A close pre-start for BlackMatch Racing. Image copyright Gareth Cooke/Subzero Images.
by David Swete
Going into the day with a 2 nil advantage and only needing a single victory to reach the semi final, we faced a fired up Paolo Cian who came out fighting, managing 3 straight victories in the very light and shifty conditions. It was a complete turnaround with perhaps the only solace from our defeat being the fact that Paolo then went on to defeat last weeks Germany Match Cup Champion Ben Ainslie, 3 nil in their semi final match up.
It was an incredibly disappointing day and our major downfall was our starts, being over the start line in the first two matches while getting a penalty in the start of the deciding match definitely did not help our cause. We simply didn’t sail how we know we can and the talented Italian team pounced on every opportunity, managing to stage a miraculous but well deserved victory.
Paolo’s come back today has secured him a spot in the Final of the Korea Match Cup, while joining him will be last years runner up Ian Williams, who downed Torvar Mirsky in the quarter finals and Bjorn Hansen in the semis on his way to the final.
Currently lying in 5th we have an extremely tough task ahead of us to keep this position, with the unenviable task of racing the legendary Peter Gilmour, Mathieu Richard and Torvar Mirsky for the 5th to 8th placings.
It has been a roller coaster ride here in Korea for BlackMatch Racing, this is perhaps the hardest defeat we have ever had to swallow especially after winning the round robin and we are really looking forward to bouncing back at our next event, Portugal Match Cup in a fortnight.
BlackMatch would like to again thank their sponsors FedEx Express and Line 7 New Zealand. We would also like to say a special thank you to David Ross from Fedex Express and to Nigel Smith and Debbie Fowler who flew here from Singapore to support us throughout the week, it was great to have such an enthusiastic fan club and such a shame we couldn’t quite bring it home for them. We would also like to thank our yacht club the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Emirates Team New Zealand.
BlackMatch Racing
World Match Racing Tour
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