The MBA Global Sailing League

Warwick have managed to hold onto their top ranking in the MBA Sailing league for another month, despite not attending the ABC regatta in Venice last week.  The rankings are based on schools’ results in the previous 12 months, and include all four of the MBA league regattas.

Warwick are only just ahead, however: They have the same points total as ABC winners London Business School, but lead because they have attended fewer regattas to get the same score.

Rotterdam‘s result at the ABC, which they did not attend in 2010 means that they climb from 8th to 5th in the rankings. Otherwise the top 5 stay the same:  Cranfield and Manchester 3rd and 4th.

Columbia are big climbers, rising 9 spots to 13. Athens are welcomed back to the rankings, while HEC and Kellogg/WHU both drop four places.

Insead are the early leaders of the MBA Sailing League.  After two events, their consistency (Finishing 4th in Rhodes and 3rd in Venice) puts them top of the table on 7 points.

Second place is jointly held by ABC champions, LBS and MIP (Politecnico di Milano)on 10 points. LBS’s 9th place in their own Global MBA Trophy regatta dragging their score down, while MIP’s 7th in their hosted regatta, the ABC, meant they could not climb above the British school.Rounding out the top 5 are Chicago, who went from first in Rhodes to last in Venice and Bocconi, who did not attend the ABC, but came second in Greece.

Top- ranked Warwick, who also didn’t participate at the ABC are lying 7th, while Columbia, IMD, Athens and Vienna (WU) have their first scoring regatta.

London Business School raced hard on the final day to retain the Alumni Business Cup Trophy, held in the waters off Venice Lido last week.  The Alumni Business Cup, hosted this year by MIP Politecnico Di Milano is one of the premier events in the MBA Sailing league calendar, with the focus very much on the racing: up to 12 races over three days in a fleet of identical Salona 37 yachts.

The participants were: Insead (with three boats), Athens, Chicago Booth, fresh from their victory at the Global MBA Trophy in Rhodes, Columbia, a joint HEC – Insead boat, a joint IE- Rotterdam boat,  IMD, LBS, MIP and WU, Vienna. Continue reading “London Business School Retain ABC Trophy”

After one regatta, the league is only really a report on how that regatta went, but for the sake of completeness, here’s the 2011 league as it stands in May 2011:

By steadily accumulating good results, and making sure they attend every regatta in the season, the team from Warwick Business School have finally knocked London Business School from the top of  the MBA Sailing league rankings.  With a respectible 5th place, at the GMT regatta in Rhodes, compared to London‘s 9th, the Warwick crew are now five points ahead in the rankings.

This is the first time that LBS have fallen from the top of the rankings since they were first compiled at the end of the 2009 season.

The MBA Sailing League rankings are calculated by adding together a team’s scores in each of the four MBA sailing regattas that make up the season. Following the 2011 Global MBA Trophy in Rhodes, this comprises the ABC 2010 in La Ciotat, the Cranfield Regatta 2010 in the Solent, the Rolex MBA’s Cup 2010 in Santa Margharita Ligure, and the GMT 2011. Continue reading “Warwick Go top of the MBA Sailing League Rankings”

This years  Global MBA Trophy took place in the Aegean sea, off the Island of  Rhodos. The world heritage site was the background for the regatta of 16 Sailing boats. The field was smaller compared to last year, but nevertheless much stronger. London Business School showed up with 3 teams, while RSM came with 2 teams to defend their title as last years division A winners.  Last year’s overall champions, Insead, had two teams, as did Bocconi,  while Chicago Booth came to the island, with 3 teams. MIP, last year’s runners- up aimed to  improve their spot in the MBA league ranking, having been excluded from the Rolex Bocconi MBA’s Cup to save a spot for an international competitor. Warwick and Trium (NYU/LSE/HEC) made up the fleet. Altogether a strong showing at the Global MBA Trophy again this year.

