St. Moritz Match Race Update Archive
Segel Club of St. Moritz
St. Moritz, Switzerland
Aug. 16-21, 2005


UPDATE ARCHIVE


UPDATE 14 // Aug. 20, 4:30 p.m.

Reigning St. Moritz Match Race champion Mark Mendelblatt will aim for his third consecutive title at the top of the world when he meets Ed Baird tomorrow for the championship. Mendelblatt beat Ian Wililams, 2-1, in one semifinal match and Baird beat Staffan Lindberg, 2-0, in the other. In racing for 5th and 6th, Ben Ainslie beat Peter Gilmour, 2-1.


UPDATE 13 // Aug. 20, 1:55 p.m.

Round Robin D has finished with Sebastien Col (FRA) winning the round. His 4-1 record ensured that he’ll place 7th overall for the 3rd annual St. Moritz Match Race. Peter Holmberg (ISV), the co-leader of the Swedish Match Tour after the first two stages of the 2005-’06 season, finished 2nd with a 3-2 record and places 8th overall.

Eric Monnin (SUI), Mathieu Richard (FRA), Marcel Walser (SUI) and Mark Bradford (AUS) finished 9th through 12th for the event.

Next up is the Semifinal Round. Event organizer Christian Scherrer expects the first attention signal to be given around 2:30 p.m.

The Tour’s broadband Internet site, www.SwedishMatchTour.tv, is in the midst of broadcasting an interview with Peter Gilmour. The site will go live from the racecourse around 2:25 p.m.

UPDATE 12 // Aug. 20, 11:00 a.m.

“I’m not a happy camper today,” said St. Moritz Match Race organizer Christian Scherrer.

He has good reason to be unhappy. With the air temperature hovering around 45°F a chilly rain falls steadily on St. Moritz. Snow fell above 7,000 feet last night and covered the top of Piz Rosatsch, the mountain to the east/southeast of the lake that is more than 10,000 feet above sea level.

The nasty conditions have forced a postponement to the start of Day 3.

Scherrer expects to complete Round Robin D for the 4th- through 6th-place finishers in Rounds Robin A and B. Sebastien Col (FRA) leads with a 2-0 record after racing late yesterday afternoon. Three flights remain to complete the round.

Sometime early in the afternoon, around 1:00 p.m., Scherrer plans to start the Semifinal Round. No. 1-ranked Ian Williams (GBR) will meet (#4) Mark Mendelblatt (USA) and (#2) Staffan Lindberg (FIN) squares off against (#3) Ed Baird (USA). Each match is a first to 2 points series.

The semifinals will be broadcast in real time on the Swedish Match Tour’s broadband Internet site, www.SwedishMatchTour.tv. The broadcast is scheduled to begin around 1:00 p.m.

UPDATE 11 // Aug. 19, 5:30 p.m.

Round Robin C is complete, but the results are far from determined.

The round ended with five crews tied at 3-2. The only one left out of the party is Peter Gilmour (AUS), who finished 0-5. Otherwise, Ben Ainslie, Ed Baird, Staffan Lindberg, Mark Mendelblatt and Ian Williams are all tied.

Trying to break the tie is complicated. Putting all five in a head-to-head matrix doesn’t resolve anything. They all end up with 2 points.

The St. Moritz Match Race features a fleet race at the beginning of each round. In the event of an unbreakable tie the results from the fleet race are considered. But there’s disagreement over whether the entire results should determine the top four, or whether they should be used to determine the winner before reverting to head-to-head competition to resolve the rest.

Williams won the fleet race, followed by Lindberg, Baird, Mendelblatt, Ainslie and Gilmour.

The umpires plan to review once they come off the water. Currently Round Robin D, for the six crews that placed 4th through 6th in the Group A and B round robins.

UPDATE 10 // Aug. 19, 2:50 p.m.

One flight remains to complete Round Robin C and the only certain point is that Peter Gilmour (AUS) won’t advance to the semifinal round. Otherwise, the five other skippers all have a chance to move on.

Ian Williams leads the round with a 3-1 record. Ben Ainslie is 3-1 also, but Williams owns the tiebreak advantage.

Mark Mendelblatt, Staffan Lindberg and Ed Baird are all 2-2. Neither of them race each other in the final flight, so we’ll have to wait until the flight ends to determine who advances.


UPDATE 9 // Aug. 19, 12:30 p.m.

Day 3 of the St. Moritz Match Race is about to begin. A golf tournament organized by one of the event sponsors has pushed the skippers’ meeting back to 1:00 p.m. After that event organizer Christian Scherrer plans to finish Round Robin C, from which the top four crews will advance to the semifinals. The wind is blowing out of the south/southwest today around 10 knots.

Ben Ainslie (GBR) and Ian Williams (GBR) lead the five-flight round with 2-0 records. Mark Mendelblatt (USA), the event’s two-time reigning champion, and Staffan Lindberg (FIN) are both 1-1.

The two most experienced skippers in the group, Peter Gilmour (AUS) and Ed Baird (USA) stand 0-2. Gilmour and Baird finished 1-2 in the Swedish Match Tour standings last season.

UPDATE 8 // Aug. 18, 2:30 p.m.

Ian Williams (GBR) has captured the Group A round robin with a 4-1 record and leads two other teams to the Group C round robin. Advancing with Williams are Peter Gilmour (AUS) and Ben Ainslie (GBR). They join the Group B qualifiers Mark Mendelblatt (USA), Ed Baird (USA) and Staffan Lindberg (FIN) in the five-flight round robin to determine the semifinalists.

