Team Shosholoza skipper Geoff Meek and crack SA America’s Cup crew members Alex Runciman, Guido Verhovert and Marc Lagesse finished eighth overall in the final standing today of the Nippon Cup, a Swedish Match Tour event, held in Tokyo, Japan. The South Africans beat Japan’s top three match racing skippers plus a German skipper Sven-Erik Horsch, who like Meek is new to the Swedish Match Tour, the world’s leading professional sailing series. Participation in the event is by invitation only to America’s Cup skippers and it is only since South Africa entered her maiden bid for the 32nd America’s Cup in 2007 earlier this year that Meek has been included in the high profile line up. The team raced in the Portuguese leg of the Tour in July. A total of 12 top skippers were competing in Japan on identical Yamaha 30 yachts.

The Nippon Cup was won by the USA’s Ed Baird. His victory gives him the overall lead in the Swedish Match Tour Championship so far, a position previously held by New Zealander Russell Coutts. Coutts has won the America’ Cup three times and skippered the Swiss Team Alinghi challenge to victory in Auckland last year. Second was Gram-Hansen (Den), third Dean Barker (NZL) and fourth (Peter Gilmour (AUS).In a full report from Japan, Sean McNeil, PR director for the Swedish Match Tour, said Baird (St. Petersburg, Fla.) notched his third career victory on the Swedish Match Tour when he and crew Andy Horton (Newport, R.I.), Piet Van Nieuwenhuyzen (Valencia, Spain) and Jon Ziskind (Newport, R.I.) won the final of the Nippon Cup, 3-0, over Jes Gram-Hansen and the Gram-Hansen Racing Team. Gram-Hansen and his Danish crew Morten Helkier, Christian Kamp and Rasmus Kostner held leads in all three races of the final, but light and shifty winds thwarted their bid for victory.

“Andy’s doing a great job, and I have a lot of trust in what he’s telling me,” said Baird of his tactician. “My guys have worked hard all year.” Baird’s third career victory happens to be his third of this year. Previously, he won the Swedish Match Tour stages in Long Beach, Calif., and Cascais, Portugal. Coincidentally, each event had light and shifty conditions in the final. But don’t call him a light-air specialist.”It’s hard to feel comfortable in the light stuff,” said Baird. “One puff or shift canpropel you to victory just as easily as it can take it away.” Baird leads the Tour championship with the high score of 65 points after four events. He’s 20 points ahead of Russell Coutts (NZL) and Gram-Hansen (DEN), who each have 45 points. Australian Peter Gilmour, skipper of the Pizza-La Sailing Team and the Tour’s reigning champion, is fourth with 42 points as the Tour reaches the halfway point of its sixth season.

The champion will win a $60,000 bonus from the Tour and a BMW 545i Touring from Tour partner and official car BMW. “It’s a nice early Christmas present,” Baird said, “but there’s a lot of racing to do next year.” In the Petit Final, Dean Barker of Team New Zealand overcame a red flag penalty in the third and deciding race to beat Gilmour and the Pizza-La crew, 2-1. Barker, sailing with Ray Davies, James Dagg and Jared Henderson, trailed by five boatlengths after being penalized for contact in a luffing incident after rounding the windward mark the first time. But they found a favorable windshift on the second beat after splitting with Gilmour and overcame the deficit for a eight boatlength lead. Gilmour, sailing with long-time crewmembers Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku and Yasuhiro Yaji, placed fourth in their bid for a record ninth Nippon Cup title. The wind conditions for the final were far from consistent. A morning northerly between 6 and 8 knots died after Flight 1 and a three and a half hour postponement ensued before racing resumed in a light afternoon southerly of 5 knots. Gram-Hansen and crew did a good job in the pre-starts, winning two outright. They won the first cross in all three races and led at the windward mark each time. Those small victories usually lead to an overall win, but not today.

“We’re very disappointed,” said Gram-Hansen’s headsail trimmer Kamp. “We led in every race and got to chose where to go, but made the wrong decisions. It’s disappointing to lose when you’re leading.” Despite the light conditions, Baird’s headsail trimmer Ziskind managed to lose his fourth winch handle of the week, on the last beat of the last race, when the winds were just 4 to 5 knots. “That’s $300 in winch handles,” Ziskind noted. Swedish Match Tour sponsors include Swedish Match (Official Sponsor), BMW (Partner and Official Car), Colorcraft, Wedgwood, Musto, Trident Studio and Travel Places (Official Sponsors).

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