Four-time World Champion Ian Williams starts as favourite in the opening stage of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour in just 3 days... The professional teams on the Alpari World Match Racing Tour are revving their engines for the start of battle in 2014 with the first event in the global series - Match Race Germany. Of the 12 skippers due to compete at Langenargen on Lake Constance, only three have conquered this unique challenge. They are Phil Robertson of New Zealand, Francesco Bruni of Italy, and Ian Williams of Great Britain who won here last year. With six events on the Alpari World Match Racing Tour in 2014, the ISAF World Championship of Match Racing, it’s vital to make a strong start to the season in Germany. However not everyone feels at home in the Bavaria 40ft keelboats which are underpowered in less than 8 knots yet soon overpowered in more than 14 knots. One of the challenges of the Tour is to adapt quickly to the equipment and some teams are better than others at rising to the task. With practice time extremely limited, each crew is trying to work harder than its rivals to master the subtleties of the boat and find that elusive edge of boatspeed. Match Race Germany is the centrepiece of a big festival organised around the Whitsunday bank holiday weekend, and so the 12 teams will be watched by many thousands of spectators over the course of the five days of competition, as they also enjoy lots of festivities and live entertainment around the race village in Langenargener Gondola Harbour. Aside from the live bands and bratwurst stalls, the estimated 30,000 spectators are expected to consume over 30,000 litres of beer. Taking place over five days, the event puts up 40,000 dollars in prize money. As last year’s winner Ian Williams and GAC Pindar will start as favourites, and will be particularly fired up after so narrowly missing out on a record fifth world title to Taylor Canfield and USone at the end of 2013 in Malaysia. Canfield, however, is brimming with confidence and has already defeated most of his Tour rivals at the Congressional Cup in California earlier this season. Phil Robertson and WAKA Racing dispatched both Williams and Canfield on the way to their Monsoon Cup victory last November and will be looking to build on that in Germany, an event this Kiwi team won two years ago. Bruni, who heads up a team from America’s Cup team Luna Rossa, won on Lake Constance two years ago. He hasn’t done much match racing since then, although did come back from AC72 racing on San Francisco last summer to seal victory at the Argo Group Gold Cup, the Bermudian leg of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour. That regatta also takes place in slow, tactical boats, and Bruni has proven himself to be one of the most adaptable helmsmen on the match race scene. For David Gilmour, this is his first visit to Lake Constance, and the young Australian will see if he can master this predominantly light-wind venue in the way that his father, Peter, managed a decade ago when he won Match Race Germany three years running. Also from Perth in Western Australia is Keith Swinton who this year represents the Tour’s title sponsor as skipper of Team Alpari FX. Swinton acknowledges that the bigger boats have not been his strong suit on previous Tours, but hopes that the additional financial support from Alpari will make the difference in terms of affording extra practice time in between events on the global circuit. Aside from the eight Tour Card holders are four teams who have made the line-up in Germany either through qualifying at Berlin Match Race last year or earning a Wild Card. They are Swiss veteran Eric Monnin and Germany’s top match racer Carsten Kemmling, along with Denmark’s Nicolai Sehested and former America’s Cup helmsman from Poland and 2002 Match Racing World Champion Karol Jablonski. One of the most versatile - and some would say volatile - characters in professional sailing, Jablonski regained his world title in ice yachting earlier this season, travelling at almost 20 times the speed that he will be racing in the 40ft Bavarias. The battle in Germany will be a game of chess, demanding both patience and aggression. With pride and prize money at stake, all 12 teams will be fired up and ready to give their best, as they look to conquer Lake Constance.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 20:11:37 +0000
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