World Match Racing Tour Fremantle – Wheelies on Water
by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 4 Mar 2016
Wheelie-whee! WMRT Fremantle 2016. Guy Nowell
http://www.guynowell.com
Day 3 of the six-day World Match Racing Tour inaugural regatta in the new M32 catamarans, and the plan was for some Pro-Am and sponsors’ racing in the lighter morning breeze, and then to finish off the qualifying fleet racing in the afternoon when the pressure had built.
Instead of a series of round robin races, the new WMRT format uses fleet races (20 skippers, four groups of five) as qualifiers, with the last boat in each group eliminated after seven races and the remainder going through to a match racing knockout series that starts with 16 boats.
Clean clear sunshine and proper ‘Blue’ Australian skies made Bather’s Bay absolutely picture perfect for the morning’s racing, and then the serious stuff began. The breeze settled in at around the 16kts mark, but with a ferociously short and steep chop that put an even greater premium on gybing and tacking manoeuvres than the last two days. Cats don’t tack quickly (we remember that from Sailing 101), and if you get stopped in the turn then the opposition can sail past all too easily. M32 catamarans weigh only 500kg, which means that they have only two speeds: crazy fast, and dead stop.
Current WMRT Champion Ian Williams (GBR) went into the afternoon’s races carrying three bullets from Wednesday, and obviously looking for some more wins. But some equipment problems with the furling gennaker pushed the GAC Pindar team down the order for the day, although still holding an overall lead by the end of racing. ‘Interesting’ performances of the day came from Nicola Sehested (DEN) and Steven Thomas (AUS) who opted to sail downwind with both daggerboards ‘down’ in an attempt to stabilise the boat in the vicious chop. Powerful lift off the foils made the boats rear up like rodeo bulls, providing some heart-stopping moments for both the spectators on the beach and the ever-attentive photographers in search of drama - as if there wasn’t enough, with the boats tearing away from the start line at speeds in excess of 25kts. Sailing M32s in these conditions is not for the faint hearted.
After three races, some equipment problems with Ian Williams’ boom forced abandonment of further racing. Tomorrow’s racing will start the knockout match racing stage of the regatta, two-boat racing; first to two wins, wins. The high speed close calls and the heavy traffic at the rounding gates will be missed, but of course there will be no change to the exhilarating spectacle of an amped-up M32 in fast forward mode. Traditionalists used to the pre-start dogfight and considered manoeuvres of a match race in monohulls will be watching carefully. The huge speeds and lesser maneuverability of the multihulls is going to make the racing completely different. This, we can only wait and see.
Standing by on 72.
Starters for the knockout series:
Group A
Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar
Nicola Sehested (DEN) Trefor Match Racing
Steven Thomas (AUS) Royal Perth YC
Evan Walker (AUS) KA Match, CYCA
(Eliminated: Sally Barkow (USA) Team Magenta 32)
Group B
Taylor Canfield (ISV) US One
Mattias Rahm (SWE) Rahm Racing
Murray Jones (AUS) Full Bants Racing
Chris Steele (NZL) 36 Below Racing
(Eliminated: Joachim Aschenbrenner (DEN) RDYC)
Group C
Phil Robertson (NZL) Waka Racing
Hans Wallen (SWE) Wallen Racing
Yann Guichard (FRA) Spindrift Racing
Matt Jerwood (AUS) Redline Racing
(Eliminated: Mark Whittington (AUS) S of PYC)
Group D
Niklas Dackhammer (SWE) Dackhammer Racing
Keith Swinton (AUS) Black Swan Racing
Eric Monnin (SUI) Albert Riele Swiss Team
Brett Burville (AUS) Edge Racing Team NYC/JBSC
(Eliminated: Sam Gilmour (AUS) Neptune Racing)
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