Sunday 21 September 2008

Mirsky Racing Team Report on Day Four at the ACI Match Race Cup in Croatia

by Kinley Fowler

The Bura wind kicked in as strong as promised, but the race committee still managed to fit in the full format to complete the event. We had an intense finals series, but our French competitors outshone us, and we ended the regatta in 4th place. Congratulations to Paolo Cian and his team for taking out the title for the second year running.

After qualifying for the semi-finals in 2nd place, it was a case of the young gun against the old fox as we faced up against French match racing veteran Bertrand Pacé, and the hunt was on. Despite winning the first race and showing promise in the next two heated matches, Pacé was cunning enough and managed to take out the series 2-1, putting us up against Sébastien Col in the petit final.

Once again, we won the first race convincingly, and the next two matches saw a number of lead changes and penalties. However the feisty Frenchman managed to get the better of the tricky conditions and won the last race to get 3rd place behind Pacé and Paolo Cian.

This regatta has been an excellent warm-up for the upcoming World Tour event in Troia, Portugal which is the third last Tour event of this year. This is the second time we have sailed as a full team and hopefully we will be able to go a few better next week and climb into the top 3 on the leader board.

A special thanks to Line7, Harken and the Royal Perth Yacht Club for their support.

Mirsky Racing Team

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