Waka Racing in their new team kit. Supplied image.
by Garth Ellingham
Day two of the GKSS spring cup was a tough one indeed. Cracking straight into the semi finals, we were chosen by Mattias Rahm., the winner of the round robin. He is no slouch, winning Match Cup Sweden two years ago. He has plenty of experience in the boats and in the location. Conditions were diabolical. Shifts of up to 30 degrees were common every few minutes so keeping a lead was extremely tough.
We won the first start convincingly but extremely shifty conditions gave plenty of passing lanes and he capitalised, passing us at the first top mark. A battle begun downwind and we got buoy room on him at the bottom mark. Unfortunately we couldn’t finish the Swede off and he passed us upwind and sealed the first race by a small margin.
Do or die for Waka Racing now as it was a best of three semis. Once again we gave him heaps in the pre start and came off better. After getting the first cross, Mattias kept it close to round the top mark a length behind. Unfortunately a tactical mistake on the downwind gave him a chance to take the lead and that he did, from here he sailed superbly in the shifty conditions to seal the race and a spot in the final. For us it was a petite final against Stefan Lindburg of Finland.
Racing was very close against Lindburg. With him winning the first after we had another commanding lead, it wasn’t until our fourth race of the day that we finally got a bullet after we lost our first start. Coming from well behind we passed him up the first beat and won the race. The third and final race saw us dominate from the start to claim 3rd place.
Video of Garth Ellingham on Waka Racing at the GKSS Spring Cup:
We had a really hard day at the office. We were starting fantastically, probably covered a little bit tight for the conditions early on in the day, and really sailed well to beat Stefan for third place. A regatta we can take some good lessons away from and make sure the same mistakes don’t happen again.
Waka Racing would like to thank our main sponsor Tax Management NZ and all the support we receive from the RNZYS, Frontend, Zhik , Wells and Co, PredictWind and Devine Consultants.
Waka Racing
