'on the edge': Ian Williams pushes the limit in the trying conditions in Germany. Image copyright Richard Walch/Match Race Germany.
by David Swete
The third day of racing was sailed in extremely blustery conditions. Gusts often over 25 knots made for some very exciting action on the water and our day ended by missing out on the quarterfinals by one point.
With the task set of beating at least two of our competitors today, we could only manage a win against the world number 1 Sebastian Col, while we lost out to Torvar Mirsky and the defending Match Race Germany Champion, Damien Iehl. Qualifying directly for the semi-finals were the legendary Peter Gilmour and Frenchman Mathieu Richard, who were top of the table, while left to fight it out in the quarterfinals were Francesco Bruni, Ben Ainslie, Damien Iehl and Ian Williams; Ben and Damien scraping through with one more win then us.
Our win against Sebastian came after we got a great start, an incident at the pin end of the start line saw the Frenchman handed a red flag penalty which he had to take immediately after the start and we sailed away to victory. Our losses today came on the race track after gaining good starts, with Torvar we caught up to the match in front and were severely disadvantaged while the Australian gained enough of an edge to take the victory. Against Iehl we had the first cross off the start line but a few good wind shifts went the Frenchman’s way and he gained too big an advantage up the first leg for us to stage a comeback.
It was a shame to lose out at this regatta by such a narrow margin as we feel we have been extremely competitive this week but we are content with our 7th placing. Next week we travel to Korea for the 3rd World Tour Event of the year and we are now focusing on that, but we would like to wish the remaining teams the best of luck for the remainder of this regatta.
BlackMatch would like to again thank their sponsors FedEx Express and Line 7 New Zealand. We would also like to thank our yacht club the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Emirates Team New Zealand. Also a special mention to Ross and Jo Green who supported us in Langenargan throughout the week, a shame we couldn’t quite make the cut but great to have some support from home.
Quarter Final Results
(after 4 matches)
Damien Iehl (FRA) French Team 1-1
Francesco Bruni (ITA) Team Joe Fly 1-1
Ian Williams (GBR) Bahrain Team Pindar 1.25 - 0
Ben Ainslie (GBR) Team Origin 0- 2
Round Robin Results
1st Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Team
2nd Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing
3rd Francesco Bruni (ITA) Team Joe Fly
4th Ian Williams (GBR) Bahrain Team Pindar
5th Ben Ainslie (GBR) Team Origin
6th Damien Iehl (FRA) French Team
7th Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing
8th Sébastien Col (FRA) French Team/K-Challenge
9th Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Team Onboard
10th Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team
11th Eric Monnin (SUI) Team Search.ch
12th Carsten Kemmling (GER)
BlackMatch Racing
World Match Racing Tour
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