BlackMatch Through to Quaterfinals in Bermuda Gold Cup

BlackMatch win against Keith Swinton's Black Swan team from Perth, Australia, on Hamilton Harbour in Bermuda. Image copyright Charles Anderson.

by David Swete

On day three of racing at the King Edward VII Gold Cup all of the remaining groups round robin matches were completed, as well as the repechage series and the final 8 were decided.

We had a great day managing to win our match against Keith Swinton while in a result that needed to go our way, Ian Williams totally dominated Andy Horton in their match to allowing us to secure our spot in the quarterfinal.

We had a great race against a the very talented Swinton, Keith and his crew are sailing very well here in Bermuda so it was fitting that he toppled some of the bigger names in the repecharge series to eventually qualify for the quarterfinals.

We had the starboard entry advantage in our race against him and although we controlled the majority of the pre-start, he managed to wriggle free and we only held a very slight advantage off the start line. We were 'neck and neck' up the first beat and held a one boat length lead going into the first downwind. The eager Australians were nipping at our heels for the entire race but we defended our slim lead well to win by a boat length.

The British are on fire at this regatta, World Match Racing Champion Ian Williams remains unbeaten while countryman and 3X Olympic Champion Ben Ainslee also maintains an unbeaten record. We are set to face a rampant Sebastian Col in the best of 5 quarterfinal tomorrow and we will have our work cut out for us, as the French team are fighting for very valuable World Tour points to stay in contention for the World Title. The four other quarterfinalists are Mathieu Richard, Johnnie Berntsson, Keith Swinton and a resurgent Mattias Rahm.

We are very happy to have made it through to the final 8 and are hoping that it doesn't end here. Tomorrow's racing will no doubt provide some awesome action and we hope the results will go our way.

We would again like to say a special thank you to our sponsors, FedEx Express and Ross Munro from Line 7. Their ongoing support is making this opportunity possible for the BlackMatch boys. To the RNZYS and everyone else thank you for your support.

BlackMatch Racing