J/80 Women's International Match Race Helsinki

(Helsinki, Finland)– The first event of the 2016 Women’s International Match Racing Series (WIM Series) is beginning on Finnish waters as a dozen teams go into combat in the Helsinki Women’s Match for their share of the valuable WIM Series points.  The women are sailing matched J/80s using symmetric spinnakers and poles flown from the masthead.  The teams come from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, Netherlands and Ireland.

Hosting the Helsinki Women’s Match is Nyländska Jaktklubben (NJK) – the yacht club that brought the exciting sailing discipline of match racing to Finland already some 25 years ago. In 2011, the European Women’s Match Racing Championship was sailed in Helsinki and in 2014 the club hosted the Youth Match Racing World Championship.

With heavy showers from a dark grey sky, and temperatures far from what you’d expect this close to summer solstice, the participating teams had quite a rough practice session on the waters close to Hernesaari (Ärtholmen), on the southern shores of Helsinki. The weather for Wednesday is expected to offer good sailing conditions to the teams.

Reigning WIM Series champion, American Stephanie Roble and her Team Epic Racing, will not participate in Finland due to job obligations. But they will be back on the coming events, and cannot be counted out already. Four events out of the five on the 2016 WIM Series will count in the total standings, so you can drop out of one and still have the chance of winning.

Since the inaugural season in 2013, the WIM Series have seen half a dozen Volvo Ocean Race sailors, 26 Olympic sailors (including the 2012 Women’s Match Racing Gold Medallists), multiple National Champions and one World Sailor of the Year. To this date, sailors from 23 nations have participated in the WIM Series.

The racing begins Wednesday with the round-robin to be followed by quarterfinals, semi finals and then the conclusion with the final on Friday, July 1st.  For more Women’s International Match Race Series sailing information


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