Swedish Match Tour - Vickings Rule Their Roost At Danish Open: Danish Crews Give Fans A Reason To Cheer With A Series Of Upsets And Solid Sailing

SKOVSHOVED, Denmark — A series of upsets and consistent sailing by a regatta pacesetter gave Danish fans a reason to cheer today at the 8th annual Danish Open, Stage 2 of the 2004-’05 Swedish Match Tour.

Chris Law (right) uses starboard jibe to hunt and gain a penalty on Lars Nordbjerg in their Flight 15 match, won by Law. Photo © Per Heegaard / Swedish Match Tour

Three Danes featured prominently in the day’s action.

Young up-and-comer Peter Wibroe, 19 years old, scored consecutive wins over America’s Cup Class helmsmen Chris Law (GBR), Philippe Presti (FRA) and Peter Gilmour (AUS), the reigning Swedish Match Tour champion.

Lotte Meldgaard, the world No. 1-ranked women’s match-racer, and her Team Gerimax crew dogged Law in their last match. Meldgaard pushed Law over the line early and also tagged him with a penalty.

Jes Gram-Hansen, the 2002 Danish Open champ sailing with Michael Arnhild, Christian Kamp, Rasmus Kostner and Chresten Plinius, are the provisional winners of the round robin with a 9-2 record and advanced to the semifinals.

He finished one race ahead of another Scandinavian, Staffan Lindberg of Finland. Lindberg, sailing with crewmembers Nils Bjerkås, Martin Krite, Johan Karlsson and Daniel Wallberg finished with an 8-2 record.

They’re joined in the next round by New Zealander Kelvin Harrap, who’s sailing with Danes Sten Mohr, Tim Nielson, Mikkel Røssberg and Jonas Wackenhuth. Harrap finished at 8-3 to place third in the round robin.

The fourth semifinalist will be decided tomorrow morning after the re-sail of Match 1 from Flight 7 between Lindberg and Law. Law successfully filed for redress yesterday when he became confused by the exclusion zone buoys off the Skovshoved seawall.

If Law wins the re-sail he advances to the semifinals. If Lindberg wins Frenchman Mathieu Richard would advance to the semis with a 6-5 record.

After two days of mostly light winds, great weather returned to the Danish Open. After the passing of a frontal system overnight, sailors were greeted with a north/northeasterly breeze up to 15 knots this morning. Although it softened to between 3 and 5 knots in the middle of the day, it built back to 6 to 10 knots for the afternoon.

“This is as good as it gets, this is a real Danish summer day,” said Event Director Michael Nobel, 48, of Skovshoved.

The race committee ran off 39 matches on the day to set up the semifinals and final for tomorrow. And a crowd nearing 750 gathered around the regatta village to watch the action, held within 100 yards of shore.

Wibroe and Meldgaard reveled in the conditions. Although they finished the regatta with 5-6 and 3-8 records, respectively, they showed verve in scoring their wins.

Wibroe is a blonde, curly-haired 19-year-old who only began match-racing two years ago. But listening to him describe his strategy for the race against Gilmour, you’d think he’d won a world championship.

“We were quite sure we wanted the left side,” said Wibroe, of Skovshoved. “We thought there’d be a shift there. We were looking for a big lead at the windward mark because we’d been having problems downwind.”

Wibroe and crew Joachim Carlsen, Phillip Guhle, Christian Monberg and Jeppe Rasmussen executed their plan to perfection. They won the pin end. They tacked to the left side of the beat. They found the left-hand shift and pressure, led at the top mark and never gave up the lead.

“I’m pretty excited,” Wibroe said. “Last year during this event I was an observer aboard Jesper Bank’s boat in the semifinal against Gilmour. He crashed into the back of the boat and hit my back. So it’s a little bit of revenge for me.”

Meldgaard said she and her crew Sille Christensen, Caroline Clausen, Anne Mørup, Mia Nielsen and Anette Rom enjoyed their victory all the way around the racecourse.

“We did a slow luff in the pre-start and he didn’t move,” Meldgaard, 31, explained. “When he did it was a drastic move and he hit us. That was with about 10 seconds to the start. It was perfect.”

Racing is scheduled to resume tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m.

ROUND ROBIN STANDINGS
(After 22/22 flights)
1. Jes Gram-Hansen/DEN, Gram-Hansen Racing, 9-2
Crew: Michael Arnhild, Christian Kamp, Rasmus Kostner, Chresten Plinius

2. Staffan Lindberg/FIN, 8-2*
Crew: Nils Bjerkås, Martin Krite, Johan Karlsson, Daniel Wallberg

3. Kelvin Harrap/NZL, Team New Zealand, 8-3
Crew: Sten Mohr, Tim Nielson, Mikkel Røssberg, Jonas Wackenhuth

4. Mathieu Richard/FRA, 6-5
Crew: Gregoire Eurard, Olivier Herledant, Yannik Simon, Frederic Rivet

5. Peter Gilmour/AUS, Pizza-La Sailing Team, 6-5
Crew: Rod Dawson, Mike Mottl, Alan Smith, Yasuhiro Yaji

6. Chris Law/GBR, 5-5*
Crew: Ian Ainslie, Anders Dahlsjo, David Rae, Mark Sadler

7. Peter Wibroe/DEN, 5-6
Crew: Joachim Carlsen, Phillip Guhle, Christian Monberg, Jeppe Rasmussen

8. Philippe Presti/FRA, le Défi Français, 5-6
Crew: Antoine Breger, Jean-Marie Dauris, Xavier Husson, Philippe Mourniac

9. Lars Nordbjerg/DEN, 4-7
Crew: Jeppe Blak, Niels Gramkov, Thomas Hartvig, Henning Lambertsen

10. Ulf Jonson/SWE, 4-7
Crew: Sebastian Christnsenson, Niklas Edvardsson, Magnus Hansson, Bjorn Lundgren

11. Lotte Meldgaard/DEN, Team Gerimax, 3-8
Crew: Sille Christensen, Caroline Clausen, Anne Mørup, Mia Nielsen, Anette Rom

12. Michael Dunstan/AUS, OzBoyz Challenge, 2-9
Crew: Bjorn Andersson, Martin Stromberg, Carl-Johan Uckelstam, Emil Wiberg

For more information on the Swedish Match Tour, its skippers and events please visit www.SwedishMatchTour.com.