First race of the season for CONTAINER: Second place at Hublot Palma Vela

[Source: Team Container] At the Hublot Palma Vela the new CONTAINER of Udo Schütz took a marvellous second place. After intense training sessions in winter the start into the new racing seaon went as scheduled.

From April 16th through 19th the new STP65 type boat took part at the races in Palma de Mallorca waters and clearly could benefit from the latest optimization efforts in March. Racing in the Mini Maxi division CONTAINER was able to show her huge potential against that small but top class fleet.

Especially in the first race and in the long distance race on Saturday CONTAINER proved good speed all the time. In Sunday’s final race tactician Karol Jablonski was able to move the boat from third to first place by a sail change on short notice due to a wind shift and underlined that CONTAINER enforces her claim for more podium places this year.

In the overall result CONTAINER just became second behind the Italian Luna Rossa. Evaluating the confrontation with her sistership, Peter Sibbert, CONTAINER crew member for decades, said “Most of the time we could get control of our direct competitor and in match racing we would have won 4:2 against Luna Rossa. You cannot see that from the final result list and a small tactical mistake during race no. 2, which moved us back to 4th place immediately, shows how close the racing was.”

The next regatta for CONTAINER is scheduled fort he mid of June when she will meet her competitors at the Giraglia Rolex Cup.

Team Container racing on the 3rd day of the 2009 HUBLOT Palmavela. Palma, 18 April 2009. Photo copyright Nico Martinez / HUBLOT Palmavela

Final results Hublot Palma Vela, Mini Maxi division:
1. Luna Rossa, Italy, 9 pts.
2. CONTAINER, Germany, 11 pts.
3. RAN II, Great Britain, 14 pts.
4. Bella Ments, USA, 14 pts.
5. Alegre, Great Britain, 19 pts.

Besides owner Udo Schütz the following crewmembers were on board during Palma Vela:
1. Kazuhiko Sofuku, bow, Japan
2. Lindsay Stead, midbow, Australia
3. Martin Klawon, floater, Germany
4. Magnus Augustson, pit / stb. grinder, Sweden
5. Pawel Bielecki, stb. grinder, Poland
6. Matthias Bohn, port grinder, Germany
7. Nils Beyersdorf, port grinder, Germany
8. Victor Marino, downwind trim, Spain
9. Matti Paschen, upwind trim, Germany
10. Gabriel de Llano, main grinder, Spain
11. Jens Mack, upwind grinder, Germany
12. Hartwell Jordan, mainsail trim, USA
13. Benjamin Stoffels, traveller, Germany
14. Peter Sibbert, runners, Germany
15. Tom Swift, runners, UK
16. Markus Wieser, helm, Germany
17. Karol Jablonski, tactics, Poland
18. Matt Wachowicz, navigator, USA