[Source: World Match Racing Tour] Lake Constance left it right until the last moment to get uncooperative at Match Race Germany. An ominous-looking rain cloud was on its way across the third largest lake in Europe from Switzerland, sucking all the wind out of the vicinity and causing PRO Rudi Magg to draw proceedings to a close.

This handed victory at Match Race Germany to British helm Ian Williams and his American/Australian crew of Mal Parker and Bill Hardesty, supplemented on this occasion by stand-ins Graham Spence and Willem Van Waay. Williams’ GAC Pindar crew won today’s single Finals match against Adam Minoprio and his all-Kiwi Team Alpari FX crew of Nick Blackman, Chris Main, Tom Powrie and David Swete; reigning Alpari World Match Racing Tour champion (Williams), up against the 2009 champion (Minoprio).

A little slow out of the blocks in the Semi Finals yesterday, Williams was 1-2 down against Johnie Berntsson’s Stena Sailing Team crew as proceedings came to a close last night. However the GAC Pindar crew fought back this morning to take the next two points, to gain their berth in the final.

In his Semi Final match Minoprio had less to do this morning, scoring a come-from-behind win against France’s experienced Mathieu Richard and his GEFCO Match Racing Team to take him through on a 3-1 scoreline.

Ian Williams starts the 2013 season with a victory! Langenargen, 20 May 2013. Photo copyright Brian Carlin / Alpari World Match Racing Tour

“We had a nice lead, maybe 8-10 boatlengths during the first run,” explained Richard after a long team de-brief. “But then we ran out of wind, and completely stopped while they had a little breeze coming from behind. Often in those conditions it is not too bad to be behind and they showed us that today as they were able to overtake us. It is very disappointing and a bit frustrating, but that is how it is.”

Otherwise the Frenchman, who heralds from La Baule on the Atlantic coast, was pleased with the performance of his GEFCO Match Racing Team in what is their first Tour event since St Moritz last year. Richard will be back for Korea Match Cup next week followed by Stena Match Cup Sweden at the beginning of July.

In this afternoon’s only Finals race, held once again in very light winds, Minoprio held up his hand, acknowledging that he had made a meal of the pre-start. “I forgot how long these boats take to gybe and I wasted a minute doing two gybes so we were late for the line. It was my mistake, I was kicking myself at the start of the race.”

From there all he could do was chase the GAC Pindar crew around the course, who in turn did an immaculate job of covering their Kiwi opponents.

Minoprio felt the Race Committee was correct to draw racing to a close prematurely and was gracious in defeat. “There is no wind at the moment,” he observed. “Ian sailed better than us in the one race we had and he won Qualifying – he deserves the win here. We sailed very poorly in that final race against him and we didn’t deserve it.”
However Minoprio reckoned it was a solid start to his come-back season. “Second is good points for the overall Championship and puts the pressure on everyone else.”

Williams was pleased with victory, a first in his lengthy match racing career at Match Race Germany, even if the last part of the event was curtailed. He felt he sailed the last race well.

“It was really light which meant manoeuvres were really costly. We did a nice job of keeping Adam down – he had to do a couple of gybes in the last minute before the start and that cost him a bit of speed which allowed us to be faster and closer to the line at start time. Then we did two less tacks on both beats and that is what allowed us to draw away by the finish.”

Ian Williams starts the 2013 season with a victory! Langenargen, 20 May 2013. Photo copyright Brian Carlin / Alpari World Match Racing Tour

Victory at Match Race Germany, makes for a solid start to Williams and the GAC Pindar team’s campaign to win the Alpari World Match Racing Tour for a record setting fifth time.

“I haven’t been here in Langenargen for a couple of years,” admitted Williams. “They put on a great show here. The conditions are often difficult, but I like the big boats, they are impressive. Plus there is a good crowd turn-out here and the event works well for the local economy, so long may it continue.”

James Pleasance, Executive Director of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour felt that the beginning of the 2013 season had gone well: “It has been a fantastic week for the first stage of the 2013 Alpari World Match Racing Tour, and a good shakedown event for all the teams. The boats here are bigger and heavier and the teams have really had to find their stride in the variable lake conditions. But a great win for Ian and GAC Pindar, and against a former Tour Champion in the final as well. This Tour season is going be very close indeed.”

