Malta 49er team sail and drive steadily

Doing things in a half-measure way is bound to lead to failure. Sailors Sebastian Ripard and Benji Borg, or Malta49er Team, are doing their utmost to avoid such situation.

In fact, they have been ‘full-time sailors’ for the past 12 months, striving to make one of the 49er Class 20 places in the London Olympics next year.

The boys spent all March in Palma de Majorca training for the Trofeo Princesa Sofia race. Around 170 boats, representing 53 nations, participated in the 42nd edition of this famous regatta, one of seven ISAF Sailing World Cup events.

Palma was the third in the series but the first European race of the tour. Here, the Malta49er Team were racing with all the top boats.

However, they were not too pleased with their performance despite finishing 22nd, only one spot away from qualification.

In April, Ripard and Borg moved for some weeks to Hyeres, in France, for a training period before a regatta in Lake Garda, Italy, in the beginning of May.

Olympic Garda Eurolymp 2011 was not a World Cup event but a pretty big international race with 41 nations and the best of the Olympic classes in preparation for the London Games.

Malta49er Team had a good, but frustrating, regatta. Twenty-two boats were racing in the 49er Class and they managed three top finishes before having to retire due to an unwarranted accident – a Greek boat crashed into their mast and even though the Greeks were in the wrong, the Maltese still had to miss out on the racing and go ashore to fix the damage.

So, considering that they had to miss three races finishing 12th was quite an encouraging result.

During their Garda training camp Malta49er Team coach Kolja Volkers introduced another sailor to the Maltese duo – Max Groy, an ex-49er sailor who represented Germany in the 2004 Olympics.

Following the Garda experience, the Malta49er team drove some 1,000 kms up to Medemblik in Holland for the second World Cup race.

The tour is made up of seven regattas in three different continents – December 2010 (Melbourne), January 2011 (Miami), March (Palma) April (Hyeres), May (Medemblik), June (Weymouth) and June (Kiel).

Ripard and Borg did not take part in the first two events. They will be competing in the Weymouth regatta next after Medemblik where they finished 32nd out of 42 boats.

Yes, Seb and Ben are leaving no ‘wave’ unturned to achieve their ambition which is also backed by a host of sponsors, namely, EC English Language Centres, Cisk Excel, RLR Yachting, Yacht Help Ltd and Big Exhibits as well as other contributors such as Creative Partners, Body Works and Kurt Arrigo.