J70 Team Pro4u ended the winter training in Denmark with the traditional "Easter clinic". We would like to thank KAS and Hellerup sailing society for the fantastic arrangement and hospitality.
Here is part two of the crew presentation. The team consists of eight regular members who are now presented on the website in two separate posts. We are all looking forward to the upcoming season!
Who are you?
Zacharias Krafft
What position do you sail on team Pro4u?
Mast
What is your sailing background?
This will be my 5th year on board, where I started sailing as a keyboard, and the year before I joined the team I participated in the KSSS Offshore Clinic. I have been sailing since childhood, some dinghy but mostly keelboats like Safir, Express, etc.
What do you do when you're not sailing?
When I'm not sailing, I like tinkering, watching boats on YouTube, weight training, following the NFL and UFC.
What are you most looking forward to about the upcoming season?
I look forward to seeing the team develop together and be competitive at the European Championships!
Who are you?
Claudia Söderberg
What position do you sail on team Pro4u?
Jib and spinnaker trim
What is your sailing background?
I grew up sailing in the archipelago in the summers with my family. In addition, I have also been a sailing instructor at sailing camps for many years. A couple of years ago I took a weekend course with J70s and that's when my sailing interest really took off. Since then, I have continued to sail J70s and have participated in Allsvenskan and Women on Water. In 2023, I participated in the KSSS Offshore Clinic, which made me eager to develop in keelboat racing. With the clinic, I also became interested in my own boat and today I am the proud owner of an Albin Express that I call Foxen.
What do you do when you are not sailing?
I study at Stockholm University and think about sailing.
What are you most looking forward to in the coming season?
Learning all about jib and spinnaker trim from an experienced crew!
Who are you?
A happy Ålander who is passionate about sailing.
What position do you sail on team Pro4u?
Strategist on the cross and spinning trim on the bilge
What is your s ailing background?
I have a background in optimist, laser and 606 but early on switched to J/70 where in recent years I have won national titles and the Sailing Champions League with a few different teams. Have also sailed a lot with larger keel boats such as Clubswan50, 6mR and SK150. Ice hunting sailing is also something I invest heavily in, including a European Championship gold in the 15-hunt class. I have sailed on Malin season 2021 and was involved when we won Gotland Runt Total 2023. Most often I sail as a trimmer or tactician.
What do you do when you do not sail?
When I do not sail, I study mechanical engineering in Uppsala. In my spare time I hang out with friends and family, exercise, go snowboarding or spend time in the archipelago. Outdoor activities are gold!
What are you most looking forward to in the coming season?
The European Championships at home in Åland. Will be awesome!
Who are you?
Linnea Floser
Which position do you sail on team Pro4u?
Last year I was spinnaker trimmer, second position helmsman. This year I will primarily be mainsail trimmer and second position still helmsman.
What is your sailing background?
I have been sailing since the age of 5 with starts in various dinghy classes from optimist to skiff and Lerum's sailing school. Then Match Racing skipper followed by keelboat sailing on the course and a lot of offshore, both full crew in different boat types. I have also sailed quite a lot doublehanded, mainly in Figaro 2 and 3, which is incredibly fun as I needed to broaden myself as a sailor and get a better understanding of the whole. I have also worked with sailing in various ways in parallel with my own venture.
What do you do when you are not sailing?
I study Civil Engineering Craft Technology at KTH and organize corporate events with sailing through my company Isobar Stockholm, like training of various kinds and are currently completing a Swedish classic.
What are you most looking forward to with the coming season?
EM in Mariehamn will be really fun!
It is now time to present the crew for the upcoming season! On board you will see both new and familiar faces. The new team has during the fall trained together at Baggensfjärden and is now eagerly waiting to get out on the water again. The team consists of eight regular members who will be presented in two parts.
Who are you?
Happy owner and helmsman on Team Pro4u's "Malin" and J/70.
What position do you sail on team Pro4u?
Helmsman
What is your sailing background?
Sailed most things that do not fly.
What do you do when you are not sailing?
?
What are you most looking forward to in the coming season?
To develop all aspects of sailing together with the crew and partners.
Who are you?
Sam Stenman
What position do you sail on team Pro4u?
Navigator/Tactician
What is your sailing background?
Started in the optimist and have sailed mostly dinghy classes; zoom8, 420, E-dinghy and laser. A few seasons ago I started sailing sprint racing in J/70 and lately I have also started offshore sailing.
What do you do when you are not sailing?
I am a doctor by profession and like to exercise in my spare time. I enjoy skiing and long-distance sports, including a couple of Swedish classics.
What are you most looking forward to in the coming season?
Learning new aspects of sailing and developing as a sailor. Highlights will be my first Gotland Runt and the ORC European Championship in Åland.
Who are you?
My name is Emil Forsgren, I am 24 years old and a former hockey player. I have played hockey from a very young age until just a couple of years ago. However, sailing has always been a big part of my life.
What position do you sail on team Pro4u?
