Missed targets at the dream finale at the SAILING Champions League in St. Moritz

In splendid weather and best wind conditions - Maloja wind with up to 19 knots - the 24 best sailing clubs from 10 nations delivered themselves on the weekend in St. Moritz in front of a magnificent backdrop numerous races to choose the best sailing club in the world. In the end, the wildcard seeded Australian sailing club Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron won ahead of the North German Regatta Association and the Danish sailing club Kaløvig Bådelaug. The sometimes top seeded Swiss sailing clubs could not live up to their own expectations. This shows how close victory and defeat are in this international top seeded field.

A few days ago we had asked Nicolas Anklin from Société Nautique de Genève about their upcoming participation in the final of the Sailing Champions League in St. Moritz. Although he could not personally attend, he spoke of how his club would like to win the final, after all, they had narrowly missed out on victory a year earlier by finishing second. Was that arrogant? No, not at all, especially considering that the Société Nautique de Genève is one of the best sailing clubs in Switzerland and they managed to qualify in Palma de Mallorca at the beginning of May with a strong 4th place out of 26 participating clubs. Under these conditions, there was definitely reason for optimism. The 23rd and thus penultimate rank of this excellent club simply does not do justice to its achievements.

All in all, all the Swiss sailing clubs that were able to participate in the final of the Sailing Champions League had certainly hoped for more. The final must have turned out all the more sobering for many of them, but that is part of the sport.

I had the opportunity to talk to the skippers of the two top-ranked Swiss sailing clubs, Tom Rüegge from the Kreuzlingen Sailing Association (SVKr) and Stefan Seger from the Oberhofen Regatta Club (RCO).

Interview with Tom Rüegge, Kreuzlingen Sailing Association (SVKr)

How satisfied are you with 6th place? Were your expectations met?
On the one hand we are very satisfied, the racing was very close overall, Lake St. Moritz is very demanding and it is difficult to achieve consistently good performances, but we have largely managed to do so, if you look at the results of the 17 races, but a drop of bitterness remains, because we were only 5 points short of being in the finals and that was certainly a great pity.

What were your expectations?
We went for the win and took more risks, because you simply have nothing to lose in such a challenge, you have to give everything. Unfortunately, it was just not enough for the finals.

What do you say about the other Swiss teams?
We were very surprised, especially if you think about the good qualification results of the Swiss sailing clubs. It was assumed that the level in Switzerland is very high and then the achieved ranks of the clubs especially the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) (23rd rank) and the Regattaclub Bodensee (RCB) (22nd rank) are very sobering. But this also shows how close victory and defeat are in this final.

What are your next goals?
Now for the Sailing Champions League we have to qualify first in Switzerland in the upcoming races of the Swiss Sailing League. The first team achieved a good 2nd place, the second team an eighth place. We always race to win, but the two teams race outside the Swiss Sailing League on different types of boats. The season is now over there, so we are now focusing on the remaining races of the Swiss Sailing League.

Interview with Stefan Seger, Regattaclub Oberhofen (RCO)

How satisfied are you with 12th place? Were your expectations met? And what do you say overall about the Sailing Champions League final?
We competed with the same team as in the second race of the Swiss Sailing Super League in Sisikon, where we won 2nd place, and the qualifying race of the Sailing Champions League in St. Petersburg, where we managed to qualify with 5th place. Unfortunately, we were not able to deliver our performances of these races. We had expected chances for a place in the first quarter of the field (rank 1-6), but at the beginning we did not harmonize well enough. Then we could improve and got two race wins and had the impression that we are sailing on par with international teams. But the performances have to be constant. With such a top field, you can't afford any mistakes.

There is quite a crowd on Lake St. Moritz, it's much bigger than on other lakes, so it can quickly happen that during a maneuver other boats can slip through and pass you. The level is very high, but it is also a lot of fun, because the audience is attractive and the organization of the final was simply super!

Overall, the final did offer a few surprises: For the first time, an Australian team won the Sailing Champions League, the Italians came away empty-handed for the first time (no podium finish for the first time), and the top-seeded Swiss sailing clubs, who have always been on the podium in the past three years, missed out on a top finish. But this is no reason for sadness. Rather, it's a good reason to pull on their oars in the upcoming Swiss Sailing League races and try to qualify for the next Sailing Champions League. Soon it will be time to hoist the sails again. Ahoy.