Thursday 29 January 2009

Warren Jones Regatta Report from Panama Jack Racing

by Garth Ellingham

After two very long days of racing on Perth's Swan River, we are more than half-way through the Warren Jones regatta.

After day one we were very happy with one narrow loss to fellow RNZYS team Ruben Corbert, where we were penalised on the finish line. We had a couple of very close races but our experience and boat handling pulled us through.

Today saw us come up against the local boy Keith Swinton first up, who was undefeated. We knew we had to be on form and we were with us having a fantastic pre start with us coming off the line ahead with a penalty on him. We rounded the top mark first with him close behind and gybe setting. This proved to be the right call as at the bottom he just got bouy room on us. We sailed the next beat well and caught right up, gaining the starboard side. Tacking back on a good shift we came at him fast making him tack and also causing him to infringe by tacking to close. Another penalty for him, forced him to take one immediatly and we won comfortably from there. Great race and a good win for the team.

The next race we lost to Evan Walker in another very close race until our spinnaker halyard broke on the last leg. We were a little gutted but stayed focused. We went on to win the rest of our races for the day, but not with ease as we beat Robby Gibs by only a few centimetres.

Great day in all but some tough ones for the boys tomorrow to finish off the round strong!!

We'd also like to that thank Stefan Goldwater from Widex and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron for all their support.

Panama Jack Racing

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