The Group A round ended with three crews tied at 3-2, Gilmour, Ainslie and Sebastien Col (FRA). Col, who won his first three matches, wound up odd man out in the tiebreaker scheme. Among the three, Gilmour had 2 points which gave him second place. Ainslie beat Col head-to-head, which allowed him to advance.

Peter Holmberg (ISV) finished fifth at 2-3 and Mark Bradford (AUS) finished sixth at 0-6.

Had Holmberg won his final match against Williams he would’ve been a contender to advance. Holmberg had a penalty on Williams, but was trailing at the top mark. Williams felt he had enough of an advantage and performed his 270-degree penalty turn after rounding the windward mark a second time. Holmberg came around on port and set his spinnaker.

After Williams completed his turn he jibed onto port and luffed Holmberg. Holmberg went head-to-wind trying to keep clear. The boats touched and the umpires penalized Holmberg. Holmberg was incensed with the call.

“A guy luffs you, you go head-to-wind, and he keeps coming at you, then there’s contact,” Holmberg said. “I think he’s gotta give me room to keep clear and he didn’t. Once I’m head-to-wind what can I do?”

UPDATE 7 // Aug. 18, 12:55 p.m.

Group A has completed three of its five flights and Sebastien Col (FRA) has bolted to a 3-0 lead. He’s followed by Ian Williams (GBR) and Peter Gilmour (AUS), both at 2-1. Williams, however, owns the tiebreak advantage over Gilmour by winning their match in Flight 1. Ben Ainslie (GBR) and Peter Holmberg (ISV) are both 1-2, and Mark Bradford (AUS) is 0-3.

Two flights remain to complete the round, with the top three advancing to Round Robin C. That round, which already features Group B qualifiers Mark Mendelblatt (USA), Ed Baird (USA) and Staffan Lindberg (FIN), is scheduled to start around 2:00 p.m.

UPDATE 6 // Aug. 18, 11:55 a.m.

Group A has completed Flight 1 of its five-flight round robin. Ben Ainslie (GBR), Ian Williams (GBR) and Sebastien Col (FRA) won their matches against Peter Holmberg (ISV), Peter Gilmour (AUS) and Mark Bradford (AUS), respectively.

UPDATE 5 // Aug. 18, 10:10 a.m.

With the southerly Maloja wind already blowing between 8 and 10 knots, event organizer Christian Scherrer expects Day 2 of the St. Moritz Match Race will begin as scheduled at 11:00 a.m. Group A will contest its round robin first, and then the Group C round robin, for the top three finishers in Group A and B, is likely to be held.

Group B completed its round robin yesterday. Mark Mendelblatt (USA), Ed Baird (USA) and Staffan Lindberg (FIN) all advanced to Round C.

UPDATE 4 // Aug. 17, 7:05 p.m.

Group B has completed its five-flight round robin with St. Moritz Match Race reigning champion Mark Mendelblatt winning the round. Mendleblatt posted a 4-1 record, and won a tiebreaker with Ed Baird for the group win. Third went to Staffan Lindberg who finished 3-2. Lindberg also won a tiebreaker with Mathieu Richard to gain the final advancing spot. Richard finished fourth, followed by Marcel Walser (1-4) and Eric Monnin (0-5). Full report to come.

UPDATE 3 // Aug. 17, 3: 20 p.m.

The wind has shifted around to the south and although it is still light it appears to be building to an acceptable strength for racing. If racing does occur it will be Group B first up. The race committee has released Group A for the day. So Group B’s flights will be first on the water.

UPDATE 2 // Aug. 17, 2:20 p.m.

The wait for wind continues in St. Moritz. As predicted by event organizer Christian Scherrer, the race committee signaled a postponement at the scheduled 11:00 warning signal. The breeze was patchy out of the north before dying away completely. Lake St. Moritz has been becalmed for most of the time since then. There’s still hope that the Maloja wind will fill this afternoon. The southerly is reportedly blowing 1-2 Beaufort a bit south of here. It may take up to an hour for it to arrive.

UPDATE 1 // Aug. 17, 10:25 a.m.

Racing in the 3rd annual St. Moritz Match Race, Stage 3 of the 2005-’06 Swedish Match Tour, is scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m. But event organizer Christian Scherrer says there could be a slight delay.

The day has dawned brilliant on Lake St. Moritz, but the winds are from the north and light. Scherrer believes the Maloja, the standard southerly wind, will fill by noon time. The breeze is named Maloja for the southernmost town in the region, through which passes the road from Italy to Switzerland.

The St. Moritz Match Race features two groups of six sailing a single round robin. The top three crews from each group advance to Round Robin C, while the others advance to Round Robin D.

Before each of the four round robins a fleet race will be held. The results won't count in the standings, but they could be referred to in the event of ties.

The top four crews in Round C advance to the semifinals, while the bottom two sail a knock out series for 5th and 6th places.

The rankings from Round Robin D will be used to determine the pairings for 7th through 12th places. The 1st and 2nd crews in Round D shall race for 7th and 8th places, 3rd and 4th race for 9th and 10th, and 5th and 6th race for 11th and 12th.

In the semifinals the 1st place crew from Round C will race the 4th place crew in one match and 2nd and 3rd race in the other match. Each match is a first to 2 points series.

The two winners advance to the Final, which is scheduled as a first to 3 points series. The losers sail in the Petit Final, a first to 2 points series.

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