Positive start for BlackMatch in France

by David Swete

After a 3 week break from the match racing scene, we were back in action today, competing in the International de France Grade 1 event. This event is held in the Brittany region in the town Pornichet and has a very impressive line up, which of course includes the four French teams that are ranked in the ISAF top 10.

We are glad to be back in the J-80 boats which we sailed to victory in Marseille earlier this year, however this feels like a long time ago and it was great to get off to a positive start today with 4 wins from our 6 races.

While our 4 wins today were pretty convincing, our losses came against Sebastian Col and World number 12 Mads Ebler from Denmark, in extremely close fashion. The wind was very shifty today which made it tactically very difficult and although we arguably had the better start against Col, he got the better of us up the first beat and never looked back to take a narrow win. Our closest race was against Ebler
who won the start after a wind shift when the start gun went meant we started at the un-favored ‘boat end’ of the line. The Danish sailor did a great job throughout the race and although we felt like we were always gaining on him, he defended very well to take a well deserved victory. We threw everything we had at him on the final run to the finish, ‘tossing’ the boats around in a fierce gybing duel, but they hung on well and won by a boat length.

BlackMatch would like to once again thank their loyal sponsors Fedex Express and Ross Munro from Line 7 New Zealand, without their support none of this would be possible. We would also like to thank our yacht club the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Emirates Team New Zealand for their support.

French Match Racing