Intense battles and a win... Match Race Thailand Cup 1

by Morten Jakobsen on 6 Jun 2010 Match Race Thailand Cup 1. Intense battles and a win...

Loud applause from the numerous spectators and fellow competitors was the accompaniment, when Jon Eriksson and his strong team consisting of Till Ahnert, Grzegorz Florkow, and Alex Samaras crossed the finish line just 30 meters from the beach bar of the Royal Varuna Yacht Club.

The background for this event is clear: There are now several high-profile match racing events in the region for the mostly professional sailors on the World Match Race Tour - Malaysia, Korea, Vietnam - as well as the Louis Vuitton Trophy, coming soon in Hong Kong. Locally we are lacking match racing events, where teams can perfect their skills and new teams/sailors can be introduced to this exciting yachting discipline.

Winning the key races of the round robin against Christopher Lim and Morten Jakobsen, Jon stamped his authority on the first ever Match Race held by the RVYC. He was extremely pleased to have gained a very useful 600 points towards improving his position on the ISAF world ranking Match Race list, but even more excited to have taken part in likely the first ever Match Race event in Thailand.

The key to the Finnish skipper Jon's success was his lethally effective start in race two against Morten Jakobsen. He managed to squeeze off the entry of the start line by closing the gap between his boat the Committee boat. This forced Morten to do an extra round with only 15 seconds left on the clock. Result: Game over. In race 7, which decided the winner, Jon used his substantial experience to dominate Christopher Lim; performing six 360's before the start left Chris so dizzy that Jon could break off and take a reasonable lead over the start line. Lim and his team's boat speed was of little use when they were forced to sail most of the upwind leg in the disturbed air behind Jon's sails.

In the race that decided second and third places, everything was determined at the top mark. Lim launched an unexpected attack which afterwards caused a failed spinnaker hoist by Team Jakobsen, allowing Lim's team to capture second place overall for the event. Afterwards Jakobsen's team agreed that the only thing that went wrong in that hoist was 'everything'.

The teams of Neil Semple and Kevin Whitcraft were pleased to know that the slate is wiped clean at the end of the day, and they have equal chances at the start of Cup 2 beginning tomorrow morning, Sunday June 6th.