (DEN) United Internet Team Germany, 3-1
(Crew: Henrik Blakskjer, Thomas Jacobsen, Mike Mottl, Jan Schoepe)
2. Peter Gilmour (AUS) PST, 3-1
(Crew: Rod Dawson, Jan Reblin, Christian Scherrer, Yasuhiro Yaji)
3. Evgeniy Neugodnikov (RUS) Lord of Sail, 2-2
(Crew: Alexander Ekimov, Andrew Kochnev, Nicolay Kornev, Oleg Krivov)
4. Björn Hansen (SWE) Team Apport.net, 2-2
(Crew: Mathias Bredin, Kasimir Johanssen, Johan Quiberg, Martin Strömberg)
5. Tino Ellegast (GER), 1-3
(Crew: Hansi Ellegast, Arne Gülzo, Holger Lehning, Richard Volz)
6. Michael Hestbaek (DEN) United Internet Team Germany, 1-3
(Crew: Conan Hunt, Markus Koy, Michael Müller, Matti Paschen)

Group A2 (After 4 of 5 scheduled flights)
1. Mathieu Richard (FRA) Saba Sailing Team, 3-1
(Crew: Greg Evrard, Olivier Herledent, Xavier Leroy, Yannick Simon)
2. Sten Mohr (DEN) BMW Oracle Racing, 3-1
(Crew: Mark Bradford, Jamie Gale, Phil Jameson, Jon Ziskind)
3. Ian Williams (GBR) Williams Sail Racing, 2-2
(Crew: William Hardesty, Mark Nicholls, Simon Shaw, Bill Williams)
4. Ian Ainslie (RSA) Team Shosholoza, 2-2
(Crew: Erwan Auburtin, Lucas Chabert, Mael Le Garrec, Alex Runciman)
5. Staffan Lindberg (FIN) Alandia Sailing Team, 1-3
(Crew: Niklas Carlzon, Robert Skarp, Karl-Johan Uckelstam, Magnus Hansson)
T. Eric Monnin (SUI), 1-3
(Crew: Simon Brügger, Jean-Claude Monnin, Dominik Neidhart, Loris von Siebenthal)

The World Tour Partner and Official Car is BMW AG (Munich, Germany). World Tour sponsors include Sebago (Rockford, Mich.), the Official Footwear Supplier, Travel Places (West Sussex, England), the Official Travel Partner, and Musto (Essex, England), the Official Clothing Supplier.