Black Sheep Racing competing in the Sails of the White Nights match racing. Image copyright Михаил Киреев - Michael Kireev.
by Black Sheep Racing media
After making the top four yesterday we had a wait while the three remaining flights in the round robin were sailed, before the remaining finalists were decided. The top qualifier from the round robin was world number five and defending champion Damien Iehl. As reward for this he is able to choose his semi final opponent, and he chose us. He went through the round robin unbeaten so if we were to progress to the final we had to be the first to notch a win against him. We had our work cut out.
In the prestart of the first race we managed to catch him on port when we were on starboard and he was handed a penalty. This took the pressure off for the rest of the race as all we had to do was keep it close. We managed to make the pass when he completed the turn on the second beat and hold on to the finish, 1-0 to BSR. The second race, Reuben managed a glamour start with Damien locked to leeward and behind. He attacked hard on the run and we managed to again catch him completing a gybe ‘in our water’. This he was given a penalty for and a second came soon after further down the run for the same thing. He had to do the second turn straight away so it was game over from here for Damien. BSR was into the finals!
Our finals opponent was Eugeniy Neugodnikov who also beat us in the round robin. Again we got a nice start in a controlling position and kept a very tight cover throughout the race to notch a win. Eugeniy pushed his luck a bit too far in the prestart of the second race and we capitalised by forcing a penalty on him. However, Eugeniy won the start and sailed smartly to build a lead large enough to complete his penalty on the second beat whilst remaining in the lead. With Eugeniy still leading with a reasonable margin we took a gamble into the tide where there was a large puff and along with Brads expert trimming, enabled us to plane and soak right down onto him.
A gybing duel ensued before we went for the roll. Bit by bit we moved ahead where Eugeniy’s frustration set in as he pushed us into the exclusion zone to yet again get another penalty.
Black Sheep Racing win their first ever Grade One event taking some big scalps along the way. The team is ecstatic as we gain some valuable ranking points but more importantly entry into the World Tour Event the Swedish Match Cup.
The team would like to thank the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, friends and family for their support. Thank you!
Black Sheep Racing is Brad Farrand, Tom Bentham and Reuben Corbett.
Black Sheep Racing
Sails of the White Nights
