Gstaad Yacht Club wins back GYC Ski Yachting after 13 years
by Cindy Schönrich 10 Mar 2016 21:24 GMT
10 March 2016
In a thrilling final race against the long-time participating club, Royal Swedish Yacht Club who made its way up all the way from the Repachage, the GYC-One team with Ben Worbs, Philippe Jann and Timothy Müller had a home-run and after 13 years won back the prestigious Interclub Ski Yachting event in Gstaad.
The 2016 edition, which was held in the world famous mountain resort, brought together teams representing yacht clubs and sailing teams from all over the world. Past winners include the Royal Yacht Squadron, Société de Genève, Bayerischer Yacht Club and Yacht Club de Monaco.
The by invitation only event, which consist of giant slalom Friday night ski races, followed by match racing with remote control carbon fibre yachts in Gstaad's semi-Olympic indoor pool, powered by state-of-the-art wind machines on Saturday, welcomed again a huge number of 22 teams from all over the world.
Given that one of the club's objectives is to promote youth sailing, an identical event was organized also for the under 16, which was won by team Optimist Thunersee with Anja von Allmen, Linus Leibundgut and Laurent Stadler.
The prize giving ceremony for the Interclubs was held with over 120 guests in the beautiful clubhouse, during which Karin Jaggi, female world speed-record holder with 66.31 knots in wind surfing gave a short, but very inspirational presentation of her speed-record activities and has been nominated Honorary member of the GYC.
The next Ski Yachting will take place from 3 to 5 March 2017.
Winner: Gstaad Yacht Club - Team One
(Ben Worbs, Philippe Jann and Timothy Müller)
Runner Up: Royal Swedish Yacht Club/ Gamla Stans Yacht Club Sällskap
(Thomas Lundqvist, Jessica Burgmans, Anna Kimber)
Semi-Finalists: Royal Yacht Squadron
Royal Yacht Squadron – Team Red
Royal Yacht Squadron – Team White