FINAL RESULTS
Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar vs Adam Minoprio (NZL) Team Alpari FX 1-0

PETIT FINAL RESULTS
Mathieu Richard (FRA) GEFCO Match Racing Team vs Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Stena Sailing Team 1-0

FINAL SEMI FINAL RESULTS
Mathieu Richard (FRA) GEFCO Match Racing Team vs Adam Minoprio (NZL) Team Alpari FX 1-3
Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar v Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Stena Sailing Team 2-2

LEADERBOARD AFTER STAGE 1 – MATCH RACE GERMANY
1 Ian Williams (GBR) – Team GAC Pindar 25
2 Adam Minoprio (NZL) – Team Alpari FX 22
3 Mathieu Richard (FRA) – GEFCO Match Racing Team 19
4 Johnie Berntsson (SWE)- Stena Sailing Team 16
5 Taylor Canfield (ISV) – USone 14
6 Björn Hansen (SWE) – Mekonomen Sailing Team 12
7 Karol Jablonski (POL) – Jablonski Sailing Team 10
8 Pierre-Antoine Morvan (FRA) – Vannes Agglo Sailing Team 8
9 Phil Robertson (NZL) – WAKA Racing 4
10 Keith Swinton (AUS) – Black Swan Racing 2
11 Philip Buhl (GER) – STG/NRV Youth Team 0
12 Sven Erick-Horsch (GER) – NRV Match Race Team 0

[Source: Alpari World Match Racing Tour] With the sun getting low in the sky, at the end of play GAC Pindar skipper Ian Williams and his long term French rival Mathieu Richard of GEFCO Match Racing Team hold a 4-1 scoreline, along with Pierre Antoine Morvan’s Vannes Agglo Sailing Team. The three teams’ single losses were respectively to Adam Minoprio, Bjorn Hansen and Ian Williams.

“We were a little nervous because a lot of teams have sailed these boats before and we haven’t,” said Williams. “It is an unusual situation for us to be the less experienced team, but our upwind boat speed was really good.” The GAC Pindar crew narrowly won their match against Morvan after there was a big luff at the top mark and the Frenchman ended up picking up a penalty for going past head to wind.

US Virgin Islander Taylor Canfield and his USone team ended the day on three wins along with Keith Swinton’s Black Swan Racing, Bjorn Hansen’s Mekonomen Sailing Team and the Adam Minoprio-skippered Team Alpari FX.

Canfield won against Hansen, Robertson and Jablonski, but lost to Berntsson and Richard. “Light conditions in big heavy slow boats is always challenging and I don’t think we are totally comfortable with all of our manoeuvres and timing in these boats just yet,” admitted the 24-year-old. “As the day went on we started to figure it out a bit and got the boat going well.”

Adam Minoprio makes his comeback in the Alpari World Match Racing Tour. Langenargen, 16 May 2013. Photo copyright Brian Carlin / Alpari World Match Racing Tour

In Canfield’s match against Richard there was a long dial up and then, with 1 minute 30 to go, both boats were still a long way over the line but the Frenchman won the favoured committee boat end and it was game over from there.

USone had more success against Karol Jablonski when, after they had roundly dispatched the Polish former America’s Cup helmsman pushing him behind the committee boat, Jablonski retired, switched on his engine resulting in his receipt of a black flag from the umpires. Jablonski admitted that they had had a major communication breakdown on board. “We basically just retired and used the time to do a debrief. We are a new team and we don’t sail enough to get everything done the way I like to do it. When you do two events per year it is tough to compete with the best teams here.”

Adam Minoprio’s Team Alpari FX was initially docked a half point for a collision with Pierre Antoine Morvan during a tacking duel in Flight 2, when the stern quarters of the two teams’ boats touched as they attempted to separate. “In my mind it was a port-starboard and he didn’t start avoiding early enough and we had to avoid him and our sterns touched,” said Minoprio, providing his viewpoint of the incident. At the time the umpires took a different view and red flagged Team Alpari FX requiring them to carry out a penalty turn immediately, docking the Kiwi team the half point for causing damage. But at a hearing after racing neither Minoprio nor Morvan were found to have broken the avoiding contact rule (rule 14) and the half point penalty was removed from Minoprio’s scoreline.

First day of racing at Match Race Germany. Langenargen, 16 May 2013. Photo copyright Brian Carlin / Alpari World Match Racing Tour

The two German teams of leading Laser sailor Philipp Buhl and German National Match Racing Champion Sven Erik Horsch have yet to get off the bottom of the leaderboard, with Horsch on no wins and newbie match racer Buhl’s only victory taken off his fellow countryman. Johnie Berntsson is also on a single win as is Karol Jablonski.

Match Race Germany defending champion New Zealand’s Phil Robertson and his WAKA Racing team has also got off to a slow start on just two wins against Berntsson and Jablonski. “It was tough,” said Robertson. “We led around the top mark in four out of five but we lost it downwind. So we are just ironing out the creases.”

The qualifying series continues tomorrow with the start time scheduled for 0900.

