Swedish Match Tour - Hot Fun Under The Danish Summer Sun

Sweden’s Holmberg Top Semifinals Qualifier

SKOVSHOVED, Denmark (August 16, 2003) – After yesterday’s 30 knot battering, summer holiday conditions returned today to Skovshoved Havn, the northern suburb of Copenhagen, where the Danish Open 2003, the first event of Swedish Match Tour 2003/2004 is in full swing.

Guest, spectators and sponsors crowd the water front of Skovshoved Harbour to watch some of the world top match racers do battle at the Danish Open in Skovshoved Harbour, Copenhagen, Denmark. August 16th 2003. Photo © Sergio Dionisio / Oceanfashion / Swedish Match Tour

With the lightening of the conditions to 16-18 knots this morning, the racing also improved with crews spending less time trying to prevent their boats from wiping out and more time on tactics. “It was more manageable and interesting because yesterday the margins for the skippers were quite high which meant there was no real contact,” observed Danish Open organiser Morten Lorenzen. “Today we have had quite a few contacts, so when the breeze decreases, the skippers can get more aggressive. Yesterday was more of a survival game. Today they were really fighting hard.”

In a long day out on the water, the remaining matches of the round robins series were completed by lunchtime. Topping the scoreboard on nine points apiece were Australian America’s Cup veteran Peter Gilmour, now sailing for Team Pizza La, and former Victory Challenge afterguard Magnus Holmberg of Sweden, here with his Team Stora Enso match racing crew. Due to his beating Gilmour in the round robins it was Holmberg who landed the top spot going into the semi-finals.

Local hero and double Olympic medallist Jesper Bank also squeezed through into the top four after winning one of the most aggressive matches of the day from Frenchman Luc Pillot. The race saw both parties awarded pre-start penalties. “We had a penalty in the pre-start and we are not very happy about it,” said Pillot later. “It was a port-starboard call, but it was moving and of course at the end we were close, but he could always change his course so we were quite upset about that.” Morten Lorenzen was impressed by Bank’s determination, saying that it is typical of the Dane’s tactic in regattas to start slowly and crank up as the regatta progressed.

The main complaint of the day for all the skippers was over the extreme wind shifts, that became increasingly dramatic as the wind lightened over the course of the day.

“We had big shifts and also big changes of pressure and sometime you entered into a zone of no pressure,” described Luc Pillot of Mother Nature’s complexities out on the water today. “You can see them but it is not easy to know what is going to happen after. The pressure was coming suddenly from the shore, coming down to the sea and we had to take what we had - to tack or to continue.”

Britain’s Andy Beadsworth of Team Henri Lloyd said that the shifts tended to be very short. “You could come round the leeward mark sometimes and think you’re going to lay. At other times you could lay on the other tack.” The British team including other former GBR Challenge crewmen Matt Cornwell, Ian Budgen and Richard Sydenham had a disappointing day dropping all three races sailed. Beadsworth admitted that in the pre-start in the first race with Magnus Holmberg he had underestimated how the DS37 yacht would turn under genoa as opposed to jib (fitted on all the boats today because of the lighter winds), while he lost on a penalty to Italy’s Paolo Cian of the Riviera di Rimini Sailing Team and had lost the match against Bank when the Dane had benefitted from a wind shift.

Denmark's Jes Gram-Hansen of Team Victory Lane leads Sweden's Magnus Holmberg of Team StoraEnso during day three of racing at the Danish Open in Skovshoved Harbour, Copenhagen, Denmark. August 16th 2003. Photo © Sergio Dionisio / Oceanfashion / Swedish Match Tour

Jesper Radich who is based here in Copenhagen and knows the local conditions explained what was happening. “It is very extreme when you have such a hot surface of the land and the cold wind coming down. So the puffs get extreme,” he said, adding that when the wind is westerly here and blowing off the land it obviously gets shifty, but not usually to the degree seen today where shifts of up to 50degrees were commonplace.

In a competitive regatta such as this there must be losers as well as winners and among the surprises were former Mascalzone Latino helm Paolo Cian who ended the round robins last and Poland’s Karol Jablonski who finished eighth. “We spent more time trying to get this boat going fast and we didn’t spend enough time looking for the right shifts, which is why we lost a couple of matches pretty closely. Still we are racing here against some of the best guys in the world and we just weren’t good enough to beat them,” said Jablonski.

The Danish Open has shown no end to the downturn in Jes Gram Hansen’s performance, despite racing on home waters. The Dane looked set to win Swedish Match Tour 2002/2003 earlier this year, but ended the round robins today in 10th place.

“I think in our preparation for this season, we have made a couple of mistakes,” said Gram Hansen. “We haven’t spent enough time sailing as we’ve been working so hard to find sponsorship for the sailing and to make the team stronger in terms of sponsorship and that is pretty tough when you are not succeeding in that task, then you get frustrated, and you go into a downward spiral. We know we are capable of sailing well. In this we have led a lot of the races, but we are not quite sharp enough.”

