THE LOG | September 17 - September 30, 2021 | 19
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Bronny Daniel Photo Provided by Long Beach Yacht Club
Sailing
Kjaer and his crew qualified for the Congressional Cup which began on Sept. 14
Denmark Skipper Wins Ficker Cup at LBYC and Advances to Congressional Cup By: JORDAN B. DARLING
LONG BEACH — Emil Kjaer, representing the Royal Danish Yacht Club, won the 2021 Ficker Cup hosted at the Long Beach Yacht Club. Kjaer battled it out on the water with Jeffrey Petersen (US) representing Balboa Yacht Club and David Wood (US) also from Balboa Yacht Club for the firstplace spot. The skippers have been duking it out
on the water all summer long, in June, Petersen won the US Youth Match Racing Championship for the Rose Cup and followed it up with a victory in July where he just edged out Kjaer in the finals. Wood turned around and won the International Youth Match Racing World Championship in mid-August where Petersen placed second and Kjaer placed fourth. Kjaer really turned it around this week and won three out of the four matches in the semi-finals against Wood and then
repeated the feat against Petersen in the petite finals also winning three out of four matches and successfully securing the Ficker Cup, placing Petersen in second place and Wood in third. “We are really very happy,” said Kjaer in a Sept. 12 press release from Long Beach Yacht Club. “Our main goal was to do as good as possible and try to qualify for the Congressional Cup, but this is better. And we are so grateful that there’s qualifiers for events like this – it gives young guys like us an amazing chance to
join the event and I can’t wait to be able to sail against sailors like Taylor Canfield and all great sailors like that, it is really exciting for us.” Kjaer went on to credit his team of Gustav Wantzin, Mads Poder Witzke, Bastian Sorensen, Nicolai Baekgaard and Joachim Aschenbrenner. All three skippers and their teams have qualified for the Congressional Cup which began on Sept. 14.
U.S. SailGP Team Climbs Leaderboard in Saint Tropez SAINT TROPE Z, FR ANCE — The U.S. SailGP Team qualified for its third podium on Sept. 12 at the France Sail Grand Prix, this bumped the U.S. team up on the leadership board putting them two points away from an overall first place for the SailGP Season 2 Championship standings. According to a Sept. 12 press release from SailGP the team narrowly missed its first event win of the season, losing out to the Japan SailGp team after a large wind shift that favored the opposing team. “It was a great race and a great regatta for our team,” said U.S. SailGP Team Driver Jimmy Spithill in the press release. “It was dynamic – there were lots of minefields on the racecourse and we need to give credit to Japan for sailing a
SailGP Photo
By: JORDAN B. DARLING
The United States barely missed out on their first event win but jump to second in the overall leader board at the France Sail Grand Prix. great race. We had our chances to win the race but we’re happy with second overall.”
Another boost to the U.S. is the return of Wing Trimmer Paul Campbell-James
who made an incredible return after sustaining a broken leg during practice runs in Denmark just three weeks ago. All teams were also navigating a new 29-meter (95-foot) wing, which premiered across the league’s F50 catamarans, this is the largest wing ever flown in SailGP competition and is designed to provide greater lift in lighter winds. There are two more events before the Grand Final at the United States Sail Grand Prix in San Francisco, the next event will be the Spain Sail Grand Prix in Cadiz, Spain October 9 and 10. Current standings have Japan in first place with 37 points, the United States in second place with 35 points, and Australia in third place also with 35 points. Follow the U.S. SailGP team on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter under SailGPUSA.