STAGE 1: Match Race Germany – Qualifying Round
Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar 4-1
Mathieu Richard (FRA) GEFCO Match Racing Team 4-1
Pierre-Antoine Morvan (FRA) Vannes Agglo Sailing Team 4-1
Taylor Canfield (ISV) USone 3-2
Keith Swinton (AUS) Black Swan Racing 3-2
Adam Minoprio (NZL) Team Alpari FX 3-2
Björn Hansen (SWE) Mekonomen Sailing Team 3-2
Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing 2-3
Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Stena Sailing Team 2-3
Philip Buhl (GER) Deutsches Youth America’s Cup Team 1-4
Karol Jablonski (GER) Jablonski Sailing Team 1-4
Sven Erick-Horsch (GER) NRV Match Race Team 0-5

[Source: Alpari World Match Racing Tour] The Tour this year comprises six events, starting with Match Race Germany from this Thursday until Monday, before moving to Korea, back to Europe with the Stena Match Cup Sweden in July, then Chicago Match Cup, the Argo Group Gold Cup in Bermuda, the season concluding in December with the Monsoon Cup, held in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.

For this, its 16th year, Match Race Germany is being held in Langenargen, located close to the Austrian border on Europe’s third largest lake, where the event sailed in Bavaria 40S.

As ever the Alpari World Match Racing Tour attracts the cream of the match racing world, all of whom are present in Langenargen ready for tomorrow’s practice sessions.

The line-up going to all the events – the Tour card holders – this year numbers eight rather than nine. Tour Director Craig Mitchell says the reduction is for reasons of simplicity. “It allows each event to have two qualifying invites and two wild cards. The last thing you want is a closed shop and it keeps the local interest up, which is vital.”

Phil Robertson won the 2012 Match Race Germany

The 2013 Tour Card holders are reigning world champion Team GAC Pindar skipper Ian Williams and Swedes Johnie Berntsson (Stena Sailing Team) and Bjorn Hansen (Hansen Sailing Team), runner-up to Williams in 2012. From New Zealand are Phil Robertson, winner of Match Race Germany last year and Adam Minoprio, the 2009 ISAF Match Racing World Champion. France is represented by Pierre-Antoine Morvan and his Vannes Agglo Sailing Team while with the retirement of Peter Gilmour last year, Keith Swinton and his Black Swan Racing team are flying the flag for Australia. A highly anticipated new tour card holder this year is Taylor Canfield from the US Virgin, whose USone team impressively won the final two events last season.

One of the strongest contenders this year is likely to be Adam Minoprio, making his return to the Tour after taking two years off to compete with an Emirates Team New Zealand crew aboard Camper in the Volvo Ocean Race. After competing at the Bermuda Gold Cup and the Monsoon Cup last season the 27 year old has felt inspired to make his return this season and has been fortunate enough to get backing for from Alpari, his team now called Team Alpari FX.

“I am really excited,” said Minoprio. “I’m looking forward to this first event and getting back into the match racing this year. Last year I had a taste of it in Bermuda and at the Monsoon Cup and wanted to do some more this year. I am lucky to have Alpari help me get back on to the Tour.”

Minoprio has also managed to get the majority of his crew back including Tom Powrie, Dave Swete and Nick Blackman, with Chris Main join as trimmer, having last competed on the Tour a decade ago with GBR Challenge.

But Ian Williams and his Team GAC Pindar crew remain the benchmark. If Williams wins the Tour this year he will be only person in the 25 year history of the World Championship to have done so for a fifth time. Williams has the same crew as previous years, including Bill Hardesty and Mal Parker, but has lost Matt Cassidy and Gerry Mitchell for Match Race Germany, replaced by Willem van Waay and Graham Spence.

Both Minoprio and Williams have been attempting to fire up their campaigns prior to the Tour kicking off this week. Both had their full teams competing at the Congressional Cup in Long Beach in April where Williams came home third to Minoprio’s fifth.

“We’ve never won it before,” admits Williams of his record at Match Race Germany. “It is one of the few that we haven’t. In fact I think third is our best result there, so it is one we’d like to win at some point.”

Keith Swinton is back with his same crew as he’s had for the last couple of years, including trimmers Olof Lundgren (SWE) and Ted Hackney (AUS), pitman Jakob Gustafsson (SWE) and bowman Ricky McGarvie (AUS). Swinton’s north European home is Sweden, where he spent three years up until London 2012 coaching the Sweden women’s match racing team.

“Competition on the tour this year is going to be really tough – more difficult than last year,” says the skipper, who heralds from Perth, Western Austria. “There is one less tour card, which thickens the competition up and some of the wild cards are going to be strong,” he adds referring to Mathieu Richard.

As to Match Race Germany, Swinton says: “It is an interesting event. The boats are very big and quite slow. But it is the first Tour event of the season and we’ll take it as it comes. I’m sure we’ll improve during the week and if that happens, we’ll have the possibility of doing a really good result.”

