WAKA Racing make Quarters!

WAKA Racing in the lead at the Monsoon Cup. Image copyright Sander van der Borch?Subzero Images.

by Garth Ellingham

Today we went into racing with the luxury of knowing that we had already qualified for the quarter finals. So with two races remaining we went out this morning with the aim of notching up a couple more wins to improve our overall position and possible give ourselves the chance to pick our quarter final opponent.

First up we had Seb Col. After miss-timing our pre start Seb lead us off the line but after a good first beat and downwind we managed to close up on him just before the bottom mark. Unfortunately when trying to roll and pass him he only just managed to keep an over lap and luffed us with the umpires saying as windward boat we didn't keep clear. Penalty on us and the game was effectively over.

Next was the local sailor Hazwan. This was a straight forward with us doing a nice job leading comfortably of the line and extend throughout the race to take a comfortable victory.

Final score, 7 wins 4 losses, which put us in 4th position easily qualifying us for the quarter finals. This alone is a huge achievement for the team with it being the first time we have made the top eight at a world tour event and was our goal heading into this regatta. Now that we have achieved this the team is absolutely ecstatic but will not lie down having made it.

Our quarter final opponent is Seb Col and we went out and did one race of the best of five race series. Unfortunately for us after winning the side we wanted of the start and narrowly leading around the top mark. Seb had a slightly better hoist than us and managed to soak inside us preventing us from gybing and picked a nice lay line to what turned out to be the favoured mark. Taking the lead and holding it to the finish.

So overall not the best start to quarter finals but by no means are we out of our depth and amongst the team confidence is high. Saturday we can guarantee we will come out fighting hard!

Finally we just like to say a big thank you for all the emails of support we have received whilst we have been here, it means alot.

Also Waka Racing would like to thank Ian from Tax Management NZ for helping the team get up here to compete, along with Stefan of Widex, Pacific Sports Community Trust, Ross Munro of Line 7, RNZYS, Simon from Frontend Design and the WAKA racing supporters club for all their help and generosity.

WAKA Racing is Phil Robertson, Garth Ellingham, James Williamson, Sam Bell and Adam Martin.

WAKA Racing
World Match Racing Tour