Sea birds chase Mathieu Richard and Adam Minoprio downwind on day 2 of the Congressional Cup. Image copyright Rich Roberts.
by David Swete
Four matches were completed today, Wednesday, and the first round robin was completed, however, we could only manage 1 win over last years runner up and Bermuda Gold Cup champion, Johnie Berntsson from Sweden. Our 3 losses today came against the rampaging Terry Hutchinson, who has lost only one race, 2007 champion Mathieu Richard and surprise package Franchesco Bruni of the Damiani Italia America's Cup challenge. Conditions today were stunning although extremely shifty and difficult. After an hour's delay this morning action finally got underway in a very light breeze and although we were competitive in all of our matches, things just didn't swing our way today.
In our match against Terry Hutchinson we dominated the pre-start and held the advantage off the start line. A massive split tack due to very light conditions and lack of breeze in the middle of the course lead to us heading to the left side of the course while the American was forced to tack off to the right. While we backed ourselves and were confident in the left, sailing is sometimes a game of 'snakes and ladders' and Terry came back in slightly more wind pressure to hold a 2 boat length lead at the top mark, a lead which he defended well throughout the remainder of the race.
Despite our less then ideal day, we still remain tied in 4th position with 5 wins and 5 losses. With only the top four teams going through to the semi finals after a double round robin, we are still well in contention however we need to perform in our remaining round robin matches, which means a very big day tomorrow. We have 8 races remaining in the second round robin and with slightly more breeze forecast we are confident we can get the wins we need.
BlackMatch Racing
Congressional Cup
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