Tomorrow crews get to practice before racing off Langenargen starts on Thursday.

[Source: The Great Cup] Hopes for the final day of racing at The Great Cup’s first ever event, the GC32 Austria Cup within Allianz Traunsee Week presented by BMW, were to complete an eight race round robin before a weather front rolled across Lake Traunsee. Sadly half way through the rain arrived, the wind disappeared and any further prospects of racing were quashed.

While Flavio Marazzi and his Marwin crew set a brisk tone of the day port tacking the fleet with a giant hull fly off the line in race one, it was again Kiwi former Match Racing World Champion Adam Minoprio who continued his relentless string of race wins to end the regatta first overall, eight points ahead of Marwin.

“I didn’t have high hopes of winning, but I didn’t have any other goal,” said Minoprio of his success in his first ever multihull regatta. “I am a little surprised I won. I am pretty happy with how quickly we managed to start sailing these boats fast around the track, but the guys I had sailing with me with put in a big effort.” Sailing with Minoprio were Andy Dinsdale (GER/USA), Thomas Tschepen (AUT) and Diego Stefani (ITA).

Adam Minoprio claims the inaugural GC32 event. Gmunden, 12 May 2013. Photo copyright Christophe Launay / www.sealaunay.com

From here Minoprio sets out this year to reclaim the Alpari World Match Racing Tour title, but hopes to return to The Great Cup. “It is definitely a whole lot of fun. The GC32 is a great boat: It is very nice to sail, it gets up and flies a hull in six knots of wind and you can zoom around a track. It is a great package.”

Flavio Marazzi has taken to his new GC32 catamaran with the same intensity with which he undertook his Star keelboat campaigns for the last three Olympic Games.“It was a really great experience with six teams,” he said. “The boats are very equal. It is hard to be always be on top.”

From Austria, the Great Cup heads to Marazzi’s native Switzerland for the Geneve-Rolle-Geneve on 8th June, followed by the Bol d’Or Mirabaud a week later. Before those Marazzi intends to compete in other ‘long distance’ lake races in Zurich and on Lake Constance. “The idea for this year is to do a lot of promotion and activity to be in the media and to get sponsors,” he says.

Adam Minoprio claims the inaugural GC32 event. Gmunden, 12 May 2013. Photo copyright Christophe Launay / www.sealaunay.com

The surprise result of the regatta was that of AEZ GC32 Youth Sailing Team, skippered by 22-year-old Max Trippolt. The Austrian youngsters didn’t end the regatta well, but won day one and claimed some major scalps along the way, including Minoprio’s, to end the regatta a worthy third among the six teams.

“We thought that it would be much harder for us, because they are all really professional crews,” said Trippolt. “It was really good, because we weren’t familiar with the boat, but the team did a really good job.”

French businessman, Laurent Lenne, creator of The Great Cup, has much to be pleased with from this first regatta of his brand new catamaran circuit. “I am pretty proud of what we have achieved in the last five days. Everyone worked very hard and every day we were doing things better from the live streaming to pushing out the information, etc. And the sailing got better. Looking back at it, I’m happy.”

Lenne has had the monumental task of not just conceiving the Martin Fischer-designed GC32 catamaran built by Premier Composites in Dubai, but also the circuit for it – the Great Cup circuit. He has been ably assisted by throughout by leading Australian catamaran expert, Andrew Macpherson.

Adam Minoprio claims the inaugural GC32 event. Gmunden, 12 May 2013. Photo copyright Christophe Launay / www.sealaunay.com

“We’ve come a long way since the beginning of this year,” said Lenne, whose day job is running SPAX Solution, a leading IT systems integration company in Amsterdam. “Some things only arrived in the office two days before we left to come here. It was very aggressive planning, but you need to show you are doing a lot for the class and to demonstrate what we are capable of. We want everyone who joins the class to understand that they will be getting a minimum quality of service.”

Lenne has also brought some ground breaking technology to the event with a WiFi network spanning most of Lake Traunsee, enabling live TV to be streamed to the internet from on board boats, cameras on the water, etc.

Around all this Lenne also found time to sail his new boat and after a slow start, started winning races in what is his first ever regatta in a multihull bigger than an F18.

“Today our speed was really good and we got a second and a first. Obviously you are racing Adam Minoprio and he is not easy, but we have got really good speed and our communication is getting better. It has been a privilege sailing against these guys.”­­­­

Adam Minoprio claims the inaugural GC32 event. Gmunden, 12 May 2013. Photo copyright Christophe Launay / www.sealaunay.com

[Strong: The Great Cup] Despite his lack of catamaran experience, former Match Racing World Champion Adam Minoprio proved his dominance on day two of the GC32 Austria Cup on Thursday, winning all his races to take the overall lead in this inaugural event of The Great Cup.

