Richardson again

Barking Mad still top dog after Rolex Farr 40 Pre-Worlds win

The Rolex Farr 40 Pre-Worlds provided plenty of warm-up action on the race course in preparation for the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship, starting on Wednesday, 29 August, continuing through until Saturday, 1 September with 36 teams from 12 countries competing.

Finishing the two days of Pre-Worlds competition at the top of the leaderboard was a familiar sight, two-time Rolex Farr 40 World Champion Jim Richardson's navy blue-hulled Barking Mad (USA) with finishes of 1-8-11-4-13 for a total of 37 points overall. Second place was Matt Allen's Ichi Ban (AUS) and third was Wolfgang Stolz's Opus One (GER).

The second day of racing in the Pre-Worlds saw more breeze - WNWerly at 12-18 knots - still puffy and shifty, but with more pressure than the previous day's racing. Tacticians had their hands full with the huge wind shifts that came down the Øresund Strait, the body of water between Denmark and Sweden. With 1.9-mile legs the course was a bit longer than the first day, but the fleet is so close in speed that mark roundings found the fleet packed tightly. Added to that were the huge wind shifts that left some boats overstanding the laylines and having to crack sheets, coming into the windward mark at speed with many of the other boats. While there was some contact, penalty turns were taken and no real significant damage was notched up. But clearly the teams have come to Copenhagen prepared to do battle.

Jim Richardson, owner/helmsman of Barking Mad with Terry Hutchinson as tactician continues a great season, following a win at Rolex Baltic Week only a week ago. Richardson commented: "It feels very, very good. It's difficult to win ever in this class and to win back to back is really good. We had to do a little juggling [with the crew]. But everyone really pulled it together and did a very good job."

Richardson described the conditions: "It's very, very shifty. They were very difficult conditions. My hat's off to Terry Hutchinson for a great job of calling tactics and getting us in the right place most of the time. It was definitely a team effort. Driving in these conditions is pretty difficult because the lifts or the headers are pretty abrupt and so you are trying to walk on tippy-toes, trying to predict what the right amount of turn on the helm should be. So it's a little bit of feeling your way along."

Matt Allen is owner/helmsman of the Australian boat, Ichi Ban, and Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. He has sailed in the past two Rolex Farr 40 Worlds, finishing 2nd in 2006 in Newport. Talking about the conditions the fleet experienced Saturday, he too confirmed the difficulties faced: "It was very shifty, just big waves of shifts coming through, probably 20 - 30 degree shifts, very regular. It's very hard when you are in the front trying to protect both sides of the course because it's just regular shifts and there's really nothing you can do, you just have to pick your own lane and run with it and hopes it all pans out."

Aggressive start line tactics among the crews resulted in general recalls for each race and then, in race 3, a Z-flag was flown (any boat over the line one minute prior to the start receives a 10% penalty) and this caught about a quarter of the class making it difficult to keep tabs on who was in the lead. Ichi Ban was one of the boats carrying such a penalty, but Allen said: "We just ignored the points score. We just thought two-day regatta, we'll see what happens. We're just trying to get our act together and trying to peak at the right time." He continued, laughing, "it always seems you peak too early or too late in this game, peaking at the right time is all part of it really."

Part of getting up to speed for the teams is adapting to the local conditions, and certainly the previous two days racing in Copenhagen have provided some insight into what they may expect. The conditions off Copenhagen vary from past Worlds venues, such as Sydney and as Matt Allen explained: "it's very different, Sydney you've got a sort of big bump and it's much more of a boat speed test. Out here I think it's more just picking the shifts and lanes and trying to keep in phase with it. It's pretty tricky here. The locals have a little bit of an advantage just by being used to all the shifts and the way it all pans out, the rest of us are still probably getting used to it a bit. It's funny when you're doing a cross sometimes you think you're crossing pretty well, and all of the sudden there's a 30 degree shift and you're either really famous, or like dogmeat."

Commenting upon how the level of competition among the fleet has ramped up over the years, Allen says: "I think even since Newport (2006 Worlds) the fleet is probably more consistent. Virtually every boat is on the pace, but you can see big turnarounds. In one race today we had one boat was going really well, they tacked off, we hung on and all of the sudden we had a few minutes on them. Very quickly they just turned with another shift and bang, they were just done."

There is ample talent throughout the fleet, and on board the German boat Struntje Light, Jesper Bank is sailing as tactician. Bank is a three-time Olympic medalist in the Soling class. While this is his first Rolex Farr 40 Worlds, he has sailed most of the season on Struntje Light. But he found the conditions pretty frustrating and challenging. He said: "The conditions yesterday and today have been radical. When the gusts hit, basically you don't have time to react from when you see them, so I think you've got a lot of mixture from up high that hits the water, and I find it very hard to predict what's going on. I don't have a firm grip on it yet." He added: "It's very, very shifty.but it's not unusual for the area. It's exactly what this place is in the westerlies. I didn't grow up here, unfortunately. I don't know if it would have made any difference!"

