Waving the Swiss Flag on the 44Cup World Championship Brunnen
Repost from 44Cup.org – 24 August 2024
Switzerland may be in the news recently with the exploits of its Alinghi Red Bull Racing challenger for the 37th America’s Cup, and posting some solid results in the sailing at the Olympic Games, but, meanwhile, back home on Lake Uri (Lucerne), one of the most significant sailing events to come to the land-locked nation is currently being held.
The 44Cup World Championship, taking place for the first time out of the village of Brunnen, is being organised by Christian Zuerrer, owner of Black Star Sailing Team. Part of the raison d’etre of his team is to nurture and develop young Swiss sailors. Among this crew this week are Kilian Wagen and Grégoire Siegwart, who over ten years campaigned studiously in the 420 and then the Olympic 470 dinghies, culminating in a campaign to represent Switzerland at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Finally, as Wagen puts it, “there was a big fight between six countries for the final European spot…” and sadly they were one of the five that didn’t make it.
Following their Olympic campaign, Wagen and Siegwart graduated up the J/70 sportsboat, racing a Swiss boat with several friends from the Olympic doublehander, including Scot Luke Patience, the London 2012 silver medallist and Swiss-based Australian Will Ryan, the Rio silver medallist and Tokyo gold medallist. Their team, with the addition of Black Star Sailing Team’s bowwoman Celia Willison, won the J/70 World Championship in 2022.
Both have now been taken under Christian Zuerrer’s wing with Siegwart offside trimmer and Wagen in the ‘floater’ role on the Black Star Sailing Team RC44.
“There are a lot of 470 sailors in this class,” says Wagen [link to 470 article], who heralds from Vevey at the eastern end of Lake Geneva. “I think the 470 is a good base for this type of boat – you have so many things you can play with [on the 470], so when you get into big boats you are a bit more aware of the things you can do to the boat and what will happen with the settings that affect boat speed. Obviously I’d say that…but it is a good platform.”
Of the 44Cup, Wagen adds: “The racing is amazing because it is so close. The top mark approach, it is all about that one metre: if you can get that one metre, it will help you so much getting into a better position. I think that is the really the heart of racing – fighting for those single metres and really trying to make as few mistakes as possible. It is really exciting racing with these boats.”
As floater, Wagen helps main trimmer Will Ryan, so that his Aussie teammate can focus on boat speed and assists tactician Cameron Dunn with the tactics and strategy.
Wagen is proud that the 44Cup is visiting his country: “In Switzerland we don’t often have circuits like this so it is amazing to have the 44Cup coming here…and onto a lake! The backdrop here in Brunnen is awesome – I am very excited to be racing here in Switzerland.”
Unlike some of his fellow Black Star Sailing Team crew, Wagen hasn’t been with them long enough to have taken part in the training the crew undertook here, especially during COVID lock-down. However he and Siegwart did race their 470 here for a National championship many years ago. “It is a really exciting lake with good wind and thermals. A lot of kite surfing and wing foiling goes on here. If it is sunny, you can have nice conditions here – maybe 12-15 knots, or 16-17 maximum – so really exciting for the 44s. Hopefully we’ll get good conditions all week.”
One aspect event organiser Christian Zuerrer has been keen to develop for this event is nurturing interest in the racing from the public, making the boats and 44Cup ‘village’ accessible.
“It is the first time in Switzerland we have had this recently, so it is exciting for the locals. I hope people will come, because it is awesome and we don’t have it very often. The whole set-up is very nice, so people can come over and look at the boats and see the lake with the mountains on both sides.”
We look forward to seeing how the host team gets on on its home waters.
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