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BlackMatch Wins Open Match Cup in Austria |
We qualified 1st equal at the end of the round robin, tied with Jure Orel from Slovenia and it was decided that we were to race America's Cup Helmsman and world #12 Ian Ainslie, in a best of 3 semi final while Jure Orel from Slovenia would take on Marek Stancyk from Poland.
In a well competed semi final, we managed to take a 2-0 victory over Ainslie who was arguably one of the best pre-starters at this event. In both races we held a slim advantage off the start line and extended throughout the race, claiming our berth in the final.
The other semi final was also won 2-0 by Jure Orel, so it was to be New Zealand taking on Slovenia in the best of 5 final. Jure and his crew had shown excellent form throughout the regatta while we had steadily been improving, so the scene was set for an excellent final show down.
In our first match against Jure we had a big advantage off the start line, we had also forced a penalty on them when they failed to complete a tack onto starboard that resulted in a collision. We defended our lead throughout the race and sailed well to gain an early upper hand in the final.
Our second match saw a much closer affair, the Slovenians lead us off the start line after a closely contested pre-start and a fierce tacking duel ensued. By the first top mark it was 'neck and neck' but we had made significant inroads and managed to roll over the top of Orel on the final tack to the mark. We had an excellent spinnaker set and maintained our slim advantage throughout the remainder of the race.
The third match was ours to win, facing a 2-0 deficit all of the pressure was on the Eastern Europeans and we again had an excellent start. We had a big lead and Jure had received a penalty after gybing onto port in front of us, the advantage was too much and we held on for victory, in doing so winning the 2008 Open Match Cup.
Thank you to all of our friends and family back home, it was great to come away with a victory here in Austria and we appreciate all of the support that we have received from everyone.
BlackMatch would like to again thank our sponsors: FedEx Express, Ross Munro from Line 7 and John St Clair Brown from Waiwera Infinity, it is great to get our first win on our European Tour and their ongoing support is helping make this opportunity possible for the BlackMatch boys. To the RNZYS and everyone else, thank you for your support.
BlackMatch Racing
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BlackMatch Racing in Germany
After finishing off the remaining races in the other pool this morning, the 6 teams for the repercharge series were decided. We were to race Mathieu Richard, Paulo Cian, Damien Iehl, Eric Monin and Stefan Lindberg for the two remaining quarter final berths. We managed to defeat Paulo Cian, Stefan Lindberg and Eric Monin but just failed to qualify making a costly mistake against Richard.
We were very happy with the way we were sailing today, managing to topple some of the big names in match racing but it was yet another learning curve for us against the World #1 Richard that ultimately cost us this regatta. After a busy pre-start we found ourselves in a very controlling position, to leeward of the Frenchman and close to the start boat layline, we luffed in an attacking move and managed to force a penalty on Richard and also gain a healthy lead once the start gun went. The call was made that there was good breeze on the right hand side of the course and we backed ourselves to go right, where we possibly should have consolidated on our advantage after the start and kept it close. The world #1 managed to hook into decent left hand pressure and gained the lead near the top of the course. We were still hot on his tail realising that he of course still had a penalty turn to undertake, at the next top mark Richard set up a trap and locked us to windward, we were not quite equal to the task and when we both bore away around the mark, Mathieu had gained enough of an advantage to complete his penalty turn before the finish of the race.
It was a great couple of days racing for BlackMatch, although we didn't sail to how we expected it was a massive improvement to our last regatta in Brasil and we feel that we were extremely competitive against some of the best in the business. We are looking forward to our next regatta in Austria which is a grade 2 starting in 9 days and is also on Lake Constance.
BlackMatch would like to again thank their sponsors: FedEx Express, Ross Munro from Line 7 and Waiwera Infinity, their ongoing support is helping make this opportunity possible for us to be competing over here with the World's best. To the RNZYS and everyone else, thank you for your support. Please also check out our website: www.blackmatchracing.com this was provided to us by Simon Dickey at Frontend Design.
BlackMatch Racing
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