The competition also had a different complexion today, being held off the Allianz Traunsee Race Week centre of Gmunden at the northern end of Lake Traunsee. Away from Ebensee and ‘Little Garda’ where racing was held yesterday, there was a longer wait for the sea breeze to fill in. When it arrived, it did so slowly and with the light northeasterly breeze blowing straight off the land there were bullets of wind across the course, requiring tacticians to stay on their toes as once again they raced two lap windward-leewards.

Today the fleet has one light with a vital replacement part for SPAX Solutions Sailing Team due to arrive in Gmunden tonight. With only two of the Martin Fischer-designed GC32 catamarans available, so a fresh series was set up especially. This involved all six teams competing, first sailing a round robin where each team got to sail twice. According to their result in this, the teams were then divided into gold, silver and bronze matches for their finals, winner of the gold match claiming first place, etc.

Adam Minoprio takes the lead on the second day of GC32 racing. Traunsee, 9 May 2013. Photo copyright Christophe Launay / www.sealaunay.com

Clearly comfortable with the boat on boat format (although it wasn’t being sailed under match racing rules) Minoprio first dispatched AEZ GC32 Youth Sailing Team and then SPAX Solution Sailing Team.

Similarly Marwin Team, skippered by Swiss Olympic Star sailor Flavio Marazzi, won their races against AEZ GC32 Racing, skippered by Austrian hope and former Tornado World Champion, Andreas Hagara and then Firefly, sailing their first race today with Dutch former Tornado Olympic sailor Pim Nieuwenhuis at the helm.

The gold final between Marwin Team and Minoprio was a classic example of racing today with Minoprio leading off the line and forcing his opponent off to the unfavoured right. Minoprio led comfortablty around the windward mark, but Marazzi found more breeze on the run and the two boats rounded the leeward gate overlapped. However on the next lap the Kiwi match racing ace got the better of his Swiss opponent to take the win.

In Minoprio’s crew is Austrian Thomas Tschepen, Italian Diego Stefani while on main sheet is half German, half American leading Hobie 16 sailor Andy Dinsdale. Recently Dinsdale has also sailed some Extreme 40s. “There is so much innovation in the GC32 – it is a beautiful multihull,” he says.

As to their success today Dinsdale praised Minoprio’s ability in the pre-starts. “He tries to keep his focus on the other boats and being ahead of them on the line – in starting sequences he is unbeatable which is really helpful on the short course.”

Also making a strong start today, after not being able to race yesterday was the Dutch Firefly team, which won the silver final race against AEZ GC32 Youth Sailing Team, to take third place overall today.

Adam Minoprio takes the lead on the second day of GC32 racing. Traunsee, 9 May 2013. Photo copyright Christophe Launay / www.sealaunay.com

“I was very much looking forward to it, because we spent a lot of time waiting,” said helmsman Pim Nieuwenhuis. “The GC32s are awesome – nice boats to sail. It is nice doing this kind of match racing and all of the guys are having a lot of fun. All of our matches were pretty close and I tried to keep them that way because I don’t like people just banging the corners and putting it all on black. It was real battle.”

While the Firefly team have sailed together a lot before and there is considerable multihull experience in the team, Nieuwenhuis said that in the brief time they have had on board the boat they haven’t managed to get grips with the GC32’s state of the art S-foils and L-profile rudders.

For Laurent Lenne, helmsman of SPAX Solutions Sailing Team, it was his first real taste of the event he created, which has been 16 months in gestation: “The wind was very hard and it was very hard to know where you had to go at the beginning of a race. Sometimes you could come back easily but blow it at the end of the race. But the good guys were really good and it was a great enjoy day.
“I am loving it. It is even better than I thought it would be. Today the wind was good, even if it was a little light at the beginning. Then we had the live streaming up for the first time and people can see how we are growing into this stuff.

“And when the teams were not sailing we were on the VIP boat where we got an amazing view over the landscape. Everyone coming back from the boats enjoyed themselves. All the guests who have been on board like it. We have a big screen on the square. It is a great racing spectacle. That is where we want to go.”

Tomorrow Lenne’s own Spax Solution Sailing Team GC32 will be back in action bringing the brand new GC32s back up to their full complement of three. At Allianz Traunsee Week next year Lenne hopes his state of the art catamarans will have taken off and there will be more than 15 boats on the start line. Judging from the reaction of the sailors this is no pipe dream.

Adam Minoprio takes the lead on the second day of GC32 racing. Traunsee, 9 May 2013. Photo copyright Christophe Launay / www.sealaunay.com

[Source: The Great Cup] The first ever day of racing for The Great Cup, and the GC32 catamarans competing in it, went without too many hitches.