Cover
What is your sailing background?
I sailed optimist in Ranängen KSSS as a young man. Later it was keelboat and relatively early I started with foredeck and have now run it on a couple of different boats, but mostly on board Malin.
What do you do when you do not sail?
In my spare time when I do not sail, I like to play golf, ski and exercise. The best thing in training is the gym and the favorite exercise is probably squats or free turns.
What are you most looking forward to with the upcoming season?
What I am most looking forward to with the coming season is probably actually Sandhamn Open, which will also be the Swedish Championship.
Who are you?
My name is Alvina, an Ålandic who nowadays lives in Stockholm.
What position do you sail on team Pro4u?
Keyboard
What is your sailing background?
I started sailing optimist before I started sailing laser and 606. Then I moved over to J/70 where I have mainly sailed together with an Åland team since the 2021 season.
What do you do when you are not sailing?
When I am not sailing I work as a software developer. I like going to the gym and running, as I am also currently training for my first marathon.
What are you most looking forward to in the coming season?
I am most looking forward to Gotland Runt and the European Championship on home waters, and to develop together on board!
Registration for the KSSS Offshore Clinic in collaboration with Team Pro4u is now open for 2024. Apply before January 31st!
Do you want a top class training in ocean sailing or know someone who is looking for it? Then the KSSS Offshore Clinic in cooperation with Team Pro4u is the way to go. The training is open to sailors between 16 and 30 years old who want to take the next step in their sailing career. The KSSS Offshore Clinic is run in cooperation with Team Pro4u, which has racked up top placings in ORCi in recent years, both in Sweden and internationally.
The training starts in March 2024 and ends in October and includes theory sessions mixed with sailing sessions, including a full day at sea outside Sandhamn in the spring. In total, this means 50 hours of sailing and 17.5 hours of theory.
Read more and apply here: https://www.ksss.se/traning/clinics/ksss-offshore-clinic/
Want to know more about what it is like to attend the clinic from previous participants?
Claudia Söderberg, Alvina Johansson and Felix Martin attended the clinic last year and are available to answer questions and concerns about the program. They are best reached via Facebook.
More information about the clinic will soon be presented on Instagram and Facebook. Follow us there to see more.
Instagram: @pro4u_sail_racing_team
Facebook: Pro4u Sail Racing Team
During the weekend, Strängnäs Segelsällskap organized the fourth and last edition of the Allsvenskan in sailing where we got the opportunity to represent KSSS. Before the final, KSSS was in 6th place but we wanted to sail up to a top 5 place in the total.
After a very difficult first day with very light and shifty winds we were only in 10th place in the fourth round of the Allsvenskan, but on Saturday and Sunday morning there was a bit more wind and more stable conditions which we liked.
This meant that we managed to sail up to a 4th place before the final and only 1 point behind Hjuvik, Sotefjorden and Halmstad who shared the lead. Hjuvik's boat club had already secured the win in the total but also showed in the final sailing that they are very talented sailors. With a stable win also in the final, they also won this part of the race. Congratulations!!!
For our part, the final started a little hesitantly but a half-baked start and we had a little too bad speed and were oversailed by Hjuvik, but after that we could break free and managed to round the first tick mark as 2nd and keep that place throughout the final. This meant that we finished in 2nd place in Strängnäs but because Sotefjorden came in 3rd place just before Öxelösund, we, KSSS, came in 3rd place in the total on the same points as Sotefjorden.
Congratulations and many thanks to all the participating teams who made this great weekend.
Many thanks to Strängnäs Segelsällskap and Svenska seglarsällskapet for a great arrangement and to KSSS that we got the honor to represent the Royal Swedish Sailing Society in the fourth and last part of Allsvenskan Segling 2023!
Finally, a big thank you Photographer Daniel Stenholm for these great pictures!
Today the World Championship ended in Kiel with two inshore up/down races in very light winds. Wind was around 5-6 knots at the start and although this is not our preferred conditions we also did not sail so well today and being in the Gold fleet having mostly larger/faster boats makes it even harder to find free wind and doing our own race on the course. In todays first race we also had a penalty situation and we had to make turns and in the very light winds this took its time and we got away from the start as the last boat in the 34 boat Gold fleet, ending in place 24. In the second race we had a much better start but again we did some mistakes and being punished for being a slow boat in the light conditions and ended in place 15. We have to analyze later with some distance what we could have done better but it was not the greatest of sailing days for the team and we are all very disappointed now.
With todays result our series for the Worlds were: 2, 4, 2, 2, 1, 2, 3, 1, (24) and 15 and total 32 after one discard. We missed the podium with one point and ended fourth in the Open class and on second place in the Corinthian division. So going out today in the lead and then ending only fourth was really not something we are proud of and we all feel sad about it as we had hoped for more. All results are here: ORC Worlds Results
We will now leave Kiel and give this some time and then analyze and reflect what and how we could have done things differently this last day after a regatta where we had sailed well all days before. We hope of course to be back again and try once more....
