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| BAIRD REGAINS TOUR LEAD IN JAPAN |
| Sunday, 21 November 2004 |
A sacred Japanese archway divides Ed Baird (left) and Jes Gram-Hansen as they sail the second run of Flight 1 in the final of Nippon Cup 2004. (Swedish Match Tour/Kaoru Soehata)
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A light-air run in the final of Nippon Cup 2004. (Swedish Match Tour/Kaoru Soehata)
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Peter Gilmour to leeward of Dean Barker in the Petit Final of Nippon Cup 2004. (Swedish Match Tour/Kaoru Soehata)
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HAYAMA, Japan (Nov. 21, 2004) — American Ed Baird, skipper of Team Musto, regained the overall lead in the Swedish Match Tour championship when he won the Pizza-La Red Lobster Nippon Cup.
Baird (St. Petersburg, Fla.) notched his third career victory on the Swedish Match Tour when he and crew Andy Horton (Newport, R.I.), Piet Van Nieuwenhuyzen (Valencia, Spain) and Jon Ziskind (Newport, R.I.) won the final of the Nippon Cup, 3-0, over Jes Gram-Hansen and the Gram-Hansen Racing Team.
Gram-Hansen and his Danish crew Morten Helkier, Christian Kamp and Rasmus Kostner held leads in all three races of the final, but light and shifty winds thwarted their bid for victory.
“Andy’s doing a great job, and I have a lot of trust in what he’s telling me,” said Baird of his tactician. “My guys have worked hard all year.”
Baird’s third career victory happens to be his third of this year. Previously, he won the Swedish Match Tour stages in Long Beach, Calif., and Cascais, Portugal. Coincidentally, each event had light and shifty conditions in the final. But don’t call him a light-air specialist.
“It’s hard to feel comfortable in the light stuff,” said Baird. “One puff or shift can propel you to victory just as easily as it can take it away.”
Baird leads the Tour championship with the high score of 65 points after four events (Swedish Match Tour standings). He’s 20 points ahead of Russell Coutts (NZL) and Gram-Hansen (DEN), who each have 45 points.
Australian Peter Gilmour, skipper of the Pizza-La Sailing Team and the Tour’s reigning champion, is fourth with 42 points as the Tour reaches the halfway point of its sixth season.
The champion will win a $60,000 bonus from the Tour and a BMW 545i Touring from Tour partner and official car BMW.
“It’s a nice early Christmas present,” Baird said, “but there’s a lot of racing to do next year.”
In the Petit Final, Dean Barker of Team New Zealand overcame a red flag penalty in the third and deciding race to beat Gilmour and the Pizza-La crew, 2-1.
Barker, sailing with Ray Davies, James Dagg and Jared Henderson, trailed by five boatlengths after being penalized for contact in a luffing incident after rounding the windward mark the first time. But they found a favorable windshift on the second beat after splitting with Gilmour and overcame the deficit for a eight boatlength lead.
Gilmour, sailing with long-time crewmembers Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku and Yasuhiro Yaji, placed fourth in their bid for a record ninth Nippon Cup title.
The wind conditions for the final were far from consistent. A morning northerly between 6 and 8 knots died after Flight 1 and a three and a half hour postponement ensued before racing resumed in a light afternoon southerly of 5 knots.
Gram-Hansen and crew did a good job in the pre-starts, winning two outright. They won the first cross in all three races and led at the windward mark each time. Those small victories usually lead to an overall win, but not today.
“We’re very disappointed,” said Gram-Hansen’s headsail trimmer Kamp. “We led in every race and got to chose where to go, but made the wrong decisions. It’s disappointing to lose when you’re leading.”
Despite the light conditions, Baird’s headsail trimmer Ziskind managed to lose his fourth winch handle of the week, on the last beat of the last race when the winds were just 4 to 5 knots. “That’s $300 in winch handles,” Ziskind noted.
Swedish Match Tour sponsors include Swedish Match (Official Sponsor), BMW (Partner and Official Car), Colorcraft, Wedgwood, Musto, Trident Studio and Travel Places (Official Sponsors).
