Nick Blackman prays to the gods for this to be a nice spinnaker drop! Image copyright Gareth Cooke/Subzero Images.
by David Swete
Yet another day of perfect sailing conditions here in Korea and we managed to find some form, winning 5 of our 6 remaining round robin races which saw us top of the table. We then took a 2 nil advantage in our quarterfinal match up against Italian Paolo Cian.
We had convincing wins over the top rated teams of Peter Gilmour, Ian Williams and Mathieu Richard, while taking out the battle of the kiwis defeating Laurie Jury and also Frenchman Phillipe Presti. Our loss of the day was against Swedish sailor Bjorn Hansen who gained a slight advantage in the pre-start and held on for a very close win, but our overall record of 8 wins 3 losses in the round robin was good enough to see us finish top of the table.
Our reward for winning the round robin was not only our choice of competitor, but as there are only 6 boats for the 8 quarterfinalists, we also had the choice of whether to start our quarterfinals in the late afternoon or delay it until tomorrow and let the other competitors battle it out. Well after 6 hard races we were still eager to keep racing so we chose to race bottom qualifier Paolo Cian from Italy and managed to set up for match point with two textbook wins.
Although we are 2 nil up on the Shosholoza America’s Cup Helmsman Paolo Cian, we are well aware of his capabilities and it will still be a very tough ask tomorrow to gain one more win and qualify for our second Korea Match Cup semi final. We are happy with our form so far here in Korea and are hoping we can keep improving to better our third placing last year.
Adam Minoprio finds a new way to relax betwen races at the Korea Match Cup 2009, Gyeonggi-do, Korea. Also known as modelling the new team gear to perfection for the photographer! Image copyright Gareth Cooke/Subzero Images.
If anyone is keen to see a live feed to the racing, there is full coverage (onboard cameras, virtual spectator and commentary) on this link http://www.vidzapper.net/live/iframes/matchcup2009/. Racing usually commences around 1pm NZT and runs till about 7pm NZT.
BlackMatch would like to again thank their sponsors FedEx Express and Line 7 New Zealand. For this regatta we have brand new crew gear supplied by Ross Munro from Line 7, it looks amazing and we would like to say a special thank you to Ross and his team. 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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