We thank all our competitors and congratulate especially the open podium winners Sugar 3, Matilda 4 and Arabela for really good sailing!
We also thank the organizers of the Worlds and we have enjoyed being in Kiel even if the weather maybe had not been the best with a lot of rain during the week.
During yesterday Thursday the World Championship in offshore sailing continued in Kiel with some 120 participating boats. We started on Thursday with two inshore races, up/down. We continued like the day before to sail really well and conditions was now lighter compared to earlier in the week with around 15 knots of wind. We managed to come on second and in third place during these inshore races and it is really tight in the top and one race we lost with only 9 seconds. Also, for us having a slower boat compared to many others being in the top places it is also harder to find free wind and we have to adapt to others more than they need to.
Then we had a short break on Thursday afternoon before the long offshore race started at 19 on Thursday evening and for us in Class C it was a 85 nm course planned taking approximately 12 hours over night. Again, we sailed really well and after a fantastic start (first to reach the rounding after first beat) we had great strategy/tactics as well as excellent boat handling and speed! We feel that compared to other teams we have an advantage racing in darkness as we have great instruments and know how fast the boat should go with different sails plus that we also practice that.
This means that after 5 days of Worlds and 8 completed races we have the series: 2, 4, 2, 2, 1, 2, 3 and 1 with a total score of 17. We are in second place overall with Matilda 4 in the lead with 15 points and on third place Sugar 3 with 20 points. This means we have overall two race wins so far during this Worlds and an average score so far of a bit more than 2 per race.
See the result list here:
In the Corinthian division we are in the lead with 10 points. Results here:
We are pleased to have a podium place now before the last day but tomorrow everything will be settled and we will of course do what we can to win but competition will be very hard and tomorrow we will also sail in the Gold fleet with the top half of the 68 Class C boats so it will be even harder for us to find that free wind but we will do out very best!
Today racing continued in the ORC World Championship in Kiel with three races, first a coastal race for about two hours and then in the afternoon two up/down races. We have sailed really well today and managed to get a 2, 2 and our first 1 in this Worlds! Overall, we won the day in Class C and with this score. Overall, during the five races so far we have 2, 4, 2, 2 and 1 with an overall score of 11. We are overall in third place but just one point after Matilda 4 that are in the lead with 10 points. All results here (Class C): Worlds results
Overall, we have sailed very well today and very few mistakes with good starts, tactics, speed and maneuvers. The wind was a bit less today but we still had mostly around 20 knots of wind with gusts over 30 knots. We are especially please with todays last race where we took line honors being the first boat to finish (many other boats are supposed to be faster) and as well winning the race on corrected time with a large margin - this was our best race so far in this Worlds!
Tomorrow racing continues and the plan is to sail two up/down races with at 11 and then a long offshore race over night with start at 19. We hope for another good day and will do everything we can to repeat then good sailing we had today! The weather forecast seems to predict some lighter winds after the first days of strong winds. Then final day of racing, with two planned up/down races, will be on Saturday. Next update on the blog will come on Friday after the long offshore race.
The Offshore World Championship continued in Kiel today on its second day. Due to continued strong winds we only sailed one two-hour coastal race today. Winds were between 15-35 knots today. We sailed again relatively well and finished on 4th place. Again, we had a lot of reaching and it is difficult to compete with the J-112's and Italia 11.98's that are boats that are around a meter longer than us and have an advantage in that respect in these type of courses we had today and yesterday (there are three J-112's in the lead in total). Today, the first four boats finished in around one minute so it shows how tight/close the racing is and there is no room for mistakes. Overall, our series after two days of 2 and 4 gives a total of 6 points and a 4th place overall in Class C with a total of 68 boats. See results here (Class C for us): World Results
The racing today was fun with a lot of sail shifts and maneuvers but quite wet with rain and strong winds when we got out of the Kiel channel. We had hoped for a podium place also today but our first leg was maybe not good enough due to a wind shift that was not advantageous for us.
Going forward the schedule for the Worlds has been updated today and tomorrow there will be one Inshore/Coastal race followed by up to two up/down races. The updated schedule is as below:
We will do our very best for tomorrow and where we hope for 2-3 races. Overall, with the updated schedule we have now done 2 out of up to 10 races so a lot of competition remains and we are well positioned to hopefully fight for the podium places!
Due to the heavy wind conditions the schedule had been changed and we did a 1.5 hour coastal race in around 25-30 knots of wind. We managed to sail relatively well and finished second in our blue group of the Class C fleet. Overall results from today is here: Worlds Day 1 Results.
The race today included a lot of reaching with a short upwind and downwind. Even if we sailed ok there were several things we can improve for the days to come. Tomorrow is it not yet clear what course we are going to sail and it depends how heavy the wind forecast will be. One alternative is that we will sail a longer offshore course of 85 nm or around 12 hours.
Thanks for the pictures from us today that someone put on our FB page!
Team Pro4u