With the race committee shifting the course down to Ebensee and the ‘Little Garda’ area of Lake Traunsee, the most significant blow came when SPAX Solutions suffered gear failure within seconds of the start of the first race. Sadly this was deemed serious enough for her to stand down for the rest of the day, along with the two Dutch teams due to compete on board her – Laurent Lenne’s Spax Solution Sailing Team and the Firefly Team for whom Ditch ex-Olympic Tornado sailor Pim Nieuwenhuis helms.

This left the Swiss teams of Flavio Marazzi and Adam Minoprio and the Austrian AEZ teams of Andreas Hagara and Max Trippolt’s youth squad to spend the rest of the day match racing.

First racing day ever for the GC32′s. Traunsee, 8 May 2013. Photo copyright Christophe Launay / www.sealaunay.com

Thankfully even with two boats, the brand new GC32s put on a breathtaking show with crews screaming past the VIP spectator ship on one hull, with the breezes occasionally gusting to 13 knots but more often around 10 knots.

While there were some races were one team gained a considerable advantage through a gust or their competitor being OCS, in others there was place changing between the one design catamarans. In a memorable one the young Austrian crew on AEZ GC32 Youth Sailing Team overhauled the Flavio Marazzi steered Team Marwin on the final run, only for the Swiss Olympic Star sailor to pick up a gust, the two boats crossing the line overlapped.

The surprise of the day is that the team to come out on top was AEZ GC32 Youth Sailing, with the same crew that narrowly missed out in February’s selection trials for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup. The team skippered by 22-year-old Max Trippolt even ended the day with a score line of 2-1 against former Match Racing World Champion Adam Minoprio.

“It was really great, amazing,” said Trippolt of their race against Flavio Marazzi’s team that went to the wire. “It shows that it is only finished when it is finished and not before.” Trippolt says he has been getting more and more into match racing over the last two years on his native Lake Constance, in westernmost Austria, and has never previously sailed on Lake Traunsee.

“The boats are really fast and easy to handle,” Trippolt adds of the brand new GC32s. “These boats have a great future.”

Despite having never raced a catamaran in anger before, New Zealand skipper Adam Minoprio seemed to be making light work of it today. After winning today’s final double points scoring long distance race back to Gmunden, Minoprio’s team ended the day third overall, three points adrift of AEZ GC32 Youth Sailing Team, their only losses coming to the young Austrians.

Minoprio would have been ahead of AEZ GC32 Youth Sailing Team had they not been slowed up by an issue with their gennaker in their second match of the day against the Trippolt’s team. “Not being able to unfurl the Code Zero cost us the race,” admitted Minoprio. “We didn’t have the tack tension tight, but we are all learning…”

First racing day ever for the GC32′s. Traunsee, 8 May 2013. Photo copyright Christophe Launay / www.sealaunay.com

Otherwise Minoprio didn’t seem to be having any difficulties acclimatising to racing on two hulls, even though his crew are all adept catamaran sailors, including American Hobie ace Andy Dinsdale.

Minoprio said that of course he enjoyed today’s match racing element, and the pre-starts where the GC32s were chasing each other around at 15 knots. He is also impressed by Lake Traunsee, the host town of Gmunden and Allianz Traunsee Week organisers, PROFS Sailing. “The race village is fantastic with a stage and lots of stalls and all of the locals come out. The town is getting behind it, so it is sweet.”

Minoprio is not the only world class match racer taking part at the GC32 Austria Cup. His Australian contemporary Keith Swinton is trimming jib and genniker for Flavio Marazzi aboard Marwin Team.

Marazzi’s team has boat #3, the newest here and ended the day second, just one point behind AEZ GC32 Youth Sailing Team. The Swiss team has some experience in the GC32 having spent three weeks in Dubai training in February

“It is pretty physical and a lot of fun and the boats performance really well with a lot of speed – it is nice to do some fast sailing,” says Swinton, who reckons the top speed they have seen so far in their GC32 is 25 knots.

“We struggled a little bit in a couple of races,” admitted Swinton. “We lost the lead in one in the final downwind, due to a little bit of a tactical error, that was disappointing. The other was quite clear off the start line. OIherwise the racing is really good, the boats are really similar.”

Tomorrow all six teams will be racing and a program of windward-leewards similar to today is expected.

First racing day ever for the GC32′s. Traunsee, 8 May 2013. Photo copyright Christophe Launay / www.sealaunay.com

[Source: The Great Cup] For the six teams taking part, it has been a practice day with media guests on board, prior to tomorrow’s start of the GC32 Austria Cup, part of Allianz Traunsee Week presented by BMW.

While there appeared to be no wind on Lake Traunsee today, the experienced race committee, led by former Star Olympic sailor Stefan Puxkandl, moved the three GC32 catamarans down to the southern end of the lake at Ebensee and the area known as ‘Little Garda’, where there always seems to be the most breeze on this picture postcard Austrian lake.

