Frederik in Farr 40 pre-worlds

©Photo:ROLEX/Carlo Borlenghi

The Rolex Farr 40 pre-World Championship has ended after 2 days of sailing in Øresund out off Copenhagen since Friday. The Royal Danish Yacht Club (RDYC), host of Worlds, welcomed thirty-five boats from twelve countries to their new yacht club headquarters on Tuborg Harbour, in Copenhagen (recently opened by the Queen).

"Barking Mad" skippered by Jim Richardson (USA) again took first place in the pre-worlds as he did in Newport RI last year. Richardson ended up 4th in the Worlds last year.

A number of boats had to retire from racing on the last day because of collisions.

Friday was the first day of racing in the Rolex Pre-Worlds, a tune-up for the Rolex Farr 40 World Championships, beginning next Wednesday on 29 August through to 1 September. Teams from USA (7), Denmark (6), Italy (6), Australia (4), Norway (3), France (2), Germany (2), Switzerland (1), Ukraine (1), Finland (1), Brazil (1), and Sweden (1) will compete.

The race course is situated just north of the yacht club in the waters of Øresund - the strait between Denmark and Sweden.

The Royal Danish Yacht Club's commodore David Holm and his Team Monick/Tuborg had a successful pre Worlds finishing 4th, which is very promising for the World Championship. David Holm said “We're not first runners in this race, we're not the most experienced ones, but we're moving up in the fleet and we're very happy with that." He said with a laugh, “Well I believe we are all stars! But I definitely know that some of these guys on board are the real stars. It's fun and it's fantastic to attract such an incredible bunch of world class sailors to this wonderful spot in Denmark.”

"Nanoq" was 19th overall out of 36 entrants. The final result for "Nanoq" was on course side (OCS, which broke rule 30.1) in race 1, 9th in race 2, 9th in race 3, 32nd in race 4 and 5th ins race 5.

The Farr 40 season has a busy one. The owners have had a meeting in Copenhagen in which the mood of the class and owners was described as buoyant and positive about having had ten years of successful racing for a class to which everyone is committed.

“Blu Moon” follows “Barking Mad” to overall win from Regatta News on the Rolex Baltic Week in Neustadt, Germany, which was from 17 to 23 August 2007. Frederik and "Nanoq" didn't participate.

1) The start of the first race on Friday, 2) "Nanoq" tactician Bouwe Bekking and Frederik, 3) and 4) sailing, 5) the "Nanoq" bowman catches the spinnaker drop:



B.T. ('Sejlerprinsen prioriterer familien højest - Sailor prince's family is top priority) B.T. reports on an interview Frederik gave in Børsen about his involvement with sailing and attempts to increase the profile of sailing as a sport in Denmark. He was invited to sail in the America's Cup just finished in Valencia in Spain by the Alinghi team (also Farr 40 competitors from Italy), but declined and has not pursued it because his family is his first priority and also has Farr 40 sailing commitments. Frederik has been regent for most of Ausgust while his mother the Queen has been holidaying in France.

More photos from Regatta News

Added: Rolex Farr 40 Pre-Worlds sets the tone from Regatta News

All photos © Rolex, Carlo Borlenghi and Daniel Forster

To keep track of Frederik's boat, the sail is marked DEN 7, it has a dove grey hull and bow number 24.