WMRT Match Race Germany live coverage

by WMRT on 25 May 2011 Live coverage of stage 2 of the World Match Racing Tour, Match Race Germany, will begin on Wednesday with the first Qualifying Session after the teams finished honing their skills on the new fleet of Bavaria 40S yachts on Lake Constance.

Conditions for the Qualifying Sessions are forecast to be light and shifty which will present the teams with a considerable test on board the Bavaria 40S boats as Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing highlighted:

'You rarely get over 5 knots here usually, that’s what we got during our Practice Session. In the new Bavaria 40S that was quite a challenge. Those boats gain quite a lot of momentum because they’re pretty heavy which can be a good thing in light winds but you need to get up to speed quickly.'

The first Qualifying Session will be the first opportunity to see Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team and Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team in action, with the two going head-to-head in Flight 3.

Alongside the recognised faces of the Tour Card Holders stand William Tiller (NZL) Full Metal Jacket Racing, Eric Monin (SUI) Team Ocalys Corum, Eugeniy Neugodnikov (RUS) Team Synergy and Stefan Meister, a skipper that Bjorn Hansen (DEN) Mekonomen Sailing Team believes has the potential to cause a few upsets here: 'Stefan is a very good match racer. I know him well from the Berlin Match Race and believe he’s capable of not only winning some matches but also stands a real chance of making the Semi-Finals.'

2011 ISAF World Match Racing Tour Standings (After Stage 1)
1 Damien Iehl – 25 pts
2 Bertrand Pace – 22pts
3 Torvar Mirsky – 19pts
4 Jesper Radich – 16pts
5 Pierre Antoine Morvan – 14pts
6 Francesco Bruni – 12pts
7 Peter Gilmour – 10pts
8 Alvaro Marinho – 8pts
9 Phil Robertson – 4pts
10 Ian Williams – 2pts

Full list of teams for Match Race Germany

Mathieu Richard (France) – French Match Racing Team
Bjorn Hansen (Sweden) – Mekonomen Sailing Team
Eugeney Neugodnikov (Russia) – Team Synergy
Francesco Bruni (Italy) – Bruni Racing Team
Phil Robertson (New Zealand) – WAKA Racing
Damien Iehl (France) – French Match Racing Team
Peter Gilmour (Australia) – YANMAR Racing
Eric Monnin (Switzerland) – Team Ocalys Corum
Johnie Berntsson (Sweden) – Berntsson Sailing Team
Jesper Radich (Denmark) – Adrian Lee & Partners Racing Team
William Tiller (New Zealand) – Full Metal Jacket Racing
Stefan Meister (Germany) – German Match Race Champion

The first Qualifying Session kicks off with an interview with Mathieu Richard on the ‘WMRT Morning Show’ from 09.30 CET* on Wednesday followed by live coverage of all the action between 13.00 and 15.00 CET*. The ‘WMRT Today Show’ from 19.30 CET* will review all the day’s events from Lake Constance here

A live blog will run on the WMRT website throughout the day to give flight by flight updates. Also follow the action on the WMRT Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/worldmatchracingtour!here! and Twitter page here
*Times dependant on racing conditions.