Green back on form

Former GBR Challenge helm wins JPMorgan Asset Management Winter Challenge final

The final of the JPMorgan Asset Management Winter Challenge Match Racing Series saw the British teams dominate proceedings at Queen Mary Sailing Club, Staines this weekend (9-11 March), with ‘comeback kid’ Andy Green taking victory.

The round robin on Friday and Saturday saw close racing, and some upsets as the teams battled hard to secure a place in the semi-final. An international field including the only women’s team led by France’s Claire Leroy, lined up against a strong Scandinavian presence consisting of Finland’s Jon Eriksson, world number ten Staffan Lindberg and Sweden’s world number eight Bjorn Hansen, as well five British teams and Switzerland's Eric Monnin.

The biggest upset of the weekend came during the final round robin match. The pre-event favourites, last year’s winner and European Champion Staffan Lindberg (FIN) and Bjorn Hansen (SWE) were tied and went into a deciding knock out race. Hansen took the win, securing his place in the semi-final. Monnin and Britain’s Mark Campbell-James and Andy Green progressed with ease to the semis, Cambell-James dropping just two races to Green's three during the round robins.

Conditions through the three days was similar each day with 10-14 knots, and an unseasonal sun warming up the flat waters of Queen’s Mary Reservoir.

Andy Green dominated his semi-final races against Eric Monnin (SUI), taking three straight wins. In contrast, the second semi-final was not as straightforward - Campbell-James sailed very aggressively, pushing Hansen into several penalty situations. On the final run of the second race, Campbell-James forced Hansen to tack away while he was offloading a penalty, a move that Campbell-James was penalised for and had half a point deducted from his score line. This forced another two races to decide which of the teams made it through to the final. The final two races were equally hard fought, including a tacking duel consisting of over 30 tacks. Campbell-James came through to secure the win he needed to book his place in the final.

The final was an intense competition between Campbell-James, sailing with Andy Yates, Andy Clark and Dave Mason, and Green with Ian Williams' brother Mark, Jonathan 'Boycey' Taylor and Graham Sunderland. It was Sunderland who was responsible for putting Green's team together.

Green later described to us how he had got on. Sailing in the JPMorgan Asset Management Winter Challenge was the first time he has been behind the wheel of a Cup boat since being ousted from the helm of GBR Challenge during the Louis Vuitton Cup back in Auckland (although he has since had a stint as tactician for Team Shosholoza).



On Friday Green's team had got off to a bad start, dropping their first three races. "We lost to Lindberg, Hansen and Mark Campbell-James who were three of the top four seeds. And we lost them pretty embarrassingly - I couldn’t get off the start. We were three or four boat lengths behind," Green admits.

A bit rusty? "Most definitely. Very rusty on Friday. But then we had another couple of races which we won - the one was against Monnin and then we beat him and basically we won all the rest of the races for the next two and a half days after losing the first three.

"The semi-finals were against Monnin again. We beat him 3-0 and I don’t think he was ever ahead. The second race against Eric Monnin was particularly good. We got ahead of him at the windward mark, where he was ahead but we managed to get ahead of him by getting to the correct side at the windward mark and he then fouled us, so we went from behind to ahead with a penalty." Green managed to pull off the same tactic in two races over Monnin, who had dominated the round robin series. "He sailed really neatly. So we were pleased to get him in the semis because he was the only person from the top four we’d beaten in the round robins. It was bloody nice to get back into it," said Green.

They then moved into the final. "We won the first race and then we were ahead in the second and I made a stupid mistake: We were leading him [Mark C-J] on the first downwind leg and we were reaching a bit higher to protect our air, but then when it came to gybe to the layline, we were still ahead and we gybed on to port to go towards the leeward mark and he just bore away hard on starboard and we gybed and were trying to cross him. But by that time it was too late - he was on starboard and I was on port and it was one of those sort of ‘oh dear’ moments. Then we spent the rest of the race trying to offset our penalty.

"In the third race it was very close but we kept winning the left which kept us about a boatlength or two ahead off each start and we kept it all the way around by a boatlength or two until the finish. All three races were very close against Mark."

While Green's victory was a great performance, it was slightly lessened by the failure of Ian Williams and Iain Percy to compete, despite both having qualified by winning earlier rounds. Williams has been busy winning the Farr 40 class at Acura Miami Grand Prix on Fred and Steve Howe's Warpath, while Percy as +39 skipper has a Louis Vuitton Cup competition looming in less than a month.

So why is this Green's first time behind the wheel in a match race boat since the last Cup? "The main reason was that when you go match racing you have to have an aim. You have to have an end game. It didn’t seem to be too worthwhile to go and do it for the sake of it. I wanted to have some sort of reason. There was no British America’s Cup team and there were lots of other things I had to do that were important."

At present Green is uncertain whether this success has motivated him to do any more match racing. In the meantime he has a job working on the logistical side of Sir Keith Mills' Team Origin, negotiating the acquiring of assets and finding a base for the syndicate in the UK.

As to the JP Morgan series: "I’ve always looked at it with envy. It is a good time. It is in the winter. It works at Queen Mary. You can usually always sail there. I think it is a really nice way of them [JPMorgan] having a good presence in match racing without a huge commitment. And it is becoming more and more popular and important - whether it is the qualifiers or the final event, there are a lot of people who have gone through it now. It was something we desperately needed when I was full time match racing. I would have absolutely loved to have been there, because we don’t have too many match races in this country.

While last year the JPMorgan Asset Management Winter Challenge final was won by France' Damien Lehl, who was 9th seeded going into the final, this year Green was 10th and bottom seeded being currently 425th in the ISAF rankings.

Final Rankings

1 - Andy Green (GBR) 425, Jonathon Taylor, Graham Sunderland, Mark Williams
2 - Mark Campbell James (GBR) 26, Andy Yates, Andy Green, Dave Mason
3 - Eric Monnin (SUI) 18, Loris Von Siebenthal, Marc Monnin, Jean Claude Monnin, Simon Brugger
4 - Bjorn Hansen (SWE) 8, Mathias Hermansson, Pontus Meijer, Mattias Bredin
5 - Staffan Lindberg (FIN) 10, Daniel Walberg, Magnus Hansson, Carl Johan Uckelstam
6 - Jon Pinner (GBR) 178, Christian Hamilton, Tom Haywood, Jeremy Fowke
7 - Nick Cherry (GBR) 52, Nick Houchin, Tom Odell, Connor Myant
8 - John Greenland (GBR) 117, Tim Burnel, Charlie Cumberly, Nick Butt
9 - Jon Eriksson (FIN) 63, Pasi Palmu, Jan Marrsson, Peter Anton
10 - Claire Leroy (FRA) 193, Opheile Thoron, Elodie Bertrand, Morgane Gautier, Marie Riou

More photos on the following pages....