European Match Race Tour 2017 Event 7 in Ploen, Germany
by Helmut Czasny-Bonomo 2 Sep 2017 07:50 BST
25-27 August 2017
European Match Race Tour 2017 Event 7 at Ploen, Germany © 2017 EMRT / PSV
Jelmer van Beek and his Team Dutch Wave won at Germany's Tour stop, the last opportunity to qualify for the European Grand Final held in two weeks time at Ravenna. Local skipper Lars Hueckstaedt took silver ahead of Germany's favourite skipper Max Gurgel.
Perfect sailing conditions at northern Germany's Lake Ploen combined with the experienced organizers from the Heizkoerper Sailing Team provided two days of match racing at best. Jelmer von Beek, who won already this year's German Championship, set the pace right from the beginning. Once in the lead he dominated the event while Lars Hueckstaedt showed his best performance this year so far by sailing into the second place.
With the victory at Ploen, van Beek qualified for the Grand Final together with Helmut Czasny (AUT) and the Croation team of Teo Piasevoli. There they will meet the leaders of the European Match Race Tour, the French team with Skipper Simon Bertheau, who are trailed by Polish World #11 Patryk Zbroja.
The Grand Final 2017 will take place from 8 – 10 September at Italy's Ravenna as an World Sailing Grade 2 event with double points for the Overall Rankings of the European Tour.
Overall Results:
1st Jelmer van Beek (NED)
2nd Lars Hueckstaedt (GER)
3rd Max Gurgel (GER)
4th Henrik Christensen (DEN)
European Match Race Tour Standings: (after 7 of 8 events)
| Pos | Helmut Czasny | Nat | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | Simon Bertheau | FRA | 150 |
| 2 | Patryk Zbroja | POL | 140 |
| 3 | Dejan Presen | SLO | 110 |
| 4 | Christian Binder | AUT | 100 |
| 5 | Vladimir Lipavsky | RUS | 75 |
| 6 | Helmut Czasny | AUT | 70 |
| 7 | Jelmer van Beek | NED | 65 |
| 8 | Teo Piasevoli | CRO | 60 |