A "first" in match racing; use of "stone - paper - scissors" to determine choice of pre-start entry end (port/starboard)... Jesper Radich (on the right) defeats Pierre-Antoine Morvan's stone ("pierre" in French) with paper, to win his choice of entry for their first semi-final match on Sunday. Image copyright Match Extreme Team Morbihan.
by Nicolas Heintz, Match ETM (Extracts from their website in translation by SailRaceWin)
Match ETM explain the four-way tie on five wins count-back that saw them into the semi-finals. Damien Iehl had deafeted all three of the others, so was top of the foursome, Pierre-Antoine Morvan (PAM) had won against all of them but Iehl, and Monnin had beaten Chateau, while Chateau had not defeated any of the other three, so placed sixth overall. A very clear-cut count-back on this occasion.
Today the competitors were initially sent out in breezy conditions, with a reef in the main, heavy jib and no kite. The idea was to sail a second round robin.
The video shows what it was like on the windy waters of Marseille today (discussing that it didn't gust to more than 42 knots):
Match ETM were in the first start, but with three minutes to go, a big gust came through severly affecting their competitor, and racing was abandoned. Ashore, everyone agreed that the conditons were a bit "too much" for match racing today.
"Jesper Radich, as winner of the round robin, had the right to chose his opponent in the semi-finals and chose us (PAM, MatchETM) and we will make sure that we make him regret the choice tomorrow!", says Nicolas Heintz, from Match ETM.
And for the first time on the circuit the decision as to which side to enter was determined by stone-paper-scissors (pierre-feuille-ciseaux). After a first match drawn with "stone" / "stone", Radich won the second with "paper" (see image above). [Pierre-Antoine Morvan had kept to his "pierre".]
Match ETM
Y's Cup, YCPR, Marseille
