iShares Cup - Set for the Penultimate Round

8:57 PM Thu 24 Sep 2009 GMT

'iShares Cup Amsterdam. Practice Day. Finish of race 4. ?ThMartinez/Sea&Co / OC Events' ThMartinez / Sea & Co &copy Click Here to view large photo

iShares Cup Amsterdam.

The penultimate round of the iShares Cup starts tomorrow (Friday, 25th September) in Amsterdam, Holland. The nine-boat fleet will be racing on the tiny IJ-Haven canal and the racing will be extremely 'tight' on the trickiest race course of the six-stage series.

As will be the tussle in the top half of the overall iShares Cup leaderboard, as the front runners vie for pole position ahead of the final round of the six-stage series that will take place in Almeria (Spain) over the 10th-12th October. None of the five teams dominating the top half of the overall leaderboard, currently led by Oman Sail's Masirah, have enough points advantage to secure their final place on the podium, and it will be imperative to put in a good performance at this penultimate event to give them 'pole position' going into the final round.

Pete Cumming, Oman Sail Masirah skipper, commented: 'We will see some of the trickiest sailing on the most unpredictable race track this weekend. We sailed yesterday with three boats and it felt tight, so with nine in the fleet.well, I can't imagine! There will be a fair few penalties this weekend and we'll struggle to see consistency. Last year's knowledge really helped us when training yesterday, all we could see at times was concrete, steel barge, concrete! It's going to be an amazing spectacle and will certainly get everyone's adrenalin racing.'

It will be with some relief for the teams that the weather is forecasted to be fairly light, although as the IJ-Haven is surrounded by tall city buildings, the wind can still funnel through the gaps at alarming speed: 'Amsterdam brings unique challenges to the iShares Cup with the smallest course of the season on the IJ-Haven,' said iShares Cup Events Director, Gilles Chiorri. 'We are surrounded by tall buildings and these, coupled with the shifty wind conditions and the gusts that channel down the gaps in the buildings, can provide difficult conditions for the crews. The courses will be just 875-meters long and 265-meters wide. Nine boats in an area like that will provide some spectacular action for the public, there are no escape routes!

'There is a high pressure coming from the West of Brittany which means nice weather and light westerly winds most of the time - 2-8 knots strengthening up to 10 knots at times. The nine boats can just about compete together in such a tight area. It will be interesting to see how the teams will react to these conditions,' concluded Chiorri

Yann Guichard, skipper Gitana Extreme - Groupe LCF Rothschild, who currently lies in second place overall, 4 points behind Oman Sail Masirah, gives his view of this very specific playing field: 'I don't know the race zone personally but on paper it's a narrow area which may completely change the face of the rankings. We're going to sail right in the heart of the city and I wouldn't be surprised to see a boat win one race and bring up the rear in the next.'

The battle for the middle ground is also far from over. Team iShares, skippered by Olympic double gold medalist Shirley Robertson, is 7th overall on 17 points - 3 points behind Nick Moloney's BT and 1 point ahead of Erik Maris' LUNA with Holmatro (13 points) and Mike Golding's Ecover (6 points) in the final spots. Co-creator of the class, Mitch Booth, took over the Holmatro skipper spot full time in Kiel and he will be looking forward to getting another round under his belt here in Amsterdam. Mike Golding's Ecover team will be joined by Belgian Olympic sailor Sebbe Godefroid, replacing Bruno Dubois who suffered a head injury during Round 4 in Kiel. Sebbe is a world-renowned dinghy and multihull sailor and has represented Belgium at three Olympic games, most recently in Beijing where he sailed in the Tornado class.

Today will see the nine-boat fleet compete in three practice races as part of the media day, and the crews will be joined by Sven Coster, a top Dutch sailor who has twice represented the Netherlands at the Olympics plus 24-year-old Dutch swimmer, Inge Dekker, reigning European, World and Olympic champion 4 x 100 freestyle swimmer who will be joining Shirley Robertson on Team iShares. Round 5 racing starts tomorrow afternoon at 2.00pm. Follow all the Latest News online live from the racecourse.