Having said that in Race 4, Struntje Light finished in first place. Bank said: "we had several races were we were looking okay at times but didn't manage to stay out of contact with other boats and we ended up a few times over the layline in bad, bad, bad traffic. In race four we stuck our nose out enough so we didn't have to worry, just play the game, basically independent of the other boats. That makes life easy. Everyone who's been out front knows it's so much easier when you don't have to worry about other boats."

The weather conditions in Copenhagen have been atypically light, although today, Sunday 26 August, the more usual WNWerlys settled in bringing bands of full-on downpours, which passed through the area bringing gusts of 20-30 knots of wind accompanied by blue sky and large cumulus clouds. A few of the teams were out practising, though many were taking the day off to rest up, weigh-in and complete their sail measurement.

For the next two days most teams will take to the water for training before the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship begins on Wednesday. The Rolex Farr 40 Worlds Skippers Briefing is Tuesday, 28 August at 1700, and the Official Welcome Reception for the teams will follow at 1800 at the The Opera, Holmen.

Rolex Farr 40 Pre-Worlds Results/Final

Pos	Yacht	Skipper	Nat	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Tot
1	BARKING MAD	Jim Richardson	USA	1	8	11.0 ZFP	4	13	37
2	ICHI BAN	Matt Allen	AUS	5	18	23.0 ZFP	2	1	49
3	OPUS ONE	Wolfgang Stolz	GER	6	24	5.0 ZFP	13	2	50
4	MONICK - TUBORG	David Holm	DEN	13	17	8	3	14	55
5	NERONE	Antonio Sodo Migliori	ITA	7	7	6.0 ZFP	10	28	58
6	SPUTNIK	Ivan Wheen	AUS	12	27	5	12	3	59
7	TWINS	Erik Maris	FRA	3	3	37.0 BFD	7	12	62
8	MASCALZONE LATINO	Vincenzo Onorato	ITA	9	6	25.0 ZFP	8	18	66
9	BALOO 110	Jens Erik Høst	DEN	26	13	16	5	7	67
10	GROOVEDERCI	John Demourkas	USA	4	16	11	27	16	74
11	HOOLIGAN	Marcus C. Blackmore	AUS	29	14	4	26	4	77
12	STRUNTJE LIGHT	Wolfgang Schaefer	GER	20	23	12	1	22	78
13	FIAMMA	Alessandro Barnaba	ITA	2	10	20	23	23	78
14	ARCTUR	Vasyl Gureyev	UKR	10	11	28.0 ZFP	15	15	79
15	SILVER BULLET	Henrik Jansen	DEN	14	4	13	25	24	80
16	WARPATH	Stephen Howe	USA	11	2	27	16	25	81
17	ALINGHI	Ernesto Bertarelli	SUI	17	15	37.0 BFD	11	6	86
18	BACKBONE - AUDI	Thomas Kiær	DEN	22	20	10	20	19	91
19	NANOQ	HRH Crown Prince Frederik	DEN	37.0 OCS	9	9	32	5	92
20	KOKOMO	Lang Walker	AUS	15	26	25	18	8	92
21	NORWEGIAN STEAM	Eivind Astrup	NOR	16.0 RDG	19.0 RDG	18	28	11	92
22	SIRAGUSAWA	Olli-Pekka Lumijärvi	FIN	16	29	30.0 ZFP	9	10	94
23	FLASH GORDON 5	Helmut Jahn	USA	29.0 ZFP	12	17	6	32	96
24	CALVI	Carlo Alberini	ITA	24	1	23	14	37.0 DNC	99
25	LE RENARD	Stephen B. Phillips	USA	21	5	14	33.0 ZFP	29	102
26	INFINITY	John B. Thomson Jr.	USA	27	19	15	19	27	107
27	ALEPH	Hughes Lepic	GBR	18	22	3	37.0 OCS	30	110
28	CANNONBALL	Dario Ferrari	ITA	37.0 RAF	32	10.0 ZFP	17	17	113
29	PHISHFOOD	Alexis Michas	USA	23	33	20.0 RDG	22	20	118
30	WOLFPACK	Peter Rudbäck	SWE	8	30	37.0 DSQ	21	34.0 DNF	130
31	OLD BOYS	Eduardo de Souza Ramos	BRA	28	31	22	24	26	131
32	TEAM BERGEN	Sverre Valeur	NOR	31	21	37.0 BFD	35.0 ZFP	21	145
33	ENFANT TERRIBLE	Serena Gianluigi	ITA	37.0 DNC	37.0 DNC	37.0 DNC	30	9	150
34	JOE FLY	Giovanni Maspero	ITA	23.0 ZFP	28	33.0 DNF	37.0 DNC	37.0 DNC	158
35	HAPPY HAPPY	Per Arne Nilsen	NOR	32	34	28	33	31	158
36	MONKEY CLASS 2	Ole van der Heide	DEN	30	25	37.0 RAF	37.0 DNC	37.0 DNC	166