All the teams got a chance to race with different winners in each of these informal races: Marwin Team of Swiss Star sailor Flavio Marazzi taking the first, Laurent Lenne’s Spax Solution Sailing Team claiming the second and their Dutch team mates, Firefly, first home in the third.

The Great Cup’s Chief Operating Officer Andrew Macpherson says that the one design aspect of the Martin Fischer-designed 32ft catamarans and the equality of their performance is working: “Over the last few days of test racing, we’ve all been lining up and no one seems faster.”

The GC32′s carry out their practice race on the eve of their first ever regatta. Traunsee, 7 May 2013. Photo copyright Christophe Launay

For the first time today all the crews and their skippers assembled. Austria’s great hope is AEZ GC32 Racing skipper Andreas Hagara, who over his lengthy career in the Olympic Tornado catamaran has been World Champion and has won 15 medals at World and European championship level. Hagara has also competed in the Extreme Sailing Series and was skipper of the China Team AC45.

Hagara is enthusiastic about The Great Cup and the GC32 catamaran: “I think the concept is really good, the size is good, it is state of the art, the latest you can get, apart from the wing rig [which the GC32 doesn’t have, but is fitted to the AC45 and AC72 America’s Cup catamarans], but that is not in line with the idea of the boat – a wing wouldn’t work for private owners.”

The Austrian catamaran sailing legend describes the GC32 as a light boat that is “aggressive to sail – it has a lot of square metres on the rig.” However he adds that with the ability to rake the boat’s foils aft so that they lift the bows, make the GC32 one of the safest catamarans he has ever sailed.

The foils Hagara refers to are S-shaped, as seen on the AC72s catamarans. As well as preventing leeway, these provide vertical lift, but in the lighter conditions expected on the lake it is unlikely there will be enough wind to get the lightweight catamarans fully airborne. Hagara acknowledges it is early days. When competition gets underway tomorrow it will be the first time the brand new GC32s will have ever raced in anger. “We don’t know how to use them yet! We have had no time to find out.”

One of the surprise figures in the GC32 fleet is Mikael Lundh, best known for having competed in two Volvo Ocean Races aboard Swedish Match and on djuice dragons. Lundh is racing on Spax Solution Sailing Team with The Great Cup’s creator, Laurent Lenne. “I think the boats are fantastic. They are really powerful and I think they will be easy to handle for owners.”

The GC32′s carry out their practice race on the eve of their first ever regatta. Traunsee, 7 May 2013. Photo copyright Christophe Launay

While historically catamarans have had issues tacking, this is far from the case with the GC32, Lundh confirms: “Tacking isn’t an issue, even in light airs, although if you completely screw it up, it’ll be a problem. People are very surprised coming on board that it just takes off again. We had a few tacks yesterday in 8 knots of breeze when we went from lifting a hull and then coming out of a tack straight to lifting a hull again.”

Swiss skipper Flavio Marazzi is better known for sailing the stately Olympic Star keelboat. A lightweight catamaran capable of 30+ knots downwind and sailing at two to three times wind speed is a very different proposition. He has acquired his GC32 because it is versatile. “This is a boat designed to be sailed in all conditions including waves and 25 knots. I am looking forward to sailing in big breeze, but I’m looking forward to the Lake Geneva races as well,” Marazzi adds, referring to the Geneve-Rolle-Geneve and Bol d’Or Mirabaud, the events next up for the GC32s after this.

A man who is particularly looking forward to tomorrow’s debut of The Great Cup, is the series’ creator Amsterdam-based Frenchman Laurent Lenne. One year and four months on from starting this project, tomorrow his dream becomes reality.

“The Great Cup should be about great locations, great fun, great sailing and to create a good culture so that everyone has fun, from the venue point of view, sailors and sponsors,” Lenne said.

While a race from Gmunden at the northern of the lake down to Ebensee at its southern end and back was scheduled for tomorrow, instead this is likely to be postponed until Thursday, or whenever conditions look best. Instead tomorrow will see the start of the first of the GC32 Austria Cup’s windward-leeward races.

Racing is set to be streamed live with footage coming back live from two of the three GC32s and other cameras ashore and on the race course. This will be broadcast locally on a big screen in Gmunden and is likely to be streamed on line later in the week.

The GC32′s carry out their practice race on the eve of their first ever regatta. Traunsee, 7 May 2013. Photo copyright Christophe Launay

[Source: GC32] Grand prix catamaran racing comes to Lake Traunsee, Austria next week (8-12 May) with the much anticipated debut of The Great Cup, star turn at Allianz Traunsee Week.

