Knickerbocker Cup: Full Metal Jacket Report on Defeating Anna Tunnicliffe and Semis Against Waka Racing

by Will Tiller

The start of day three in the Knickerbocker Cup saw us racing against Anna Tunnicliffe in a first to three wins quarterfinals. We won the first race and were leading the second only to have it unexpectedly abandoned by the race committee. Following this Anna took two wins leaving the score at two to one in Anna’s favour and putting us in a do or die situation. In the fourth race we were trailing around the top but managed to roll Anna coming into the bottom mark and hold our lead until the finish. This put the score at two all with the winner of the next race advancing to the semi-finals. The final race was close all the way through and came down to a photo finish, with Full Metal Jacket crossing the line just in front.

After completing the quarterfinals the race committee managed to get in one flight of the semis, with our opponent being fellow Kiwi Phil Robertson. There was very little wind throughout this race, and again it was a matter of sailing to and staying in the pressure. After trailing around the first top mark by a reasonable distance we sailed well to continually close on Phil’s lead throughout the rest of the race until finally passing him within boat lengths of the finish. This leaves us on one win in a first to two semi finals to be completed tomorrow.

We would like to say thanks to SLAM, Aon New Zealand and The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

Full Metal Jacket Racing
Knickerbocker Cup