WMRT: BlackMatch Miss Out on Quaterfinals in Sweden

Johnnie Berntsson was the lucky one on home waters in the repechage in Sweden. Image copyright Dan Ljungsvik.

by David Swete

The end of the repecharge series was the end of the road for BlackMatch in Sweden and although other results went our way, we failed to win our way through losing to local Johnnie Berntsson in perhaps one of the most exciting races of the year.

We felt very hard done by in our race against Johnnie, never the less it was action packed from the outset as the Swede was given a penalty on the first beat for tacking too close. By the top mark we were ‘neck and neck’ and Johnnie tried to cross us on port tack, we had the right of way on starboard and had to avoid him however the umpires ‘green flagged’ the incident. We were overlapped as we approached the bottom mark and although we felt we were inside two boat lengths and entitled to round the mark, Johnnie did a great job of luffing us hard and undertaking his penalty.

As we went to round the mark they held a slim lead and tacked straight in front of us, they were then handed another penalty from the umpires to be undertaken immediately. After they had completed their penalty we held a slim lead and a fierce tacking duel ensued with us on the right of way starboard side, the Swede then tacked in our water again and we had to avoid, but again it was green flagged. By the top mark we were still ‘neck and neck’ and on the downwind we gybed at them on starboard, they failed to keep clear and to our surprise we were handed a penalty. The final downwind run to the finish was extremely edgy as we attempted to offset our penalty, but they managed to keep clear and take the victory to put us out of the 2009 Match Cup Sweden.

It was an unfortunate way to end our regatta, however we know that poor form early on, ultimately cost us at this event. Perhaps it is because we are not used to the DS 37 boats or the tricky sailing conditions here in Sweden, but we have slowly improved throughout the week and cannot wait to come back next year.

BlackMatch would like to thank their sponsors FedEx Express and Line 7 New Zealand. We would also like to thank the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Emirates Team New Zealand for all of their support.

BlackMatch Racing
World Match Racing Tour