Thursday, September 6, 2018

Regattaclub Bodensee Lead in Swiss J/70 League

Swiss J/70 Sailing League action in Davos, Switzerland (Davos, Switzerland)- On the first day of the sailing on the beautiful mountain lake of Davos, the favorites, the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) and the Regattaclub Bodensee, made it clear they were in top form. In difficult wind conditions, the fresh north wind turned strong, and both teams constantly sailed in the top two places, with the Lake Constance team from Bodensee getting the best of their fellow sailors 1-1-2-3-3-3-1 tally to easily lead the fleet of a dozen teams from across Switzerland.

All crews were surprised by the massive windshifts and many found themselves, unexpectedly, at the back end of the field after one shift.  Or, they could work their way back to the top from a bad position if they caught some of those shifts to gain on their competitors.

After a poor start on the second day of the competition, the Seglervereinigung Kreuzlingen clawed their back up the ladder to take the 2nd position behind the Bodensee crew as the winner of the day.  Meanwhile, also experiencing a meteoric rise up the leaderboard was the Club Nautique de Versoix (CNV); they were third on the day and leapt from 11th place to 3rd overall was back in the race for third place from second to last place.  CNV’s tally was a blistering hot 1-2-1-4-1-2!!

Swiss women J/70 Sailing League teamOn the final day, the sun shone on the Davos mountain peaks and with a nice westerly wind between 4 to 8 kts, a further 12 races were scored and the round was completed for the regatta with the maximum program of 42 races. Thanks to the excellent organization of the Davos Sailing and Surfing Club, including President Johnny Wenger and the PRO Gian-Andrea Giovanoli, the Davos RC work ran like a well-oiled, precise Swiss clock!

Regattaclub Bodensee’s crew of Massimo Soriano, Lea Rüegg, Stefan Zurfluh and René Ott won four of their last six races to clinch their victory in the Davos event, the second to last one of the Swiss Sailing Super League Series.

The Seglervereinigung Kreuzlingen team of Tom Rüegge, Peter Fritschi, Stefan Stäheli and Michael Hermann sailed a brilliant, consistent series to easily take the silver.

Swiss J/70 Sailing LeagueWhile the leaders finally settled their scores with each other, it was nothing even close to that in the fight for the final bronze position on the podium; in fact, it was a wide-open battle until the final race between four teams! The Société Nautique de Genève, the junior team of Regattaclub Oberhofen, the Club Nautique de Versoix and the Yacht Club Bielersee were all within five points of each other before their last race! The juniors from Oberhofen seized the opportunity and overtook the favorites from Geneva to snatch the bronze, much to the delight crossing the final finish line cheering wildly and “high-fiving” each other as they headed into the docks.

As a result of the Davos regatta, Regattaclub Bodensee have increased their overall series lead with finishes of 3-2-2-1 for 8 pts total for the Swiss Sailing Super League series.  Now sitting 5 pts back is the Societe Nautique de Geneve with 13 pts total.  Then, the “fast kids” from Oberhofen closed their gap considerably with the Genevans, sitting just one point back in third overall with 14 pts total.  And after winning the first two regattas then taking a disastrous 12th in the Luzern event, the SVK Team are back in the hunt with their 2nd place finish to sit in fourth for the series with 16 pts total.  Watch out!  The SSSL Finals in Versoix is going to be a big battle between those three teams for the final two podium spots (given the fact that it is unlikely RC Bodensee will finish worse than 5th!).  Sailing photo credits- Claudia Somm / SSL  Watch the SSSL sailing highlights video here on Facebook  Watch one of the SSSL daily sailing highlights here on YouTube   Follow the Swiss Sailing Super League on Facebook here   For more Swiss J/70 Sailing League information Add to Flipboard Magazine.