Winning Danish Open

Having had one year out from match racing and the World Match Racing Tour, local hero Jes Gram-Hansen/Rasmus Kostner was not top of the list of favourites going into this week’s Danish Open, organised by the Royal Danish Yacht Club. However match racing for Gram-Hansen/Kostner seems to be like riding a bike, especially when it is in the DS37s he started racing intensively during his match race training as a youth back in the mid-1990s, and better still when he is racing these familiar boats in his home waters off Aarhus.

Racing with his long term sailing partner Rasmus Kostner, America’s Cup trimmer Pier Luigi de Felice who he competed alongside at Mascalzone Latino and ex-Ericsson round the world race crewmen ‘big’ Jann Neergaard and Martin Krite, Gram-Hansen had a battle royal with Australian veteran Peter Gilmour of YANMAR Racing in the semi-finals. He won this nail-biting series 3-1, to go up against Torvar Mirsky in the finals. Mirsky in turn had dispatched Mattias Rahm and his Stena Bulk Sailing Team 3-2 in the semis. After his heavyweight bout in the semis, Gram-Hansen seemed to make easy work of the finals to win against the young Australian, by an emphatic 3-0. “To come from the semis to the final beating Gillie was a good boost for our confidence,” Gram-Hansen confirmed.