Black Sheep Lead the Flock in Korea

by Reuben Corbett

Day two of the Hahn River International Match Race started with an unusual briefing where all classes other than ours were held ashore. This was due to heavy overnight rain, an outgoing tide and a partial release of the dam upstream which formed a fierce current. The organising authority was concerned for the safety of the smaller yachts as the current could potentially sweep them away. Today’s breeze was unlike yesterdays as we had light puffy patches with the odd solid spurt coupled with that ever increasing current.

We won all three of our races today but there was plenty of drama. The first race was clean, nice start, sailed for the pressure and stayed in phase to take the gun. In race two, again we had a good start but the breeze died out completely near the separator mark allowing the boats astern to catch up, however we kept our lead until the bottom mark. The Korean team took the lead at the bottom mark but they copped a penalty in doing so. We kept the game close and passed them moments before the finish, penalty still outstanding.

Race three was a top of the table clash, Australia vs New Zealand. After controlling the early exchanges in the prestart, Reuben misjudged the tidal effect in a dial up forcing contact from where we were rightly penalized. However, we kept control for the remainder of the prestart to shut the Aussies out at the start boat. Starting with a sizable margin we grew our lead to complete the penalty turn on the second beat and remain ahead to notch the win.

The race committee will no doubt plan to finish the round robin tomorrow and start the semi finals.

The team would like to thank the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, friends and family for their support. Thank you!

Black Sheep Racing in Korea is Reuben Corbett, Brad Farrand, Tom Bentham, Nicolas Derberque and James Sandall.

Black Sheep Racing