WMRT Match Race Germany - Competition hots up for Yanmar Racing
by Mark Chisnell on 26 May 2012
Match Race Germany 2012 Andrew Carter/WMRT
At Match Race Germany, it was a long, tough day and while Yanmar Racing slipped off the podium to fifth, they are still almost certain to progress to the quarter finals of the first event on the 2012 Alpari World Match Racing Tour.
After yesterday’s disappointing conditions, when most of the excitement came from the late-afternoon thunder and lightning, Lake Constance turned it on for the second day of racing. The breeze shifted gears up to 15-16 knots at times, but was never solid, remaining puffy and very challenging for the teams.
It was almost a straight sweep for Yanmar Racing’s afternoon qualifying session, rattling off two quick wins in succession, after dominating starts against Poland’s Karol Jablonski, and the flying Finn, Staffan Lindberg. Bowman, Kazuhiko Sofuku (JPN) commented, ‘We had a good start against Jablonski and were in a controlling position, they kept coming at us all the way round but we never lost control. Then it was Lindberg, and we had another good start to leeward, we wanted the left side and we got it, we got the better breeze we expected and again we led all the way round.’
It was a strong recovery from a poor return on their morning qualifying session, Sofuku explained, ‘We went out to practice, but we got too involved in it and didn’t hear the warning signal for our first race against Phil Robertson, so we were late at the start and that was really it, a bad start to the day. And then in the next race against Eric Monnin I must put my hand up, it was my fault that I didn’t keep us back from the start line, and we crossed early. So that cost us the race and gave us two losses in the first session, but we learned from it.’
And so with one race left before the end of the second day of qualifying, Yanmar Racing came up against Joachim Aschenbrenner of Denmark. A small error of timing meant Sofuku and his team mates handed a controlling position to Aschenbrenner off the start line, and the young Dane made the most of it, taking the first leg and leading from there.
Sofuku summed up their day, ‘Conditions were challenging and really interesting, and overall we made quite a few mistakes but it will make us stronger, we learnt a lot today and talked about it afterwards and figured out what we can do better. That’s all I’m worried about, I’m not counting the score yet, I take it one race, one start, one mark rounding at a time. Everything else follows from doing those things well.’
The result leaves Yanmar Racing on four wins and four losses, and in fifth position on the leaderboard. The qualifying system rewards six wins with a guaranteed place in the next round, but it takes some very unusual circumstances and a multiple-tie for five not to be enough to go forward – so Yanmar Racing must win at least one, and preferably two from their final three races to make the quarter finals.
Racing ended at flight sixteen, with six more to race to complete the qualifying round tomorrow. Yanmar Racing will be back in action for the final three flights, against WMRT Tour Card holders Bjorn Hansen, then fellow Western Australian Keith Swinton and finally New Zealand’s Laurie Jury.
Match Race Germany, the first event on this year’s Tour is held on Lake Constance, at Langenargen in Germany, and runs from the 23rd to 28th May.
|
Qualifying session Qualifying Session MRG
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PAM
|
PR
|
LJ
|
EM
|
PG
|
KJ
|
KS
|
SF
|
SL
|
JA
|
BH
|
JEA
|
Pts
|
Pl
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Pierre-Antoine Morvan
Vannes Agglo
Sailing Team
|
|
1
|
N/A
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
N/A
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
N/A
|
1
|
7
|
1
|
|
Phil Robertson
WAKA Racing
Team
|
0
|
|
N/A
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
N/A
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
N/A
|
1
|
7
|
2
|
|
Laurie Jury
Zoke Kiwi
Match
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
|
1
|
N/A
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
6
|
3
|
|
Eric Monnin
Oklays Corum
Sailing Team
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
|
1
|
N/A
|
1
|
1
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
1
|
1
|
5
|
4
|
|
Peter Gilmour
YANMAR Racing
|
0
|
0
|
N/A
|
0
|
|
1
|
N/A
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
N/A
|
1
|
4
|
5
|
|
Karol
Jablonski
Jablonski
Sailing Team
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
N/A
|
0
|
|
1
|
N/A
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
N/A
|
4
|
6
|
|
Keith Swinton
Black Swan
Racing
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
0
|
0
|
N/A
|
0
|
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
4
|
7
|
|
Simone Ferrarese
Ferrarese
Racing Team
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
N/A
|
1
|
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
1
|
1
|
3
|
8
|
|
Staffan
Lindberg
Alandia
Sailing Team
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
N/A
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
N/A
|
|
1
|
0
|
N/A
|
3
|
9
|
|
Joachim
Aschenbrenner
Team Trifork
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
N/A
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
N/A
|
0
|
|
1
|
N/A
|
3
|
10
|
|
Björn Hansen
Mekonomen
Sailing Team
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
0
|
0
|
N/A
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
|
1
|
2
|
11
|
|
Jan-Eike
Andresen
NRV Team
Hamburg
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
N/A
|
0
|
0
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
0
|
|
0
|
12
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WMRT website
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