No2

The Daily Sail speaks to world no2 match racer Jes Gram-Hansen currently taking part in the Bermuda Gold Cup

Whether your name is Chris Dickson or Paul Cayard, for anyone at the top end of match racing, it must be somewhat galling not to be mixing it in America's Cup circles at the moment.

Another person who is not currently contracted to a team is 31 year old Dane Jes Gram-Hansen, currently ranked number two in the ISAF World Match Race Rankings behind Oracle's Peter Holmberg but ahead of the likes of Prada's Gavin Brady (6th), Mascalzone Latino's Paolo Cian (8th), Le Defi Areva's Philippe Presti (10ft), GBR Challenge's Andy Green (17th), Victory Challenge's Magnus Holmberg (18th) and even the bright young star himself, OneWorld's James Spithill (20th).

He also is currently leader in the Swedish Match Tour, having won the Danish Open and come second at the Steinlager/Line 7 Cup in Auckland.

From his background as National Champion in the 10m One Design in 1991-2, Gram-Hansen has been on the match racing circuit for some 10 years now and his Victory Lane Match Racing team is currently taking part in the Bermuda Gold Cup where he yesterday in round one they beat the unseeded Sussex-based American Mason Woodworth in a match that was too close for comfort.

"The two first races we managed to win. It was very tricky conditions with a lot of shifty winds coming across the bay from a southerly direction, but then they fought back to win the next two races," described Gram-Hansen to The Daily Sail. "So it came down to the last race. We managed to get a penalty on them in the pre-start. Our game plan was to go for the right side of the course and we managed to get that and in the first meeting we had a lead of one to two boat lengths and we managed to hold to that throughout the race. So we were very happy to progress into the next round. It is the fourth time we’ve done this event in Bermuda and it’s still difficult to get through to the next round..."

Part of the problem racing at the Gold Cup in Bermuda is that the boats are a little clunky and a rather different proposition from the nimble racing machines they use for match racing in Scandinavia. "The boats have got a long keel and so heavy so you really have to rethink the whole match race game," says Gram-Hansen. "you have always look a few steps forward. I’m trying not to be too aggressive, so I’m trying to set up a clean start with a lot of speed on the boats because it takes forever to build speed on these type of boats."

For the Gold Cup Gram-Hansen is sailing with his regular trimmer Christian Kamp and bowman Michael Arnhild, but the team are short of their regular navigator Rasmus Kostner who's ill and back in Denmark. Instead they have on board Californian Kevin McCarthy who sailed with them during the Congressional Cup. A small draw back is that English is now the language on board. "With the practice yesterday and the races today we are getting better and better," says Gram-Hansen. "We are speaking English on board, and sometimes it is a little bit difficult because there is a bit of a language barrier sometimes. But Kevin's doing a great job."

Continued on page 2...