Australia wins Blind Match Racing Championship

by David Staley on 28 May 2006 Australians Paul Borg and Kylie Forth have won the 2006 International Match Racing Championships for Blind People that finished in Porto Maurizio, Italy today.

Hosted by Circolo Velico Imperiese, the event used the innovative Homerus system of acoustic buoys with teams from Australia, Israel, Italy and Switzerland competing.

This is the second year in a row that Borg has claimed the trophy, having won last year sailing with countryman Don Scott. He was also runner up in 2003.

It was the first match racing event for his new crew and the first time they had sailed together. 20 year old Forth, from Royal Perth Yacht Club in Western Australia, lives 2,500 kilometres away from Borg and they had not trained together before arriving in Italy. The combination worked faultlessly, enabling the team to preserve a perfect record throughout the round robin.

Very light conditions meant that only two races were completed on the last day when finals series were scheduled. Whilst Borg & Forth did not race, it this allowed officials to break the tie for 2nd to 4th places.

The young combination from Israel of Eitam Izraeli and Nir Levi met the experienced team of Luigi Bertanza and Diego Chiapello (ITA) in the first sail off. Despite incurring a penalty in pre-start manoeuvres, the Israelis out sailed the Italians and claimed a medal position. In the sail off against Alberto Prudenzano and Alessandro Malapiero (ITA), the Israelis were outclassed from start to finish.

The 2005 event was the first time that Israel had become involved in blind match racing, when the young helmsman Izraeli sailed as crew. It is a credit to his sailing ability, along with the support of coach Zvika Ben David and his team, that they have so quickly risen to the medals.

Winning skipper Paul Borg said, 'It was disappointing that we were unable to sail today but that is the nature of sailing and the local winds. The competition was still very satisfying. The standard of competition this year has lifted considerably and it is tremendous to have so many younger sailors getting involved'.

Final standings:

Place Team Nation Win/Loss
1 Borg/Forth AUS 9/0
2 Prudenzano/Malapiero ITA 6/3
3 Izraeli/Levi ISR 6/3
4 Bertanza/Chiapello ITA 6/3
5 Gamba/Bardella ITA 5/4
6 Santoni/Ruisi ITA 5/4
7 Bersani/Bosio ITA 3/6
8 Parente/Sosio ITA 3/6
9 Wyder/Naf SUI 2/7
10 Landi/Carantini ITA 0/9