Stena Sets Sail for Match Racing World Championship
The Stena Sphere recently announced its continued support for the competition Swedish Match Cup Sweden in Marstrand for the next three years.
Stena is now expanding its involvement still further prior to this summer’s match races by taking on the role of title sponsor for Johnie Berntsson and his team, who will compete under the name of Stena Sailing Team.
Berntsson Sailing Team, all of whose members come from the Gothenburg area, finished in sixth place in last year’s Stena Match Cup Sweden. Currently, the team is ranked number nine in the world and its merits include Gold in the Swedish Championship, Gold in the Nordic Championship, Gold in the European Championship and a bronze medal in the Match Racing World Championship. On Tuesday, the Alpari World Match Racing Tour announced that Johnie Berntsson is one of eight skippers to be allotted a Tour Card for 2013. This means that the team has secured an invitation to all the events in the Alpari World Racing Tour before the finals in Malaysia.
“The collaboration with Stena will make it possible for us to make a serious commitment to sailing and take yet another step towards the goal of being professional sailors. In the future, we could focus even more on sailing. Now, we are looking forward to the summer’s match racing in Marstrand and working hard to achieve even better results than last year”, says a pleased Johnie Berntsson, the Stena Sailing Team’s skipper.
The team will consist of:
- Johnie Berntsson, skipper
- Johan Barne, tactics
- Oscar Angervall, trim
- Martin Berntsson, pit
- Björn Lundgren, foredeck
“For Stena with its roots in Gothenburg, it feels natural to collaborate with a sailing team from the West Coast. Johnie Berntsson and his team have a sense of commitment and drive that makes us proud to give them our support. Stena usually invests in winning concepts in every context and we are convinced that Johnie Berntsson together with Stena can go all the way to world number one. We are looking forward to an exciting sailing summer with Stena Sailing Team and Johnie “, says Lovisa Andersson, Marketing, Stena Metall, in a comment.
