Warren Jones Regatta day 2 - True Blue Racing slips into second

by Jordan Reece on 2 Feb 2012 Warren Jones Regatta - True Blue Racing has slipped to second overall after the first two days of racing. After going through yesterday undefeated and at the top of the leaderboard, TBR didn't get the best start to the day losing their opening race against local and regatta favorite David Gilmour but bounced back to comfortably beat Jay Griffin and his team from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

The ‘local’ battle between the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron’s two teams of Reece and Chapman got off to an aggressive start with Reece flying the protest flag in the initial dial up. A tacking and gybing duel around the race course saw the boats always be within two lengths of each other but in the end Chapman took the win. This was the final flight of the first round robin which saw TBR slip to third behind both Gilmour and Chapman.

For TBR the day didn't go quite to plan but the good thing for the team was none of the top teams had everything go their way with Chapman and Gilmour losing more races than they would have liked. With the Australian teams dominating the first round robin it was Josh Junior from Wellington who became the boat to beat on day two winning nine from their 10 races to go from an overall position of seventh to third by the end of the second day. David Gilmour currently leads the event with 12 wins, True Blue Racing is breathing down their necks though with 11 wins and will race Gilmour first up again tomorrow morning. Josh Junior who came ashore as boat of the day climbed to 10 wins and third position, tied with David Chapman who has fallen down the leaderboard from second over night to now fourth.

'Today could have gone a little better but we are still in the hunt for the regatta and can reclaim the lead tomorrow if we continue to improve. We probably made some small tactical mistakes in the pre-start which just allowed the other teams to get the early jump and once they are ahead its always hard to pass anyone.' commented bowman Henry Kernot. The forecast over the final two days is not looking the best with light conditions expected tomorrow and gusty and strong winds on Friday for the finals. At this stage the aim is to still complete the second round robin, quarter finals, semi finals and finals. For TBR, they have already qualified for the quarter finals but will still be looking to top the leaderboard at the end of the second round robin.

Racing will continue tomorrow at 9:30am with True Blue Racing up against Gilmour and Griffin before a two flight break and one final match to close out the first round robin. Follow all the action live online.

True Blue Racing is a youth match racing team based out of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron in Sydney, Australia. The team is currently in seek of a new sponsor for the 2012 season, if you are interested in supporting the team please visit the teams website. Event website