Sir Thomas Lipton Match Race - Warm up for Black Swan Racing

by Black Swan Racing on 11 Apr 2013 Black Swan Racing has completed their first regatta in 2013 - the Sir Thomas Lipton Match Race in Javea, Spain. The team used the event primarily as a warm up, prior to the start of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour in May. Despite being an ISAF Grade 2 regatta, the standard of competition was high, giving us a number of challenges throughout the regatta.

Joining us at the event replacing trimmers Ted Hackney and Jakob Gustafsson was Tudur Owen who formerly sailing with Mirsky Racing Team and coached the Russian Olympic Match Racing Team. We struggled a little in the early stages of the round robin losing a few races after holding the lead in most. The weather in Javea was a lot cooler than in previous years, a number of cold fronts passed overhead making the wind very unstable. Our losses were a combination of tactical errors and wind shifts, otherwise we began to get things together towards the end of the round robin beating fellow tour card holder Johnie Berntsson in the final race.

We qualified for the quarterfinals with five wins four losses. Our opponent Nicolai Sehsted from Denmark finished above us in the round robin and was sailing very well. We made a great start to the quarterfinal pushing Sehsted over the start line early. This however was by far the easiest race of the series as he pushed us all the way to a fifth and deciding race. We managed a good start in this race but Sehsted kept it close and managed to get a better bottom mark rounding than us. Half way up the last upwind we opted to duck behind Sehsted to get to the right side of the course, this turned out to be a winning move.

We progressed to the semi-final against Joachim Archenbrenner the other young Dane full of confidence.

Unfortunately we hit a stumbling block here. Despite winning both starts the conditions seemed to get the better of us and Archenbrenner seemed to be in the right place at the right time but also sailed well to take it 0-2 over us.

It was pleasing to finish the regatta on a high and taking third position over the Russians with a 2-1 win in the petit final. We managed to do the maximum amount of racing at the event, which was perfect for our preparations. We utilized having Tudur sailing with us as both a coach and trimmer. Having sailed so much together as a team it was really helpful to have an outsider come and give some impute. This feedback was very helpful which will be useful going forward.

We now have just under a month to the beginning of the World Tour in Germany. We’re planning a few training weekends in Sweden beginning this weekend to further prepare. We look forward to bringing you more news before the beginning of Match Race Germany.

Black Swan Racing: Keith Swinton, Olof Lundgren, Jakob Gustafsson, Ted Hackney and Ricky McGarvie. - 2013 World Match Racing Tour Card Holders