With the round robins out of the way, the first half of the semi-finals and the petit-semis to determine positions five to eight, were held in the afternoon by which time the wind had dropped to a very shiftly 4-10 knots still out of the west.

Remarkably with two of the five semi-final races now complete the underdogs are in a strong position.

Magnus Holmberg and Jesper Radich are one all. “In the first match they protected the right side and we followed them out to the right side, but it paid for them hugely with a 30-35deg shift and then it was really hard,” described Magnus Holmberg. “We sailed quite well on the second beat but I misjudged the layline on the land and we had to tack twice again otherwise we might have had a chance…”

Peter Gilmour ,up against Jesper Bank, joked that he had sailed consistently but come second in both his semi-final races. There was drama in the pre-start of the first race when Gilmour to leeward on starboard tack attempted to dip the Danes’ transom and misjudged it striking the stern. In the process the pulpit of Gilmour’s boat struck a glancing blow to Peter Wibroe, the observer on board Bank’s boat. Fortunately Wibroe was not injured. “We actually didn’t know we’d hit the observer,” said Gilmour apologetically. “We were sweeping across and they were turning at the same time and so they slowed down and the bow comes across fast...”

Day three leader Sweden's Magnus Holmberg of Team StoraEnso in action during day three of the Danish Open in Skovshoved Harbour, Copenhagen, Denmark. August 16th 2003. Photo © Sergio Dionisio / Oceanfashion / Swedish Match Tour

With conditions expected to be similarly light and very fluky on the final day of the regatta tomorrow, the outcome of the Danish Open is still anybody’s guess.

Semi-finals

Magnus Holmberg v Jesper Radich: 1-1

Peter Gilmour v Jesper Bank: 0-2

Petit-semi finals
Karol Jablonski v Andy Beadsworth: 2-0

Kelvin Harrap v Luc Pillot: races to be sailed tomorrow

Danish Open Round Robin Standings
Skipper Wins Losses
1.Magnus Holmberg, SWE/Team Stora Enso 9-2

2.Peter Gilmour, AUS/Team Pizza La 9-2
3.Jesper Radich, DEN/Team Radich 8-3

4.Jesper Bank, Denmark 7-4
5.Luc Pillot, FRA/Team Pillot 7-4
6.Kelvin Harrap, New Zealand 6-5

7.Andy Beadsworth, GBR/Team Henri Lloyd 4-7
8.Karol Jablonski, POL/Jablonski Sailing Team 4-7
9.Roy Heiner, Netherlands 4-7

10.Jes Gram-Hansen, DEN/Team Victory Lane 3-8

11.Lars Nordbjaerg, Denmark 3-8
12.Paolo Cian, ITA/Riviera di Rimini Sailing Team 2-9

Round Robin
Flight 17

Jesper Radich beat Karol Jablonski

Peter Gilmour beat Roy Heiner

Kelvin Harrap beat Lars Nordbjerg

Flight 18

Kelvin Harrap beat Jesper Radich

Peter Gilmour beat Lars Nordbjerg

Karol Jablonski beat Roy Heiner

Flight 19

Jesper Radich beat Peter Gilmour

Lars Nordbjerg beat Karol Jablonski

Roy Heiner beat Kelvin Harrap

Flight 20

Magnus Holmberg beat Andy Beadsworth

Jes Gram Hansen beat Paolo Cian

Jesper Bank beat Luc Pillot

Flight 21

Paolo Cian beat Andy Beadsworth

Luc Pillot beat Magnus Holmberg

Jesper Bank beat Jes Gram Hansen

Flight 22

Luc Pillot beat Paolo Cian

Jesper Bank beat Andy Beadsworth

Magnus Holmberg beat Jes Gram Hansen

About the Swedish Match Tour

· The Swedish Match Tour is comprised of nine of the world's leading professional sailing events and is proving to be the ultimate battleground of sailing.
· In addition to more than US$800,000 in individual event prize money, the Swedish Match Tour awards US$200,000 to the top eight sailors on the Swedish Match Tour, with the first-place skipper netting US$60,000.
· In addition to a US$60,000 first prize, the winner of the Swedish Match Tour receives the official Swedish Match Tour Championship Trophy, 15" (30 cm) high with 22 carat gold gilding, produced by Swedish Match Tour sponsor Wedgwood. Additionally, Wedgwood supplies runner-up prizes for second and third places as well as commemorative plaques to each event organizer.
· The Swedish Match Tour produces 155 hours of television coverage reaching more than 426 million households worldwide annually.
· Swedish Match Tour partners include Swedish Match, Octagon and the Match Race Association.
· Swedish Match Tour sponsors include Colorcraft, Champagne Mumm, Musto and Wedgwood.

For all the latest news from the Danish Open visit www.swedishmatchtour.com.