Sopot Match Race: The most prestigious sailing race in Poland
On Friday, I went to Sopot where I admired sailors competing for the main prize in the Sopot Match Race.
It is always a pleasure for me to visit the Tricity, not only because it is where I come from. In recent years, Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia have been hosting more prestigious and luxury events that ever before. One of them is the Sopot Match Race held this year on 21 to 24 August.
The Sopot Match Race is without a doubt the most prestigious sailing race in Poland and an important world match racing event. This, year the race was held for thr 16th time and as every year the contestants were top skippers with their crews who competed for the champion title near the Sopot pier. Partners of the event included Audi, Dr Irena Eris, G.H. Mumm, Chivas, Gaggenau, Schweppes, San Bendetto and Helly Hansen.
The event combines sports and excellent additional events. The attendees of the Sopot Match Race are mostly business people, artists, representatives of the culture milieu and sportspeople. They can all take part in receptions, use the VIP Shuttle by Audi, or rest and relax in the exclusive VIP zone and feel the wind in their hair during a sailboat cruise.
What is match racing? It is a specific boat race wheretwo boats race simultaneously in a restricted water zone. The start and finish lines are marked with buoys and are not very far from each other, e.g. 200 or 500 m.
In order for the race to be fair and for each boat to experience similar conditions, the crews have to complete two rounds. In the first round, all the crews compete against one another in pairs – the winning team gets one point. This is the so-called round robin stage of the race. Next the best teams compete in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and eventually in the grand finale.
Importantly, all contestants sail the same boats– this is a way to prevent any differences in equipment that would give the upper hand to teams with better boats.
This year, 10 crews with skippers from Poland, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, Estonia and Denmark took part in the race. The winner was Eric Monnin from Switzerland while a Pole, Karol Jabłoński was the runner-up. Sadly, the wind conditions were so poor in the semi-finals and the finals that neither of the two important stages were held and the winner was selected based on the number of points awarded in the round robin stages.
