Biggest prize money

12 women's match race teams to line up next week

12 of the world’s best female skippers will be battling for the greatest prize money in women’s match racing – 400 000 SEK/43 000 Euro - in this Grade 1 race by the sea side town of Lysekil on the west coast of Sweden.

They are (including present ISAF ranking)

Claire Leroy FRA (1) Team Ideactor
Marie Björling SWE (2) Team Schenker
Klaartje Zuiderbaan NED (3) Team Klaartje Zuiderbaan
Linda Rahm SWE (7) Team Daros
Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen DEN (10) Team HSH Nordbank
Malin Millbourn SWE (13) Team Santa Maria
Jessica Smyth NYZ (15) Team Jessica Smyth
Josie Gibson GBR (16) Team Josie Gibson
Giulia Conti ITA (19) Team Giulia Conti
Camilla Ulrikkeholm DEN (22) Team CU
Martina Karlemo FI (25) Team Martina Karlemo
Ulrike Firk GER (30) Team Ulrike Firk


Claire Leroy FRA (1). Team Ideactor
This 25 year old talent from France has since 2005 snatched the desirable top position on the world ranking of women’s match racing. She had her true breakthrough 2003 when she won both the prestigious Rolex Osprey Match Cup in Florida and the Italian Ledro Cup. During 2004 her career rocketed and she won the bronze medal in the World Championships, the European Championships and Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand. She also won the silver medal in Lysekil Women’s Match. During 2005 she kept on achieving good results as she once again won the Ledro Cup, took bronze at the World Championships and at Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand. During the World Championships in May she did not finish better than eighth and is now ready for revenge!

Marie Björling SWE (2). Team Schenker
This mother of two won Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand 2002, 2003, 2004. She has several World Champion gold medals from dinghy sailing in her CV and can boast with four silver medals in World Championships of match racing! Her team won the last edition of Lysekil Women’s Match 2004 and the great prize money of 10 800 Euro (100 000 SEK). She has earlier been ranked number one in women’s match racing, but has been knocked off the top position during different occasions because of giving birth to her two children. Her last child is not even one years old but Marie is back on track and is once again placed second on the world ranking. She impressed us all by winning the silver medal in the World Championships in May.

Klaartje Zuiderbaan NED (3). Team Klaartje Zuiderbaan
Back in the Netherlands she is the big star of match racing. She is in great shape and this year she repeated last year’s performance and won the first Grade 1 race in Calpe in Spain (the highest ranked match races). Last spring she was fifth in the World Championships. She was European Champion 2000 and the same year she was very close to top three in the World Championships. In 2002, she took third at the prestigious Bermuda Gold Cup. Klaartje has also made some side steps from her match racing career – for example she has sailed as watch captain in the ocean race Fastnet Race and as trimmer on the all female boat Amer Sports Too in the Volvo Ocean Race 2001-02. She has Master of Science in Civil Engineering, specialised in hydraulical and geotechnical engineering.

Linda Rahm SWE (7) Team Daros
Linda and her Team Daros are ready to take revenge at their favourite spot Lysekil. During the last edition 2004 Linda won the first Round Robin and this year she is well prepared to go all the way! She grew up in the sailing metropolis Kullavik on the west coast of Sweden, and Linda, as many other successful match racing sailors, started her career in dinghies. She has represented Sweden in a number of World Championships in Europe Dinghy. With a few years’ experience she is now established on the top-ten ranking of match racing. A bronze medal at the World Championships in May indicates what direction she is heading and Team Daros can be dangerous in Lysekil!

Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen DEN (10). Team HSH Nordbank
This team is quite new - they started sailing together in 2005 but all team members have long experience of match racing and racing other boat classes. Lotte has been match racing for 12 years. She started her career in an Optimist and then Yngling with great performances internationally. Even her match racing career has been very successful. In 2003 she won gold in the European Championships and silver in the World Championships. She took bronze in the World’s 2001 and she has a gold medal from the Nordic Championships. In 2004 she took silver at Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand and 2005 she won a bronze medal in Lago de Ledro in Italy. At the World Championships in home waters in Denmark last May, Lotte was fourth and for this team a top three in Lysekil is very much desired.

Malin Millbourn SWE (13). Team Santa Maria
Her sailing career started early with Europe Dinghy, she was soon champion in Sweden, and later she took gold in the World Championships. In 1994 she was elected best female sailor in Sweden and in 1996 she was ninth in the Olympics. She started match racing 1998 and already the first year she was third in the Swedish Championships, second the year after and then first. Malin’s best year was 2003 when she was ranked second on the world ranking and won the gold medal in the World Championships. Her team was also nominated World Sailor Award. During the season of 2004 Malin had a break and made her come back last year as stand in helmsman in the team of Malin Källström. The result was very successful, she won Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand, was fourth in Osprey Cup in Florida and second in the Nordic Championships. Malin and Malin share the helmsman duty and in Lysekil Malin M will represent the team.

