SVK Team triumphs at Swiss J/70 Swiss Sailing League Act 2
by J-Boats 16 Jul 2023 21:43 AEST
8-9 July 2023
2023 Swiss J/70 Swiss Sailing League- Act 2 © Adriana Coupek
Over the past weekend, the Swiss Sailing Super League enjoyed a splendid weekend in Brunnen for ACT 2 of their season series. A total of 14 teams participated in the event, with sailing clubs coming from all four corners of Switzerland.
The regatta was blessed with gorgeous, sunny sailing conditions on the spectacular alpine lake of Lake Lucerne. Winds ranged from light to medium 4 to 10 kts during the weekend.
There were many close races and many match race duels throughout ten races. It didn't surprise anyone that one of the world's top match racers and professional sailors, Swiss champion Chris Raast, was in the middle of many of those close battles for the top of the leaderboard. It should surprise no one that the level of Swiss J/70 racing has climbed dramatically when they have both the J/70 World Champion and J/70 Corinthian World Champion sailing on the lakes!
In the end, highly competitive racing meant that every little mistake cost a lot, such that teams would lose several boats and have to fight back to be in contention. In the end, the team that persevered was the Seglervereinigung Kreuzlingen (SVK) club skippered by Tom Ruegge, with a crew of Mike Hermann, Stefan Stahell, and Martin Hagen. They finished first with two 1sts, five 2nds, two 3rds, and a 5th for 23 pts total. They could count their blessings to have won the regatta over the two following teams on the podium that ended up tied at 24 pts each!
The tiebreaker for the silver medal went in favor of Yacht-Club Spiez after they won their last two races. Skippering the team was Alain Stettler with a crew of Daniel Gerber, Klaus Berger, and Pascal Alder.
Losing the tiebreaker to take the bronze medal was none other than Chris Raast himself, skipper of the Regattaclub Oberhofen team. His crew consisted of Nick Zeltner, Silvan Zuppiger, and Florian Geissbuhler.
Rounding out the top five was Massimo Soriano's Regattaclub Bodensee team in 4th place and Simon Kaiser's mostly Kaiser family team on Segelclub Stafa finished in 5th place.
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