BlackMatch with it all to do at Monsoon Cup, after terrible day at the office

BlackMatch at the Monsoon Cup. Image copyright Sander van der Borch/Subzero Images.

by David Swete (after Day 2 of racing)

Day 2 of the Monsoon Cup just wasn’t our day and in a disappointing display of sailing we finished the day with a scorecard of just 1 win and 3 losses. Our only win came against the recently crowned Louis Vuitton Trophy winner Francesco Bruni, however with losses against fellow Kiwi Phil Robertson, Mathieu Richard and a throw away win against Torvar Mirsky, we need to step it up if we are to make the top 8 and keep our hopes alive.

In contrast Phil Robertson and his Waka Racing Team had the day of their lives, now aptly nicknamed the ‘Giant Killers’ they went through unbeaten and have now claimed the scalps of big names such as Peter Gilmour, Ian Williams and Torvar Mirsky, to lie in second place behind Ben Ainslie. Phil and his team are doing very nice work here in Malaysia and we hope their form continues.

The biggest disappointment of our day was definitely our loss against Torvar Mirsky. After gaining the advantage off the start line we won the favoured right hand side of the course and even managed to force the Australian team to the left. They tacked back at us and we had a clear two boat length lead, but thinking we were close to the lay line for the mark and perhaps panicking a bit, we tacked for the top mark. Realising that we might have been thin on lay and that they were in good current we made another mistake and tacked back at them, but going into our lee bow tack we were ‘down speed’ and they etched out a little bow forward on us to hold ‘mark room’ at the top mark and gain the lead. We did a great job of keeping it close throughout the race and there are plenty of positives to be taken out of it, but after getting the start we wanted and losing from such a good position, it was a massive let down and we have to eliminate these silly mistakes if we are win this event.

We have three races remaining in the round robin and the way it’s panning out it looks like we will have to win at least two of them to qualify for the final 8. First up we have Peter Gilmour, followed by Ian Williams and Sebastian Col, a dubious task at the best of times let alone on such a big stage however we are feeling confident and are looking forward to the challenge.

BlackMatch is Adam Minoprio, Dan Mclean, Tom Powrie, Nick Blackman and David Swete and we would like to thank our sponsor FedEx Express for their incredible support. We would also like to make a special mention to the support we receive from Emirates Team New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

BlackMatch Racing
World Match Racing Tour