Christian Ebbin and Magnus Ringsted have stepped up their preparations for the Nordic 29er Open and Junior Championship in Aarhus, Denmark.

The Bermudian pair are taking part in a high-performance clinic in the European country at the academy set up by Team Rockwool Racing under the guidance of Denmark SailGP team athletes.

The clinic began yesterday and continues until Sunday.

“It’s really cool to be based in Aarhus, Denmark, for the next few weeks,” helmsman Ebbin told The Royal Gazette. “It’s a fantastic sailing venue with great facilities.

“Tough but fun first day training with a dozen of the top Danish and German boats in light breeze. We go again tomorrow.”

Team Rockwool Racing is an initiative launched by Rockwool to support the training of the Denmark SailGP athletes as they fly the Danish flag and compete against the world’s best sailors in the global SailGP championship.

The team is an extension of the partnership between the Denmark SailGP team and Rockwool, and is designed to help the team build even stronger foundations and develop their skills through a wide range of activities, including racing on foiling catamarans on the GC32 Racing Tour.

Ebbin and Ringsted are fine-tuning their preparations for the Nordic 29er Open and Junior Championship, to be held from August 4 to 7.

“We’ll be training hard over the next ten days to prepare for these Nordic championships,” Ringsted said.

“It’s a big fleet; 80 boats. Will be awesome to back in with a big fleet.

“We expect very strong competition and a lot of experienced sailors. We can’t wait to be out there racing and doing our best.”

The 29er is a sailing skiff derived from the Olympic class 49er and is capable of exceeding the wind speed when planing both up and downwind.

Ebbin and Ringsted began sailing in the double-handed 29er in June last year after moving up from the developmental Optimist dinghy class.

They made their racing debut in the class competing at the International 420/29er Midwinters East Skiff Generation Grand Prix in Miami, Florida, in February.

The pair finished fifteenth among the 21-boat 29er fleet, with a best showing of tenth in the ten-race series won by Clark Morris and Noah Zittrer, of the United States.

Meanwhile, Aarhus will also host the inaugural Rockwool Denmark Sail Grand Prix featuring the high-performance wing-sailed F50 foiling catamarans on August 20 and 21.

The regatta is the fourth event of SailGP Season 2 — after Bermuda, Taranto, Italy, and Plymouth, England.

Denmark SailGP Team, led by experienced ocean racer Nicolai Sehested, placed fifth among the seven national teams at the Great Britain Sail Grand Prix last week.