Frederik finishes top 10 in Farr 40 World Championship

Frederik and Mary arriving at the Farr 40 prize giving ceremony on Saturday evening at Paustian Huset in Nordhavnen. Photo by Claus Poulsen/SE og HØR

On Saturday (31 August, 2007) Crown Prince Frederik won the last race in the Rolex Farr40 World Championships. It brought up Nanoq's place to be in the top ten and fulfilled Frederik's wish to be the top Nordic finisher in the World Champonship. Crown Princess Mary watched the whole day from a boat with Christian and Isabella. Next year's Farr 40 World Championship will be in Miami.

See Søren Steffen's gallery of family pics

Frederik and Mary arriving at the Farr 40 prize giving ceremony on Saturday evening


Frederik makes an interesting distinction between himself and his grandfather Frederik IX in an interview at the beginning of the competition last week. Billed Bladet reported the interview with Frederik about his sailing, by Ulrik Ulriksen, “Mary and the children are there for me”

Crown Princess Mary, Prince Christian and Princess Isabella will be on the sidelines when Frederik competes in the Farr 40 World Championships Saturday. It will be nice, says Crown Prince Frederik, who is competing for a top place for Denmark.
These days, Crown Prince Frederik and his crew on Nanoq are competing for gold in the Farr 40 Championships in Hellerup, where the competition is to be held. On home ground, Frederik and his crew are guaranteed a lot of support from the spectators. And especially from those closest to Frederik – Mary and their children Christian and Isabella, who will be there for him and follow the sailing up close.
“The Crown Princess and the children will not have to drive for very long to get here, so yes, I believe they will be here when I sail," says a very eager and happy Crown Prince Frederik. "I am looking forward to getting started and my goal is for Nanoq to get a minimun placing as the best Nordic boat. That way I will not have said (promised) too much," says the modest prince, who has prepared thorougly for the championships.
"You have to have fun. Yes, preparations have gone well. Naturally, there is a certain amount of prestige involved with competing in (and winning) the Wolrd Championship, but it has moved along reasonably for us...which is forward and not having peaked too early. Our placement today, where we got a fifth place in the last sail was a good placement for us – it is always good to be placed within the first ten, but the most important thing for me is to see how the boat moves and to try new manoeuvres," says Frederik.
"The fact that it is held in Denmark this year means that I and the entire crew on Nanoq are eager to do our best. That is among other things one of the reasons why we have prepared as well as possible. It feels good to be on home territory and the crew is ready. Also, our foreign rivals have expressed that they are enjoying their time here in Denmark, although they do think it is a bit cold, however they have reassured me that they can live with the cold," laughs Frederik, who admits that he has lost his heart to sailing, which fits well with his temperament. "When you sail, you just do that – concentrate on sailing and nothing else, and also for all of us on board to feel good and enjoy ourselves. We are very eager to make sure all feel good and have a great time, although that part ultimately comes down to winning. But we should also be able to relax and have fun with each other and with our rivals, which we are fully capable of doing," says Frederik, who hopes to be able to sail for many years to come.
My grandfather was not a sailer
It is hard to say why exactly this sport and not for example football (soccer) or golf became my passion. But with golf, I have never been particularly good at it, and I started too late and with football (soccer) – you peak relatively young and before my current age. But with sailing you can peak much later and continue for many years. I can see myself competing for many years to come. And certainly we have a special relationship and connection regarding sailing in my family, as my grandfather (Frederik IX) was a seaman, so that defenitely means something. Although there is a difference between being a sailor and a seaman. My grandfather was a real seaman, whereas sailing (yachting) did not appeal to him.
Me, on the other hand, I am a sailor and I am happy to be a part of the Farr 40 championships and I am not too worried about moving up a class - if one can call it that. And one shouldn´t aim higher than one can. This class is good for me (meaning the Farr 40 class of sailing). It fulfils some of the good things within the goals that I have made for myself. Economically and time-wise this is ideal for me. That is what attracts me with Farr 40 sailing. But regardless of what kind of sailing I do, I ultimately just try to do my best. That will always be my goal. As long as I can see that I am evolving as a sailor technically and moving forward, then I am satisfied and that is basically my main goal regarding sailing. (thanks kay!)

Well worth the wait from Regatta News.com

...For the local Danish fleet, it was a fairly tale ending as HRH Crown Prince Frederik's Nanoq (DEN) had a great start off the pin end of the line, led at all of the marks and held off a threatening Opus One (GER) downwind for their first win. Today's score moved them up from 18th to 8th overall and Nanoq was the highest placed Scandanavian boat...

Final result FARR 40 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2007

Top Ten OVERALL

(Place, Boat Name, Country, Owner-Helm, R1-R2-R3-R4-R5-R6-R7-R8-R9 TOTAL)

1) Mascalzone Latino, ITA, Vincenzo Onorato, 2-2-7-12-1-3-5-5-10, 47
2) Alinghi, SUI, Ernesto Bertarelli, 18-5-4-2-5-5-2-34-7, 82
3) Barking Mad, USA, Jim Richardson, 7-16-5-1-10-14-6-2-26, 87
4) Sputnik, AUS, Ivan Wheen, 5-30-2-5-6-10-1-19-13, 91
5) Opus One, GER, Wolfgang Stolz, 4-3-6-16-28-32-7-3-2, 101
6) Nerone, ITA, A. Sodo Migliori & M. Mezzaroma, 3-6-1-11-18-21-37DSQ-7-8, 112
7) Infinity, USA, John Thomson, 24-1-10-6-7-12-30-36-3, 129
8) Nanoq, DEN, HRH Crown Prince Frederik, 15-19-25-21-4-8-17-22-1, 132
9) Warpath, USA, Steve Howe, 23-13-22-4-19-2-12-12-25, 132
10) Twins, USA, Erik Maris, 33-4-15-7-17-1-15-23-18, 133
See the Regatta News.com photos

1) and 2) Nanoq in action and Nanoq finishing first in race 9, 3) the victorious Mascalzone Latino crew with Frederik and Ernesto Bertarelli, 4) Frederik at the prize giving speaking as winner of race 9, 5) Frederik from Billed Bladet's interview story:



Søren Steffen's 38 pic gallery of Frederik sailing August 29

DR.dk news clip (0:56)

Added: Isabella and Christian help royal dad celebrate sailing win from Hello magazine