ACI Match Race Cup - Day Two

Bertrand Pacé beat countryman and series leader Sébastien Col on Day Two in Croatia. Image copyright Ante Verzotti.

by Irena Bistričić

On the second day of the competition at the ACI Match Race Cup, the sailors did not have so much luck as they did the day before. First of all there wasn't any wind for a long time, then the north-westerly wind rose up to 8 – 10 knots, and then around 16.30 it completely dropped.

Only four flights took place; the last from the first series of duels and the third from the second series. That means that six series of play-offs are still neccesary for the finals.

There have been a few surprises today. The first defeat of the calm Frenchman Col who was defeated by the more skilful Pacé, a sailor full of temperament. However, Pacé immediately afterwords lost to the skipper from New Zealand, Adam Minoprio.

As far as it regards Croatian sailors, it is important to mention the victory of Dario Kliba over the last year’s winner in Split – the Italian Paolo Cian.

After 12 flights, Col is still in the lead with 11 victories (only one loss). On the second place there is superb Mirsky with 10 victories, while Cian and Pacé are the closest to the play-offs with 9 victories. Only Minoprio could mess up their plans, because he is only two victories behind.

On the lower part of the ranking list Dario Kliba is the closest to the top with 5 victories. Tomislav Basic has only 4.5 points because of the accident he had with Kliba’s boat. Since it was his fault, he was penalized with half a point less. Frane Barbieri is eigth with two victories.

Six more flights have to be completed before the semifinals and the finals with three victories. A hard job is ahead of the race committee especially because of the weather forecast that does not predict enough wind. However, strong northern wind is expected for Saturday, so the wind won’t be lacking.

Interviews with those involved with the 2008 ACI Match Race Cup, prior to racing on Day Two:

Sergey Musikhin (competitor):

Q: This is your first time at the ACI Match Race Cup. What are your impressions about this regatta, about the organization, the town of Split?

A: Yes, this our first time here in Split and at the ACI Match Race Cup. The city is really great, we love it. The opening ceremony and the entire organization was great. The music was really great as well.

Unfortunately we didn't do very well at the first two races. As I said, this is our first time, we are not used to these kind of boats, they are rather big. It will take few more races to gain a little experience and sail better next time.

Q: How did you cope with our “bura”?

A: The wind was not too strong we are accustomed to much stronger winds in Russia. In this time of the year it is much colder than here, so because of the high air pressure the winds are rougher.

Q: Are you satisfied with your results today?

A: Not good! Because these boats are new for us, and the others have been sailing on these boats before. It will take us a couple of years to get used to them.

Przemek Tarnacki (competitor):

Q: What can you tell us about today’s race?

A: Unfortunately we didn’t have too much wind. We are not so excited about today’s race, but yesterday we had a bigger disaster. I don’t know what improvements can we make for tomorrow.

Q: You organized a Match Racing centre in Poland, what do you think about the organization of this event, about the boat equipment?

A: Yes, we organized an event like this one in Poland 4 years ago. It was more or less similar, but here you have a longer sailing tradition. Your organization is at a much higher level and we can look up to you and do the same in Poland. This is our first time here and we were very happy to receive the invitations.

Q: What are your speculations about the winner?

A: Well, the Frenchman Sebastiene Col is definitely my favourite. I think that he’s doing a good job here.

Peter Shrubb – Chief Umpire:

Q: As the chief umpire, how difficult is your job?

A: Well you know all the umpires here have a lot of practice of the years. They’ve been doing this probably for ten years. So when you get to this kind of level you know the rules well enough so you can make the right call and the right decision 99 % of the time.

Q: Were there any difficulties on yesterday’s race?

A: Yes, yesterday’s racing started off in the morning, it was blowing pretty hard so it was almost full of survival conditions. We didn’t have a lot of umpire calls because the boats were keeping clear of each other because of the high winds. Than at the afternoon we’ve had some great match racing, we’ve had some interesting calls I think we got them all right and things happen on the race course and the sailors push the rules as far as they can to try and win the race so our job is to make sure that they don’t step over the boundaries of the rules and I think we did a good job.

Q: What are your expectations for today?

A: Well it looks pretty light out there today, and at light air anything can happen and hopefully the umpires won’t have to make too many calls. We don’t like to determine the outcome of a race. We like the sailors to win on the water so we’re hoping that despite the light air we’ll have some good fair racing and the umpires won’t have to make any calls

Alen Kustić, Race Committee:

Q: Do you have any comments or impressions about the first day of the competition?

A: The general impression is very positive, especially as far as it regards the first day. We are always satisfied when everything goes as planned. The weather conditions were great. We’ve sailed eight flights and almost completed the first round robin. Because of the favorable wind the races were very interesting.

Q: Can you tell us a few words about this year’s contestants?

A: Some crews showed more skill than others; two or three teams excelled. We can point out Sebastien Col and Paolo Cian, but we can also expect a lot from the “old fox” Bertrand Pace, who is, in my opinion, a latent favourite. Regarding the Croatian crews, Tomislav Bašić’s absence from previous match race sailing is noticeable. His adjustment is not going as planned, he will need some more time to warm up in order to keep up with the others who practice regularly.

Q: What do you expect from the second day of the event?

A: Generally, today the weather is warming up, which makes things a bit more difficult for the regatta committee. We have a situation where we’ll have to wait for some north-western wind, “maestral” to pick up. I expect fewer regattas today, because we simply won’t have the same number of sailing hours as yesterday. The program is huge, 18 flights just in the opening part before the semifinals and finals, so we’ll need some luck with the weather conditions.

Q: Could you tell us a few words about the organization and compare it with last year?

A: A great progress is noticeable. The ACI and everyone else included in this organization are surely giving their best to celebrate worthily the ACI’s 25th anniversary. It is very convenient that the anniversary coincides with the ACI Match Race Cup. The boats are equipped better than previous years for sure, and the entire organization is at the higher level, although the previous years were well organized, too. Grading the event itself at scale from 1 to 10, we are very close to a clean 10. That was especially evident yesterday when wind picked up to 25 knots and everything still functioned perfectly. Concerning the entertainment, everything is more grandeur, there are more tents, more interesting manifestations. Besides, some events are kept as a surprise even from me. All in all, I think that everything will be at the highest possible level.

ACI Match Race Cup