KSSS king of Swedish J/70 Sailing League
by J/Boats 17 Sep 2018 16:46 BST
Swedish J/70 Sailing League © Daniel Stenholm
The KSSS (Royal Swedish Sailing Club) team of Patrik Forsberg, Sandra Sandqvist, Lukas Bergman and Anders Mårtensson took home the Gold Medal on Sunday afternoon, winning the Allsvenskan (Swedish J/70 Sailing League) on the windy waters off Gottskär, Sweden. Their record was Malmo second, Ekero first, Örnsköldsvik first, Gottskär seventh for a total of 11 pts, six points clear of the second place team GKSS.
"One of our strengths is that we have a good and broad squad. In total, we have used seventeen sailors this year and no one has sailed more than one round. Certainly, we have an advantage in being a big club. But, we take Allsvenskan seriously and always send good teams. We always want to fight hard and well," said Niklas Edler, Captain for the KSSS team.
The weekend in Gottskär had tough conditions that tested the sailors and equipment. Friday provided winds around 10 to 17 kts. But, on Saturday it was really windy. In the morning, a round was run, but then the boats began to break in the hard wind. When the wind rose to closer to 20 to 30 kts, sailing was canceled for the day. On Sunday, the wind was still strong, but manageable. Nevertheless, the PRO made the decision to sail main and jib only, no spinnakers. As a result, that changed the strategy a bit for the best crews on the water.
Those who mastered the toughest conditions were Malmö SS; their team included Martin Starnberg, Johan Lindell, Björn Jönsson and Alexandra Wikström. They were extremely stable, fast, and had excellent boat-handling. In twelve races, they finished first or second in eleven of them! Theirs was a very impressive performance for the very windy weekend to win the weekend at Gottskär!
"It has been a tough weekend. It was swiftly completed in Gottskär, thanks to the big winds and excellent RC team. There were many islands on the race track (meaning boats broached on their sides) we had to avoid, especially for a bunch of Öresund sailors like us! But, we enjoyed the hard wind and our strength is the start and planing downwind- which we love," says Malmö SS skipper Martin Starnberg.
More Swedish J/70 Sailing League information