Jessica Smyth NYZ (15) Team Jessica Smyth
The young talent from New Zealand wins most races down under, in both New Zealand and Australia. In 2005 she won the National Championships in match racing in New Zealand and this year she took silver. In both 2006 and 2005 she won the bronze medal at the Harken International Women’s Match Racing Championships in Sydney and she won the National Championships in fleet racing in New Zealand 2005. This summer her focus is on Europe. It will be exciting to see what she can accomplish on our latitudes during Lysekil Women’s Match!

Josie Gibson GBR (16) Team Josie Gibson
As many of her competitors Josie started her career with dinghy sailing. She started sailing at nine years of age and competing at 13. Optimist, 420 and 470 are Josie’s specialties. For several years she represented Britain in the World Championships of the 470 class. She is quite new in the match racing circuit and her first results date only from 2004. Last year she won the silver medal of the Ladies Only in Hamburg, Germany. She has almost entirely raced in home waters in England before. This year she concentrated on JP Morgan Flemming Women’s Challenge in London, where she ended up on a sixth place. In our Swedish waters she is a newcomer!

Giulia Conti ITA (19) Team Giulia Conti
This 20 year old talent started sailing Optimist and won her first gold medal in the 1999 European Championship. Later on she changed to the Europe Class at the same time as she started match racing. Only fourteen years old, she helmed a J/22 at a grade 1 match race and reached the semi-final. From that moment on she has never missed the most important match race events in the world, and in May 2003 she hit the 4th place on the world ranking list. The Italian Sailing Federation proposed her to sail the Yngling Olympic campaign for Athens. After Athens Giulia decided to abandon the "slow" Yngling for the brilliant 470, the boat she loves, and faces the new adventure leading to Bejing 2008. She has never stopped match racing and at the end of 2005 she won the prestigious Rolex Osprey Cup in Florida.

Camilla Ulrikkeholm DEN (22) Team CU
The 24-year-old architecture student started her sailing career in the Optimist, where she participated in National, Nordic and European championships. In 1997 she was elected the best young female sailor of the year. After the optimist she started sailing the Europe dinghy, but found herself too light for the class. Due to back injuries she held a 2-year pause from sailing until the spring of 2004 when she gathered a female team of experienced sailors which since became “Team CU”. The team is now a little more than 2 years old and has its base at the Royal Match Race Centre in Skovshoved, Denmark.

Martina Karlemo FI (25)
'Peppi', as most people call her, started sailing Optimist at the age of 7 and later changed to Europe dinghy. She did well and in 1991 she won a bronze medal in the junior Nordic Championships. 1993 she started an Olympic project in 470 that lasted until 1999. Shortly after she started her match racing career. Already the year after (2000) she was Finnish Champion in match racing, an achievement she repeated last year. She has also done well in the Nordic Championships; silver 2002, bronze 2001 and 2005. This 32-year-old mother of three is a physiotherapist and finds time to do both downhill and cross country skiing

Ulrike Firk GER (30) Team Ulrike Firk
Ulrike is relatively new in the match racing circuit. She started match racing two years ago but is already ranked second in her home country Germany. Before match racing she sailed IMS1 and Mumm 30 in the men’s class. Her team took gold in the European Championships and was several times number 1 in the German Championships. Ulrike may need some more time to achieve the same results in match racing but she has already reached the podium; with a silver medal in the International German Championship in Hamburg last year and she took bronze in Harpen Bergkamen Cup the same year. Since 2004 she has competed in quite a few races in Germany, and even in Denmark, France, and Poland but never in Sweden. Ulrike and her team are looking forward to sailing on the Swedish west coast and defend the German flag as the only German team in Lysekil Women’s Match.

The inauguration of Preem Lysekil Women’s Match for the Stena Bulk Trophy will be on 1 August, and the races will take place during 2-6 August.

Preem Lysekil Women’s Match for the Stena Bulk Trophy is organised by Sailnet Lysekil AB and Live Göteborg in cooperation with the yacht club Lysekils SS Gullmar (LSSG). Official host of Lysekil Women’s Match is the oil company Preem with main partner Stena Bulk AB and Carpe Diem Beds of Sweden, Midroc Scandinavia and Lysekil Local Authority as partners.