The wind on both days created perfect racing conditions . The Chicago Booth team were dominant: winning all three of the A division races on Saturday, and defending this strong position with a 3rd and a 2nd position on Sunday. In the overall regatta, their performance was equally impressive. Continue reading “Chicago power to a win in Rhodes”

A year ago, Warwick came away from the Global MBA Trophy in Athens with a 15th place, and dropped to third in the league.  A year on, they have a chance of overtaking London Business School to go top if they can beat them on the waters off Rhodes.

Third- place in the league Cranfield will miss out on having the same chance.

Meanwhile, Insead and MIP are strongly fancied this year: If they can do well here, repeat their 2010 results in the ABC cup and put on some sort of a result at Cranfield, then the Sailing League competition could be wide open.

The Global MBA Trophy, now in its sixth edition moves from its long time home in the waters off Piraeus, Athens to the historic and beautiful island of Rhodes in the Dodecanese.  The regatta village opens on Thursday 28th, with racing starting on Friday 29th, and the prize – giving and gala dinner on Saturday 30th.

Crucial to the MBA sailing league, the regatta moves for the first time to a two – division format, meaning that there are only 10 boats competing for the trophy,  and so only 10 points on offer to the participants and crucially, only 11 points to those who miss out.

The full list of participants, along with their current league position, and number of points (low points is best) before Rhodes is shown below:

Cranfield, Bocconi rise,  Rotterdam fall down the rankings.

An all British podium:

1 London Business School

2. Warwick Business School

3. Cranfield Business School

Despite their very poor showing at the Bocconi regatta, London Business School had enough in the bag to be able to weather their 18th place and still end 2010 as MBA SAiling League champions.

Bocconi’s first place improved on their 2009 result of 10th, and means that they rise six places into the top 10, lying 8th overall.  Cranfield’s second, along with their 5th in the Cranfield regatta means that they rise five places to take a spot on the end of year podium.

Warwick’s steady performances through the year, and their 5th place in Sta Margharita earn them second overall.

On the downside, Rotterdam give up their second place, and drop to 4th as their 19th place in Italy wrecks their chances.

Continue reading “London Business School are 2010 MBA Sailing League Champions.”

SDA Bocconi sailing Club’s team, led by Federico Albano won the final match race against Cranfield to win the 2010 MBAs cup in the waters off Santa Margharita Ligure and Portofino. Match racing made its first entry into MBA sailing this regatta as a novel way of reconciling two fleets of boats for the 19 crews who took part in the “A” regatta.  The top two from each fleet progressed to the match racing stage, with Bocconi emerging champions, Cranfield from the UK second, Canadian school Sauder third and the US/German Kellogg team fourth. A further 28 boats competed in a “B” regatta, sailing without spinnakers, making a total of 47 boats sailing, and an incredibly crowded harbour!

Continue reading “Bocconi take full advantage of home waters”

The sheer size of the Cranfield regatta fleet means that teams that choose not to participate need to do incredibly well in the rest of the season to feature near the top of the league.  Insead were not on the Solent in July, while Warwick, LBS and RSM were, and so they tumble from second to 4th place.

This was Rotterdam Erasmus School of Management’s first entry into the Cranfield Regatta, and their eighth place, along with their great showing in Athens means that they climb up to second overall, jumping a massive 7 places. They are ahead of Warwick because their 36 points come from just three regattas compared to Warwick’s four.

London Business School’s second place consolidates their lead in the MBA sailing league, a full 18 points ahead of Rotterdam. Warwick’s 7th place at Cranfield is an improvement of six places compared to their 2009 result and means that they also overtake Insead to stay in third place.

The teams that finished near the top of the Cranfield table make the biggest jumps in the rankings. The winners, Exeter, improved on 21st place in 2009, and are now in 5th place, up 18.  Manchester’s 4th place in their first event in the MBA season places them 7th,  Henly climb 9 places to 11th, while Portsmouth, Imperial, Aberdeen, Leeds and Ashridge also place in the league table for the first time.

Big losers were MIP Milano and Kellogg/WHU who both drop 5 places as crews who did Cranfield climb above them.

The league says farewell to Bradford, London Cass, Cambridge Judge and GISMA, who did not return to the Cranfield regatta this year.