Match Race Germany

Ben Ainslie and TeamOrigin to head for Lake Constance in May

Ben Ainslie (GBR) of TeamOrigin is the most successful Olympic Sailor of his generation. From 27 May to 1 June, the British sailor and his TeamOrigin crew will be the most prominent starter of the 12th edition of Match Race Germany, sailed in front of the promenade of Langenargen on the waters of Lake Constance. Ainslie will challenge 11 other high calibre teams at the German Match Race Classic. Among them will be the world number 1 ISAF ranked match racer Sebastien Col (FRA) of French Match Racing Team/K-Challenge.

For the German stop in the World Match Racing Tour, Ainslie, 32 wants to deliver a good result, marking his start on the 2009 Tour season: "Lake Constance is a pretty challenging venue as the wind is often light and always changing so you have to be very aware. The MRG will be our first event on the Tour this season and so we would like to try and start with a good event” said Ainslie.

This will be Ainslie's second time at Match Race Germany, his first being back in 2005 with Emirates Team New Zealand. “The event is always well organised and we look forward to the challenges we will face in Langenargen” Ainslie said.

In the ISAF World Ranking List, the 11 times World Champion is currently ranked 53 rd, but has set the goal, together with his TeamOrigin, to make it to the top 10 in the coming months. To achieve this goal, the 3 times Rolex ISAF World Sailor of the year will have to beat some heavyweights of match racing first. Besides Seb Col’s French Match Racing Team/K Challenge, he will come up against names like Adam Minoprio the shooting star from New Zealand and his ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing team, who recently won the inaugural Event of the World Tour in Marseille. Minoprio beat sailing giant Ed Baird of Alinghi and 2007 Match Race Germany winner Paolo Cian on his way to victory in France. Among the pre race favourites on Lake Constance are also Mathieu Richard and his French Match Racing Team/Team French Spirit as well as Australian Torvar Mirsky, another up and coming young star from last year who earned himself a Tour card.

“We are more than happy about the calibre of the early entries into the 12th edition of Match Race Germany” said co organiser Eberhard Magg, who along with his long term partner Harald Thierer vouches for the fact that the only German Tour stop and Sailing Grand Prix is counted to be a fixed star at the match race firmament.

In Langenargen the race for prestige, Tour ranking points, $50,000 prize money and world ranking points, will be sailed in Bavaria Match 35s from Bavaria Yachtbau. The racing will be very close to shore where last year an event record of over 40,000 spectators saw the action in the natural arena of Langenargen, a figure that the organisers hope to top once again in 2009.“This overwhelming interest is motivation enough for us to keep on working on our Sail and Tainment system we established over 7 years ago in order to present world class sport with high tension and fun to our visitors on site” said Harald Thierer.