DBS Marina Bay Cup – Day 2

by Panos Marinopoulos on 18 Sep 2016 Shifty conditions proved tricky for organisers and racers alike as they had to wait for the wind to pick up on the second day of racing at the DBS Marina Bay Cup. However, when things eventually picked up four hours after the original schedule start time, Team Philippines continued their domination from day one, winning all their races and are looking good to defend their title.

Just three flights were completed today with some teams unable to make it on the water. Team Philippines lead the standings with five wins in five races followed by the men Singapore Combined University Team with a 4-1 win-loss record. Nothing is set in stone, however, as a few teams are yet to complete the round robin matches including world number 17th Jeremy Koo’s team.

Team Philippines had to work hard today as Team MB Sailing pushed them all the way in their second match of the day. Having collected a penalty pre-race, the side led by Joe Howe at the helm did not let their heads drop and matched the SEA Games gold medallist throughout the race. Team Philippines was just ahead of their local rivals in crossing the finish line thanks to the penalty turn Team MB Sailing needed to perform.

“My crew and I really enjoyed ourselves when racing against the defending champions and are super happy with our performance,” said Joe Howe. “Just when we were racing, the wind picked up and we managed to match them move for move in a good breeze. If we did not have the penalty, it would have been even closer.”

“We beat the Australians (Team Alpha Racing) yesterday and together with this race today, these are the highlights of the regatta so far. I hope we would be able to pick up another big scalp tomorrow and that would make my regatta.”

The men’s Singapore Combined University Team helmed by Clement Lim did well on the second day as well. They won all three of their matches today to finish the day perfect, beating Malaysian Team RSYC-DNN, the women’s Singapore Combined University Team and Team Hanuman from Thailand. They needed to come from behind to beat Team Hanuman, keeping close before overtaking them midway through the match.

“Sailing at this Marina is always challenging but my team did a good job to finding the patches of win to move ahead,” said the year three business student from the Singapore Management University. “We made clean starts to our first two races and just covered them but the third race we needed to stick close to them.”

They currently lie in second after nine completed flights out of the 14 in the round robin.
“It will be another hard day of racing tomorrow and I hope we will continue our form to finish on the podium.”

The DBS Marina Bay Cup is an annual match racing competition using a fleet of SM40 held from 15th-18th September 2016 at the Marina Bay coinciding with the Formula One weekend. This year’s edition sees 8 teams battling it out with competitors coming from around the region including Australia, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.