Match racers head for Garda

We preview the Fraglia Vela Riva ISAF Grade 1 event

The Fraglia Vela Riva is ready to host another exciting sailing event, after the Guinness Record breaking event that saw almost 800 Optimist sailors racing over Easter on Lake Garda.

This time it’s sailing in America’s Cup style: ten skippers will fight for the Garda Trentino ISAF Grade 1 open Match Race, organised by the Fraglia Vela Riva in conjunction with the International Sailing Federation.

The event runs from 27 April to 1 May with the same format successfully used by the Fraglia Vela Riva during the ISAF Match Racing World Championship held last August:
- Round 1: double round robin, where all skippers sail each other twice in
one group.
- Round 2: semifinals, where the top four skippers from the round robins race
against each other in a knock out series, first to score three points.
- Round 3: final and petite final, run on a knock out series, first to score
three points.

Current match racing world champion Ed Baird (USA), who won this world title also in 1995, will be in Riva with his fellow crew members Jon Ziskind and Andy Horton, fresh from winning the Congressional Cup in Long Beach. Thomas Burnham, who won the match racing worlds in Riva with Baird last August, won’t be here this time as he is currently training with Team Luna Rossa in Valencia for the next America’s Cup.

Nine other skippers will compete in the Garda Trentino Open Match Race:
- JESPER RADICH, Denmark – ISAF ranking: 2°
- MATHIEU RICHARD, France - ISAF ranking: 4°
- PAOLO CIAN, Italy - ISAF ranking: 7°
- IAN WILLIAMS, UK - ISAF ranking: 9°
- JOHNIE BERNTSSON, Sweden - ISAF ranking: 15°
- ANDREW ARBUZOV, Russia - ISAF ranking: 16°
- MAXIM TARANOV, Russia - ISAF ranking: 21°
- MICHAEL DUNSTAN, Australia - ISAF ranking: 29°
- MARK CAMPBELL-JAMES, UK - ISAF ranking: 40°

The schedule of the week will be as follows:
- 27 April: registration and crew weighing. Boats testing. Briefing and
meeting with umpires. 7.00pm, opening ceremony.
- 28 April: 8.30am, 1st warning signal. The programme of following races will
be posted daily on the Official Notice Board.
- 28 April-1 May: racing days.
- 30 April: gala dinner.
- 1 May: 6.00pm, official prizegiving ceremony.

The GARDA TRENTINO ISAF gr. 1 open Match Race will be sailed on eight identical J/22 boats. The boats will be allocated by draw, either daily or for each round as decided by the Race Committee. The number of crew (including skipper) is three.