It’s 6,000 miles from Strangford Lough Yacht Club in the small hamlet of Whiterock on the western shore of the Lough in County Down, to Da Chan Bay in Shenzhen, China. And it is very different racing for Jon Gundersen on the SLYC River Class keelboat Moyola to competing – and winning - the World Match Racing Championships with Ian Williams in a twelve-boat fleet of FarEast 28Rs recently. Williams, from Exeter, is a seven-time winner of the World Match Racing Championships. The other crew members were Richard Sydenham and Gerry Mitchell.
Jon is a New Zealander and, could we say, an ‘adopted Irishman’? He is the second SLYC member to draw attention recently in sailing circles, Phil Quinn having just taken over as Skipper of Qingdao in the Clipper Round the World Race.
Jon is delighted with the win; “It was great to win the Match Racing World Championship; the last time I sailed in a final was 26 years ago in Sweden when I was 22 and trimming for Ed Baird. That time, we were beaten by the Australian Peter Gilmour in the final”.
Ed Baird is an American sailor, a coach of the 1995 America’s Cup-winning Team New Zealand, and a helmsman for the winning Alinghi syndicate.
Jon continues, “We have been living in Whiterock since 2021. My wife Sarah worked for Artemis Racing for about 15 years, so we lived in Valencia, San Francisco and Bermuda while they chased the America's Cup. She is now part of the Senior Management team at Artemis Technologies in Belfast”.
Jon and Sarah joined SLYC when they arrived in Northern Ireland, and their nine-year-old son Ollie has been heavily involved in junior sailing and starting to race his Optimist. Jon says he himself loves sailing with his mates on the River Class keelboat Moyola.
Jon is a Professional Sailor, normally as Jib Trim on TP52s. He has raced on Andy Soriano’s Alegre in the Super Series and on Robert Hughes’ Heartbreaker. A seasoned World Championship competitor, he has been racing with Ian Williams on the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) for the last two years. Jon says, “We have been doing just a few events a year - mainly for fun, as the amount of prize money available these days is not what it used to be!”
Jon says he has known all the crew since they were teenagers and in their early 20s. “Richard and I raced against each other in the semi-finals of the Diet Coke Cup Youth Match Racing Regatta in Auckland - he was on the RYA team, and I met Ian at the same event when he competed the next year. Around the same time, Gerry did the Whitbread on Dolphin/Youth, and I met him in Auckland. So, we are having much fun getting back into Match Racing and taking on the young guys. In 2022, we won the Congressional Cup in Long Beach and now the Worlds”.
WMRT FINAL STANDINGS
Ian Williams (46, Lymington, England)/ Chinaone.Ningbo – seven-time Open Match Racing World Champion (2007, ’08, ’11, ’12, ’14, ’15,’23)
Crew: Jon Gundersen, Richard Sydenham, Gerrard Mitchell
Gavin Brady (49, Auckland, New Zealand)/ True Blue Racing USA – World No. 38 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Nick Blackman, Tom Powrie, Dave Swete
Megan Thomson (25, Auckland, New Zealand)/ 2.0 Racing – World No. 4 Women’s Match Race Rankings, No. 15 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Leo Takahashi, Nicholas Heiner, Niall Malone
Johnie Berntsson (52, Stenungsund, Sweden)/ Berntsson Sailing Team – World No. 4 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Filip Karlsson, Emil Wolfgang, Rasmus Alnebäck
Björn Hansen (56, Gothenburg, Sweden) – World No. 30 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Philip Kai Guhle, Mathias Bredin, Nils Bjerkås
Eric Monnin (47, Immensee, Switzerland)/ Capvis Swiss Match Racing Team – World No. 3 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Simon Brügger, Marc Monnin, Jean-Claude Monnin, Hugo Feydit
Nick Egnot-Johnson (25, Auckland, New Zealand)/ KNOTS Racing – World No. 8 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Sam Barnett, Bradley McLaughlin, Zak Merton
Chris Poole (34, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA)/ Riptide Racing – World No. 1 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Joachim Aschenbrenner, Tomas Dietrich, Bernardo Freitas
Jeppe Borch (25, Copenhagen, Denmark)/ Borch Racing – World No. 2 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Thor Malthe Andersen, Mathias Rossing, Gustav Wantzin
Rocco Attili (26, Rome, Italy)/ RBYC – World No. 9 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Giulio Tamburini, Gianluca Perasole, Ludovico Mori
Ruairi Finnegan (27, Co. Waterford, Ireland)/ Craic’n Racing – World No. 36 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Noah Fisher, Daniel Little, Ryan Fitzgerald
Mati Sepp (55, Tallinn, Estonia)/ Clean Energy Match Race – World No. 5 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Karl Kolk, Janno Hool, Ago Rebane
