Cottonfield ISAF Match Racing Worlds - 3 Danes

WATCH OUT FOR THE DANES

It is no accident that there are three Danes in the line up of ten skippers gathered in Skovshoved, Denmark, to contest the Cottonfield ISAF World Match Racing Championships.

As this pretty little town, just outside Copenhagen, with its thatched roofs and narrow streets, prepares for what is shaping up to be one of the country's major sporting events, it is obvious that the small marina here has been a hot-bed of match racing for some years.

Morten Lorenzen, chairman of the SKS/KDY Match Race Centre, explains that "about six years ago, someone in the Danish Sailing Federation said that match racing is where there is going to be progress in the sport in the future, and the idea was born".

The Royal Danish Yacht Club (KDY) and Skovshoved Yacht Club (SKS) co-operated in the setting up of the organisation, which now runs fourteen graded match racing events each year, and is completely financially independent.

"We got a bunch of designers and sailors together, with the object of creating a fast boat, which was ideal for match racing, and the DS Match Racer was born," says Lorenzen, simplifying the obviously lengthy process.

They started the centre with just two boats, then as funds came in from various sources they added to the fleet, and other sailing venues around the country took up the idea, so that there are now four other match race centres.

While the original idea came from the Danish Sailing Federation, Morten Lorenzen says that his centre receives no financial help from the Federation.

Funding comes from four sources, with a quarter of the budget provided by sponsorship, another quarter comes from leasing the boats to events, a further quarter is earned from sailors hiring the boats for practice, while corporate sailing produces the other quarter of the funds.

The boats are fully utilized, with a waiting list of people wanting to use them for match race practice, "from 4.00 pm until it is dark, every day through the summer the boats are used," claims Lorenzen.

What is the goal of this hot-house of match racing tuition?

"We are just building a sailing community here, it doesn't even have to be match racing as the ultimate object of the exercise," he says, "we have the Nokia Volvo Race project based here, but Olympic Soling sailors, and participation in the match racing circuit benefit, and may be one day the America's Cup."

The success of the project is reflected in the fact that there are three Danish crews in this world championship, Sten Mohr, Jesper Bank and Morten Henriksen are all in the top ten on the ISAF rankings, and Bank will be going to Sydney in the Soling class, to try and add to his current collection of Olympic medals.

Event Website: www.sail.dk