For more information on the Swedish Match Tour, its events, participants and sponsors, please visit the official Tour Web site, www.SwedishMatchTour.com.
# # #
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Sean McNeill
Swedish Match Tour
E-mail: smcneill@f10marketing.com
RELATED COVERAGE
Event Summary
Photo Gallery
Race Schedule, Results, Crew List
Baird to Face Gram-Hansen for Nippon Cup (Nov. 20, 2004)
Pizza-La Sailing Team Completes 11-0 Run (Nov. 19, 2004)
Pizza-La Sailing Team Undefeated (Nov. 18, 2004)
Leaderboard Jumbled at Nippon Cup (Nov. 17, 2004)
Practice Day at Nippon Cup (Nov. 16, 2004)
Nippon Cup Set to Conclude Year (Nov. 9, 2004)
SWEDISH MATCH TOUR STANDINGS
(After 4 of 8 Stages)
1. Ed Baird (USA) Team Musto — 65 points
2. Russell Coutts (NZL) Coutts Racing — 45 points
(T) Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN) Gram-Hansen Racing — 45 points
4. Peter Gilmour (AUS) Pizza-La Sailing Team — 42 points
5. Staffan Lindberg (FIN) — 26 points
6. Philippe Presti (FRA) le Defi — 24 points
7. Mathieu Richard (FRA) — 21 points
8. Kelvin Harrap (NZL) Team New Zealand — 20 points
(T) James Spithill (AUS) Luna Rossa Challenge — 20 points
NIPPON CUP 2004
Final Standings (Nov. 21, 2004)
Prize purse: JPY 6 million ($58,218)
Skipper (Country) Team, Record, Prize money*
1. Ed Baird (USA) Team Musto, 15-2, JPY1,500,000 ($14,554)
Crew Andy Horton, Piet van Nieuwenhuyzen, Jon Ziskind
2. Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN) Gram-Hansen Racing, 11-5, JPY900,000 ($8,732)
Crew Morten Halkier, Christian Kamp, Rasmus Kostner
3. Dean Barker (NZL) Team New Zealand, 8-6, JPY700,000 ($6,792)
Crew James Dagg, Ray Davies, Jared Henderson
4. Peter Gilmour (AUS) Pizza-La Sailing Team, 13-3, JPY600,000 ($5,821)
Crew Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku, Yasuhiro Yaji
5. Philippe Presti (FRA) le Defi, 8-5, JPY500,000 ($4,851)
Crew Antoine Breger, Gilles Andre, Fred Guilmin
6. Michele Ivaldi (ITA) Luna Rossa Challenge, 6-7, JPY450,000 ($4,366)
Crew Tom Burnham, Manuel Modena, Tatsuya Wakinaga
7. Gavin Brady (NZL) BMW Oracle Racing, 6-5, JPY350,000 ($3,396)
Crew Sean Clarkson, Chris Dickson, Dirk de Ridder
8. Geoff Meek (RSA) Team Shosholoza, 4-7, JPY300,000 ($2,910)
Crew Mark Lagesse, Gui Verhoevert, Alex Runseman
9. Yasutaka Funazawa (JPN) 4-7, JPY250,000 ($2,425)
Crew Masaki Kobayashi, Masahiro Nagao, Kiyotoshi Tanaka
10. Takumi Nakamura (JPN) 2-9, JPY200,000 ($1,940)
Crew Yasuhiro Okamoto, Kunio Suzuki, Daichi Wada
11. Sven-Erik Horsch (GER) 1-10, JPY150,000 ($1,455)
Crew Mirko Masek, Alexander Nibbe, Felix Simmendinger
12. Kazuto Seki (JPN) 1-10, JPY100,000 ($970)
Crew Toshiro Honda, Masahiro Ogawa, Shigenobu Sago
(*USD amounts based on 11/21/04 exchange rate of 1JPY = .00970309USD)
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Newsletter - September 2008
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