Eight crews through

After opening day of Match Race Germany

Favourable racing conditions allowed the organizers of Match Race Germany, Stage 7 of the 2005-’06 World Match Racing Tour, to advance the regatta to the Quarterfinal Round, slated for tomorrow.

Eight crews qualified for the round after the completion of the Groups A1, A2 and B round robins. Three crews advanced from A1 and A2 and another two moved on after the Group B repechage round.

The Quarterfinal Round, a five-flight round robin, features crews led by skippers Peter Gilmour, Jesper Bank and Evgeniy Neugodnikov from Group A1. Mathieu Richard, Sten Mohr and Ian Williams qualified from Group A2, while Staffan Lindberg and Ian Ainslie moved on after finishing as the top two in the repechage round.

Lindberg was the story of the repechage round. The third-ranked skipper on the World Tour, Lindberg has been having a difficult year, placing 9th and 10th in Brazil and Croatia and failing to score points.

After Croatia, Lindberg said he felt he had been doing too much racing and switching crews too often. He felt he had lost his continuity with a core crew. In Germany Lindberg is sailing with his third different crew, although three of the members could be considered regulars.

Lindberg opened Match Race Germany by losing his first three races. Since then, however, he has won seven straight, including a 5-0 run through the repechage. That followed on the heels of Lindberg winning his final A2 round robin flight. “I’m happy with the day, six straight wins today and seven straight in the last seven races. I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, which is about time as I haven’t scored any Tour points since Malaysia,” said Lindberg, skipper of the Alandia Sailing Team.

“The boat felt good today and we liked the light winds as we had struggled a bit when the wind was stronger,” Lindberg continued. “We got a penalty against Björn (Hansen) for jibing too close but managed to put enough distance between us to take it at the finish, it was good to practice taking a penalty to know how much distance ahead you need to be in these boats. It’s the first time I’ve sailed with this crew and we are getting better and gelling well. My confidence is much improved and we are looking forward to the quarterfinals.”

Ainslie is another happy camper on a day that saw the sun appear, the rain disappear, and temperatures rise, ever so slightly. The wind was light in the morning, forcing one match to be abandoned, but built to 7 to 9 knots from the southwest in the afternoon.

Ainslie’s only loss in the repechage round was to Lindberg. The Team Shosholoza afterguard member scrambled to find crew for the event. He has one teammate from Shosholoza, Alex Runciman, and three students from the University of Nantes, Erwan Auburtin, Lucas Chabert and Mael Le Garrec. Their English is intermittent.

Yesterday Ainslie was telling main trimmer Auburtin his desire regarding jib trim, and Auburtin was passing it on, but not always correctly. At one point, the jib was eased instead of trimmed on. Today, they solved some of those communication troubles. “The crew work is coming together even though we don’t speak the same language,” said Ainslie. “The interpreter on the mainsheet is doing great work. The boats are pretty tricky to maneuver, timing the dial up is crucial as they turn really slowly and if you end up head to wind for more than a minute you have it all on to get the boat up to speed before the start.”

In the morning Group A1 finished its round robin, sort of. The wind had died away during the final flight and although two of the matches finished the third, between Gilmour and Neugodnikov, was abandoned. Principal Race Officer Rudi Magg made the decision when a couple of ducks breezed by Gilmour’s boat.

The match was sailed again later and Gilmour won, giving him the top spot from the group for the quarterfinals. The quarters are scheduled to begin at 10:00 am tomorrow.


Match Race Germany 2006 Provisional Standings

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

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

Groub B – Repechage Round (After 5 of 5 scheduled flights)
1. Staffan Lindberg*, 5-0
2. Ian Ainslie*, 4-1
3. Michael Hestbaek, 2-3
4. Eric Monnin, 2-3
5. Bjorn Hansen, 2-3
6. Tino Ellegast, 0-5
* – Advances to Quarterfinal Round

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.