Gilmour and crew Rod Dawson (NZL), Mike Mottl (AUS), Kazuhiko Sofuku (JPN) and Yasuhiro Yaji (JPN) ­ the runaway leaders of the Swedish Match Tour Championship Leaderboard ­ won all of their races today enroute to a 7-0 record after the first eight flights of the 18th annual event off Split Harbor.

Frenchman Bertrand Pacé and Team France trailed close behind at 6-1, and there was a tie for third between Sweden’s Magnus Holmberg and the SeaLife Rangers crew and Team Denmark’s Jes Gram-Hansen, both at 5-2.

“It was beautiful sailing conditions today,” said Gram-Hansen, who has placed fifth at this event twice before. “Our team was working well and we had some luck, which you need.”

New Zealand’s Gavin Brady and the Oracle BMW Racing team stand fifth at 5-3, and are followed by Mathieu Richard (FRA, 4-3), Mattias Rahm (SWE, 3-4), Kelvin Harrap (NZL, 2-5), Frano Brate (CRO, 2-6), Mate Arapov (CRO, 1-7) and Sweden’s Daniel Wallberg, who filled in for injured Staffan Lindberg of Finland, but was 0-7 on the day.

After a 68-minute postponement this morning due to light winds, the race committee took an aggressive approach to conducting racing.

The southwesterly breeze started at 6 knots for Flight 1, but by Flight 2 it had increased to 10 knots. The wind would gust up to 16 knots throughout the afternoon, and the race committee ran eight flights, 40 matches overall in a bit more than seven hours, over the standard windward/leeward, twice-around course.

“I think it was very clever of them to get that much racing in,” said Gilmour. “I’ve been at these events where they knock off at 5:00 and then there’s nothing later in the week.”

“For us it’s like this 65 to 75 days a year,” said Event Director Emil Tomasevic, who this morning predicted a classic seabreeze, one that builds in strength and veers right after a windless morning. He was spot on.

The conditions were in stark contrast to yesterday’s blustery northeasterly for practice and crew training in the Jeanneau One-Design 35. The wind topped out around 20 knots, and took its toll on two Scandinavian skippers.

Sweden’s Rahm and Finland’s Lindberg both suffered injuries during practice. Rahm suffered a cut on his head that required a trip to the hospital for cleaning and dressage, but Lindberg’s injury was more serious.

This morning the 6-foot, 5-inch tall skipper underwent surgery to repair his orbital bone and cheek bone under his right eye. The injury occurred during a practice jibe.

“I was pulling the boom across and he didn’t stand back far enough,” said Lindberg’s mainsail trimmer Wallberg, 24, of Marstrand, Sweden. “The boom hit him under the eye.”

Rahm also suffered his injury during a jibe. The 6-foot tall Swede didn’t duck low enough during a jibe and the boom swept across his head. He reported having a scrape on his head, but not one that kept him from racing today.

Rahm said that both his and Lindberg’s crews practiced last week for this event on DS 37 Match-Racers in Sweden, the boat used at the Swedish Match Cup and the Danish Open.

“The boom on that boat isn’t as long as the one on this boat,” said Rahm, comparing the practice boat to the race boat.

Wallberg will fill in for Lindberg on the helm until he is ready to return. Wallberg, who has crewed for Lindberg the past year, began match-racing in 2000. Also joining the crew is local Croatian Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic.

The International Jury, headed by Chief Umpire Bo Samuelsson, has cleared the way for Lindberg to return to the helm when, and if, he feels ready.

“We took the opinion of the skippers at the umpires’ meeting and they were in favor of us granting Lindberg the permission to return,” said Samuelsson.

Pressed into service at the last minute, Wallberg, who sailed a Soling briefly in 2000 before match-racing was removed from the Olympics, had a rough day on the helm and left the water with a 0-7 record.

“Next time I’d want to have some more practice,” Wallberg said at the end of the day with a laugh. “It got better as the day went on. At least we figured out where the start line was.”

Racing is scheduled to continue tomorrow with an attention signal slated for 10:50 a.m.

Source: Sean McNeill