The Great Cup is being sailed in brand new, state of the art GC32 catamarans, designed by Martin Fischer and built in Dubai by Premier Composites. Competing at this inaugural event of The Great Cup will be the first three GC32s built (a fourth is already en route to Europe from the UAE).

For the Lake Traunsee event, the three carbon fibre catamarans will sail under the flags of the Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria and to maximise the number of teams competing, each boat is being allocated two crews, who will alternate.

Thus, Spax Solution Sailing Team from the Netherlands, skippered by creator of The Great Cup, Amsterdam-based Frenchman Laurent Lenne, and whose four man crew includes Aussie catamaran ace Andrew Macpherson and Swedish Volvo Ocean Race and America’s Cup veteran Micke Lundh, will be swapping with another exclusively Dutch crew led by ex-Tornado Olympian Pim Nieuwenhuis. The latter team includes Thijs Visser, who won the new Nacra 17 catamaran class at the Trofeo Princesa Sofia in Palma in March.

From Switzerland, is Olympic Star sailor Flavio Marazzi, whose team will feature Olympic 470 turned Nacra 17 sailor Matías Bühler and young Australian match racer Keith Swinton. The other nominally Swiss team racing on Marazzi’s GC32 will be led by former Match Racing World Champion Adam Minoprio, who has among his crew American Hobie Cat ace Andrew Dinsdale.

New Zealander Minoprio admits he will be undergoing a two hulled baptism of fire. “It will be the first cat sailing I’ve ever done. I am going to be massively under prepared compared to the other guys, but they’ve got me a top crew who’ve done a lot of multihull sailing, so they are going to help me out a lot.”

The GC32 will make its racing debut on Wednesday

Minoprio, who competed in the last Volvo Ocean Race as part of the Emirates Team New Zealand crew aboard Camper, says he is looking forward to The Great Cup: “It is going to be good – it’s the first GC32 event, so everything will be pretty relaxed and fun and social. There won’t be a huge amount of pressure or expectations. The whole concept of the class looks pretty cool. I am pretty excited to be involved.”

Local visitors to Allianz Traunsee Week will be supporting the two AEZ-backed Austrian teams. No catamaran race in Austria is complete without a Hagara and Andreas, elder brother of two time Olympic Tornado gold medallist Roman and himself twice a runner up at the Tornado World Championship, is skippering a boat with an all-Austrian crew, including the experienced Christian Binder. They will be alternating with AEZ Team Austria, the same team of 20-year-olds that in February narrowly missed out on selection for the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup.

With three boats, six teams, but with national teams never racing each other, all the crews will have raced each other after six races. The intention is to sail 12 races, or two rounds, per day, provided conditions allow. Races will be simple two lap windward-leewards with a single weather mark and leeward gate. The aim is for races to last no more than 15-20 minutes.

However The Great Cup, when it gets underway next Wednesday, 8 May, will begin with an ‘around the lake’ race. This will involve the three catamarans sailing from Gmunden, where Allianz Traunsee Week is based, 12km away to Ebensee at the southern end of the lake, and back again, providing competitors with the opportunity to experience the magnificent setting of the snow capped mountain-encircled lake.

But this will be a race with a difference, as The Great Cup’s Chief Operating Officer Andrew Macpherson explains: “It will be a relay race, where one team starts and they race to the other end of the lake and then, exactly like a running relay, we’ll have an area where they’ll do the changeover. It is going to be awesome, particularly as its going to be a Le Mans start off the dock.”

While the intention is to have short windward-leeward racing for the remainder of the regatta, from Thursday until Sunday, Macpherson says the format will remain flexible depending on the weather. If the relay race proves to be a hit, they might run it again. Equally if conditions get lively they might attempt some speed runs. “We’ll only do that if it is going to work – it is an optional thing.”

Through the event a dual scoring system will be running with results for each individual team as well as combined national teams.

CREW LISTS

Austria
AEZ GC32 Racing: Andreas Hagara (AUT), Gerd Habermüller (AUT), Christian Binder (AUT), Peter Steinkogler (AUT)
AEZ GC32 Youth Racing: Alexander Deuring (AUT), Benedikt Höss (AUT), Hanno Sohm (AUT), Max Trippolt (AUT)

Netherlands
Spax Solution Sailing Team: Laurent Lenne (FRA), Andrew Macpherson (AUS), Mikael Lundh (SWE), Olivier Witteveen (NED)
Firefly Team: Pim Nieuwenhuis (NED), Ed van Lierde (NED), Thijs Visser (NED), Mark Van Gelderen (NED)

Switzerland
Marwin Team: Flavio Marazzi (SUI), Mathias Buhler (SUI), Keith Swinton (AUS), Diego Turell (URU)
Team Minoprio: Adam Minoprio (NZL), Andy Dinsdale (USA), Thomas Tschepen (AUT), Diego Stefani (ITA)