Tuesday 28 April 2009

Waka Racing Compete at the Open de Espana



by Garth Ellingham

Day one was a great success for the team. We had five races today, ending with three wins and two losses. The first was against world number 3, Mathieu Richard from France.

We got a penalty on Richard in the dial up and managed to keep the game close enough and stopped him from wiping the penalty down wind. Race 2 against Neugodnikov (RUS) went well. We won the start and had pace on him throughout the race. Winning confortably. The next was much the same holding a nice lead for the whole race against Damien Iehl (FRA).

In the fourth race we lost the start which was costly as we couldn't get to the favoured side and trailed the rest of the race. Our last race of the day was a tad dissapointing as we had a comfortable lead against Bjorn Hansen (SWE) and threw it away by not covering close enough in the last beat. He got a good left hand shift and crossed us at the top mark by a good 2 legnths.

A great start to the regatta and now we have to back it up with a solid second day to try and make the top 8.

SailRaceWin: Waka Racing is the new name for the old PanamaJack Racing team, led by Phil Robertson, of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

Waka Racing
Open de Espana

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