Adam Minoprio at the helm for BlackMatch Racing. Image copyright Subzero Images/WMRT.
by David Swete
Today was the opening day of racing at the Argo Group Gold Cup in Bermuda and with 2 wins from our two races to kick off our regatta, the team is off to a good start. This is the penultimate event on the World Tour and with a host of legendary past winners that include Kiwis Russell Coutts and Chris Dickson, we are hoping to go one better on our two second placings over the past two years. The Gold Cup is unique in that it is sailed in the beautiful classic International One Design Yachts that date back to the 1930’s and it also has a format unlike any other match racing event, which allows 24 teams to compete.
Teams are divided into 3 groups of 8 and after racing each other in a round robin, only the top 2 teams from each group proceed through to the quarterfinals. 3rd and 4th from each group are left to battle it out in a repechage series to decide the remaining two quarterfinalists while the bottom four from each group go home. Big names in our pool include Britain’s Ben Ainslie and the ever slippery Damien Iehl, but it was a fellow Kiwi who was turning heads today, with 23 year Reuben Corbett and his Black Sheep Racing Team blitzing both Ben and Damien, while also taking down Switzerland’s Eric Monnin to have a 3 nil scoreboard.
Kite trimming. Image copyright Subzero Images/WMRT.
Our second placing at the Argo Group Gold Cup last year was a vital turning point in our 2009 campaign and this year is no different, with a good result meaning we can draw level with the current World Tour leader Mathieu Richard. Although we were only involved in only two races today against arguably lesser experienced opposition in local 17 year old rising talent Lance Fraser and Poland’s Jakub Pawluk, Mathieu Richard looked very out of sorts losing out to the Woman’s World Match Racing Champion Lucy Macgregor and Canadian Terry McLaughlin, while only just scraping a win against match racing new comer Mike Buckley.
It is very early stages in the regatta and we are hoping to keep building on a solid start. Our first race in the morning is against a rampant Reuben Corbett and although we are enjoying seeing the young Kiwis doing well here in Bermuda, we will be doing our best to end his run and keep ours going.
We would again like to say a special thank you to our sponsors FedEx Express and Events Clothing/Line 7. Owen Rutter from Events Clothing has supplied us with new sailing gear this season, keeping the boys looking very sharp. The ongoing support of our sponsors is helping make this opportunity possible for the BlackMatch boys and we would also like to thank Emirates Team New Zealand and Steinlager Pure.
BlackMatch is Adam Minoprio, Tom Powrie, Nick Blackman and David Swete.
BlackMatch Racing
Argo Group Gold Cup
World Match Racing Tour
