BlackMatch Racing, and some members of Bahrain Team Pindar, relaxing in Portugal. Image copyright Wander Roberto.
by David Swete
Still very much in the hunt with a scorecard of 4 wins and 4 losses, it was an interesting second day of racing which saw us given a ‘Black Flag’ disqualification at the hands of the World Champion, Ian Williams.
It was yet another extremely light and shifty day here in Portugal where the race committee struggled to get a mere 6 races away. We were involved in 3 races and could only manage one win against Swedish sailor Bjorn Hansen, while we lost narrowly to Mathieu Richard and of course suffered a bad loss to Ian Williams.
In a seemingly standard pre-start where we felt like we were in control and pushing the Brit early toward the start line, we just got a little too close and were handed our first penalty. Following this incident we then failed to keep clear as they tacked onto starboard which meant we were handed a second penalty to be taken immediately after the start. After crossing the start line we then attempted to build speed before undertaking our penalty and the umpires rightfully deemed that we took too long, this resulted in a third penalty and a disqualification.
The other Kiwi team, WAKA Racing, competing at the Troia Portugal Match Cup 2009. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.
It wasn’t an ideal day for us today but despite the tough start to this event we are still very much in the competition and tomorrow we have three important matches to see if we will proceed through to the final 8. Our remaining matches are against fellow Kiwi Phil Robertson, local hope Alvaro Marinho and an in-form Philippe Presti.
BlackMatch would like to again thank their sponsors FedEx Express and Line 7 New Zealand, these two world renowned companies have stood by us and made this possible. We would also like to thank our yacht club the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Emirates Team New Zealand, as without their support we would not have this opportunity.
BlackMatch Racing
World Match Racing Tour
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