Preview: EUROSAF European Match Racing Championship 2009

A rare chance for Men & Women Match Race Stars to compete alongside each other

by Jess Anderson

It’s not often that the stars of the men’s and women’s match racing events get to compete side by side at the same regatta, but the coming week the EUROSAF European Match Racing Championship 2009 will do exactly that.

Sixteen of the world’s best women’s match race teams will join 16 of the best men’s teams in Middelfart, the site of “TMC - Match Race Denmark”, which is believed to be the largest, purpose-built match racing centre in the world. Constituted of six local sailing clubs, TMC is able to provide six “DS 37 Match Racers” and 12 “match 28” keelboats for the EUROSAF regatta.

With the International Sailing Federation having introduced Women’s Match Racing to the Olympic sailing arena for the first time, 2009 is the launch year for this new Olympic discipline and the competition among the women is expected to be fierce.

Four competing teams are currently ranked in the top 10 of ISAF’s World Match Racing Rankings, led by Great Britain’s Lucy Macgregor (World No.3), along with Lotte Meldgaard (Denmark, No. 5), Silke Hahlbrock (Germany, No. 6), Julie Bossard (France, No. 9).

The standard is similarly high among the Men’s teams, with America’s Cup veterans Philippe Presti and Paolo Cian leading the way in terms of ISAF rankings. Respectively the Frenchman and Italian are ranked 8th and 9th in the World Rankings, with Sweden’s Johnie Berntsson in 10th.

Chairman of the EUROSAF Events Committee, Dan Ibsen, looked forward to having a combined Open and Women’s European Championship in match racing for the first time. “I believe this is a great move forward for match racing in Europe,” said Ibsen, “and provides an excellent opportunity to promote match racing to everyone, whether they are new sailors, the public or the media.”

Top seed among the women, Lucy Macgregor, was looking forward to racing alongside the men, although the Open and Women’s events will still be distinct competitions. “It’s good fun for everyone to have men and women at the same event, and it would be nice if it happened more often,” she said. “Also, it will be good to have 16 women’s teams in the competition rather than the 12 that most regattas are limited to.”

For Macgregor it will be a rare chance to sail with her sisters Nicky and Kate, along with her regular Olympic campaigning team of Ally Martin and Annie Lush. “The European Championships marks the end of the first phase of our Olympic campaign before we move into the new three-person Elliott boats that have been designed for the Olympic Regatta, so we’re going to enjoy sailing five-up while we still can.”

The EUROSAF European Match Racing Championship 2009 is one of a number of high profile sailing regattas taking place in Denmark this summer as part of wider festival of different sports, called Denmark’s Year of Sport. To do their utmost to ensure that their events are held to the highest possible standards the Danish Sailing Association is working with the support of the insurance company CODAN (part of Sun Alliance Group), to provide TracTrac tracking during the Laser Radial Europeans, Finn Gold Cup, EUROSAF Match Racing Europeans and 470 World Championship. The Danish Sailing Association has purchased 150 state-of-the-art GPS tracking devices, allowing races to be followed in real time over the internet.
Last year the TracTrac tracking of the ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship in Aarhus, Denmark was followed by nearly 30,000 viewers from 69 countries all over the world.

LIST OF SKIPPERS entered in the EUROSAF European Match Racing Championship 2009

Women (Skipper’s Name, Nation, ISAF Match Race World Ranking as at 8 July)
Lucy Macgregor, Great Britain, 3
Lotte Meldgaard, Denmark, 5
Silke Hahlbrock, Germany, 6
Julie Bossard, France, 9
Camilla Ulrikkeholm, Denmark, 13
Anne-Claire Le Berre, 14
Karin Hagstrom, Sweden, 17
Rita Goncalves, Portugal, 18
Giulia Conti, Italy, 22
Charlotte Lawrence, Great Britain, 35
Susanne Ward, Denmark, 41
Anne Le Helley, France, 42
Mary Rook, Great Britain, 50
Renee Groeneveld, Netherlands, 64
Ekaterina Skudina, Russia, 118
Katie Archer, Great Britain, 257

Open (Skipper’s Name, Nation, ISAF Match Race World Ranking as at 8 July)
Philippe Presti, France, 8
Paolo Cian, Italy, 9
Johnie Berntsson, Sweden, 10
Mads Ebler, Denmark, 12
Jure Orel, Slovenia, 15
Alvaro Marinho, Portugal, 18
Pierre-Antoine Morvan, 20
Staffan Lindberg, Sweden, 23
Eric Monnin, Switzerland, 27
Gian Luca Perris, Monaco, 29
Lars Nordbjaerg, Denmark, 31
Marek Stanczyk, Poland, 32
Jan-Eike Andresen, Germany, 38
Ali Hall, Great Britain, 53
Jurjen Feitsma, Netherlands, 70
Maxim Toranov, Russia, unranked

Match Race Denmark