WMRT: Tough day at the office for BlackMatch in Sweden

BlackMatch racing against Seb Col in Sweden. Image copyright Dan Ljungsvik.

by David Swete

Day two of Match Cup Sweden was one to forget for BlackMatch, it has
been a long while since we went a day without out a win but today was
a disaster and we had 4 straight defeats to finish last in our group.
All is not lost however as we still have the chance to win our way
through in a repecharge series which will start tomorrow for the
bottom 8 teams.

With only a single win from our 6 matches, we have failed to put
things together so far in this event and it would appear we are
struggling, but the truth is that we are very much in the game and
will come out fighting tomorrow for the two remaining quarterfinal
berths. All of our matches today were very close and there are just
key moments we can pinpoint that contributed to all of our losses, it
is these mistakes that we need to eliminate if we are progress further
in this event.

Perhaps a good example of this was in our match up against 6 times
Match Cup Sweden Champion Peter Gilmour. We absolutely nailed the
veteran in the pre-start, managing to lock him out above the committee
boat end of the start-line, however the crafty Australian forced his
way in between us and the boat end and although he was given a red
flag penalty to be taken immediately, he still was only half a boat
length behind after undertaking it. ‘Gilly’ then showed his class to
stay in touch up the first beat and was hot on our heals going into
the first downwind. He did a great job of initiating the gybe to the
bottom mark whereas we held for too long and the following luffing
situation saw them roll over the top of us to gain the lead, from here
he defended well and took the victory.

We are in very good company in the bottom 8 repecharge series which
includes the two previous Match Cup Sweden Champions Mattias Rahm and
Bjorn Hansen, World number 1 Sebastian Col and current World Champion
Ian Williams. Although we have an uphill battle from here, we are
looking forward to the challenge ahead.

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