Waka Racing (Phil Robertson) competing on day one of the Troia Portugal Match Cup. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.
by Garth Ellingham
Gaining a late entry and with less than a weeks notice the team had to shimmy their way from Russia to Portugal to compete in this years 4th World Match Racing Tour event. We were stoked with the entry and had to jump at the opportunity and experience of racing at a world tour event. We flew in the morning of practice day and then had 2 hours to get used to the Swedish Match 40 boats and also a new bowman from Portugal, Rubrio Basilio, who very quickly gained the name 'Rangi' as we struggled to pronounce his real name.
The weather here was a nice change from Russia. Sailing with strong tides again and up to 35 degrees we had no problem adapting. With the breeze generally light in the morning, dying by midday for a couple of hours and a sea breeze building in the afternoon. We had this most days making the racing days very long with early starts and late finishes.
Race 1 was a tough one. Coming off the line on his tail we tacked off and he followed. He then lifted inside and seemed to have a tad more speed than us, extending to a big lead by the top mark. We couldn't recover from there and took our first loss to Hansen (SWE).
With around 7 knots race two started against Richard (FRA). We won the leeward position off the line but he managed to hold his guage to the layline and he lee bow tacked to take a 1 boat length lead at the top mark. He then sailed away a little downwind and held his lead for the rest of the race. We were happy with our speed in this race and knew we could build from it.
Race 3 was against Presti in the afternoon. We gained a penalty in the dial up but managed to win the start. We tacked on some good shifts up the beat gaining a nice lead. We then lost a little on the downwind and again some more on the next upwind. Presti set up well to stop us completing a turn upwind and we tried to sail away and do it on the finish line but failed as we didn't have a big enough lead. A disappointment for the team but a big boost also!
Race 4 against current World Champion Ian Williams. We were fired up for this one after the close loss to Presti. We won the start again and had a good upwind to hold a 2 boatlegnth lead. He gybed first and caught up but we managed to overlap him above and hold him out past the bottom mark. A big scramble by the team to get the kite down and jib up resulted in us coming out alot better having a 3 length lead at the bottom mark. We then sailed the beat superbly to extend our lead and win the race comfortably. The team was stoked with this win and a big boost for the confidence.
We then raced local Alvaro Marino who knocked us out of the Open de Espana in April. We really wanted this win on the board. We controlled well in the pre start and managed to push him over the line and give him a penalty on the gun. We held a confortable lead during the race to take our second point.
A great day for the team as these boats are known to be hard to get used to and get going fast but we seemed to adjust well and were happy with our speed.
Waka Racing (Phil Robertson) competing in Portugal. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.
Day two and again not much wind in the morning but with the see breeze building to 20knots in the late afternoon, it made racing exciting. This turned out to be a long day as we were 1st up at 10am and then last flight around 8.30pm. We sailed well again, winning only 1 race. It was a tad dissapointiong as we pushed alot of the top guys. Our races against world number 1 Sebastion Col and Peter Gilmour we managed to win the start and get the first cross. Against Col we lead at the top and had another big scramble at the bottom to come out ahead but gaining a red flag penalty for a port starboard insident during the drop. We couldn't then get back into the race from there. Aginst Gilmore he lead by a small margin at the top and held his small lead throughout.
We won our match aginst Ian Ainslie (RSA) in about 20kts of breeze. We lead upwind and then he passed us at the bottom mark. A penalty on him for taking too much room at the bottom mark helped and during the drop his jib sheets got tangled and we passed. Extending our lead up wind, we held on in the very puffy conditions. Our last race of the day was against Russian Abuzov. The breeze died to less than 10kts and with this came shifty conditions. We lost the start due to the other match rounding a temporary bottom mark on the start line at the same time as our start gun. We were affected greatly but caught right back up. We had at least two chances to take the lead but failed to capitalise both times losing by a small margin in the end. We were dissapointed with this loss as it was one we should've, would've and could've won.
Day 3 we had two races to go. One againt felow kiwi Minoprio and the other against Mirsky (AUS). Against Minoprio we won the start and had guage to windward. We held our lead up wind but made a mistake in a big dial down at the top mark and fell behind but rounded on his tail. We were then taken past the bottom mark to put pressure on our drop yet again and came out ok. We rounded behind and started to attack with a tacking duel. We fell a little behind but when he put his jib through his spreader it gave us the split we were after. We caught up and he lee bowed us at the top. He then luffed for a good amount of time so we didn't get buoy room and unfortunatly we lost our bow onto port and he sailed away to take the victory.
Our last race was against Mirsky of Austrlia. We won the start yet again in about 15kts of breeze and held him off upwind. He tried to roll us downwind but we held him out till the bottom mark. We then made the mistake of gybing too early as we thought he had broken the overlap and he snuck inside us to gain bouy room at the bottom mark. He then extended to win the race.
Phil Robertson is all concentration at the helm on Waka Racing. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.
Dobbs Davis summed it all up in their report on the World Tour website: "While finishing in 9th place and therefore not advancing to the next stage, its noteworthy to mention the extraordinary efforts put in by Phil Robertson (NZL) and his WAKA Racing team. In his matches against two other young Down Under talents, fellow Kiwi Minoprio and Aussie Mirsky, Robertson was extremely tough, taking both to their limits amidst heated pre-start and mark-rounding action. He and his team got beaten for not having quite that extra polish the others have in having spent the last two years in Tour competition, but his performance today certainly makes him one to watch for the future".
We are very happy with our perfomance in our first Tour event and feel we have earned some respect, which was our goal for the event. It is just having the experience and knowledge of what to do in pressure situations that we lacked and know this will all come with more events and practice. We are now looking forward to our next event in Slovenia, a grade 2 in brand new fully carbon 'One Design Match' boats. We are definately hoping we can perform well and put all the experience of the last two weeks together to gain a great result. Competion here will be tough but we know we can down the top guys.
Some members of the Waka Racing team at the Troia Portugal Match Cup dinner. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.
We would like to thank Stefan of Widex, Pacific Sports Community Trust, Ian of Tax Management NZ, Line 7, RNZYS, Simon from Frontend Design and the WAKA racing supporters club for all their help and generosity.
Waka Racing
World Match Racing Tour
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