 Swedish Johnie Berntsson started Match Cup Sweden with a great record of winning during the last year. But four major victories and a lot of new self confidence has yet to be put into use in the Repecharge qualifications for Quarter Finals in Match Cup Sweden’s Open class. Berntsson’s team from Stenungsund collected only two wins in Round Robin.
- We have the capacity for winning, but need to pick it up and use it, Johnie says.
Johnie Berntsson’s match racing team won Bermuda Gold Cup in October, Congressional Cup in San Diego in March as well as Ice Breaker and Spring Cup in Långedrag, Sweden, this year. That rendered him a ticket to the World Match Racing Tour event Match Cup Sweden.
- It has brought us up to seventh place on the ISAF rankings, which helps us get invitations to more top events, like Match Cup Sweden, Johnie Berntsson explains.
Are you at the top of your career, now?
- Well, at least it is a receipt of that we can perform in the top, which means that we can beat everyone here. That means a lot for the self confidence. We have more knowledge and I am a better match racer than I ever was, Johnie says, but I still have a long way to go to finding the stability in the upper top ranks.
More racing needed
 In what areas do you need to improve?
- I think it’s about the amount of sailing and Tour matches you do. We don’t have enough of a repertoire, we don’t always know the consequences of our tactics, and we need more experience and have to practice more situations. It’s all about racing more, Johnie Berntson declares.
First day of the Round Robin at Match Cup Sweden was a disappointment to Pelle P and Stenungsbaden sponsored Johnie Berntsson and his skilled crew, Daniel Wallberg, Nils Bjerkås, Nicklas Carlzon and Björn Lundgren. In the second day the team succeeded to win over Francesco Bruni, providing his only point.
- We didn’t succeed to get enough boat speed or call the right tactics in the beginning, but in the end, against Bruni and Presti it started to work better.
- We have to remember how we perform when we are at best, when doing the Repecharge.
Chance to reach Quarter finals
It starts all over now, and we stand as good of a chance as anyone to continue to the Quarter finals. We just need to find our winning concept again, Johnie explains.
What improvements have you been discussing in the team?
- Actually we have decided not to change much at all. We have already improved our starts. Now it’s about communication onboard and going back to our normal routines.
- I think we were a bit nervous to start with, and started to interfere with each other’s positions onboard. That caused some of the problems. Another problem was that we thought we knew the boats well, but with the new sails the performed much better than we were used to, so we misjudged our own and the boats ability.
What’s your winning concept for going to the Quarter finals, Johnie?
- I guess it’s going back to basics, back to old routines. We know we can win!
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