BlackMatch Racing wins - sponsor required!!

by Adam Minoprio on 3 Feb 2006 Adam Minoprio reports on the win by BlackMatch Racing in the Warren Jones Regatta:

Hey all

If you haven't heard yet, we won. The boys and I are stoked, the first regatta we have done as BlackMatch Racing and we have come out with a win. We think having a team name made all the difference, we just need a sponsor now!

We went into the final day second equal with Seve Jarvin and Graeme Sutherland and had Keith Swinton ahead by one win. The last day we had to race Seve Jarvin first, then Rob Scrienven, Murray Gordon, Keith Swinton and Graeme Sutherland.

The race against Seve was in the morning so the wind was lighter and shiftier, we won the start and lead the whole way round the track, the last down wind Seve picked up a nice shift and nearly passed us, we just managed to hold him off to take the win.

The race against Rob Scrienven we won the start again and lead the whole way to win.

We then had to race Murray Gordon, our start wasn't flash we were to windward on starboard, but the breeze was shifting left the whole way and the track was a left track. We ended up having to tack for clear air ending up on the wrong side of the changing pressure and getting too far behind to catch up.

We had two races left and had to win both of them to make finals, if we lost won we would of ended up racing off for 3rd and 4th. The race against Keith we won the start and lead the whole way to take the race, this was the same for the race against Graeme. As a crew we were functioning like clock work and sailing awesomely.

Winning the last two races put us in the finals as we won the round robbin with Keith Swinton Second and Graeme third and Seve fourth. Graeme and Seve raced off for third and fourth and Seve won 2-0 with a lot of action and penalties.

For our final with keith the wind was around 12 to 18 knots with the gusts coming from the left making it a left hand track.

The first race we dominated the start and covered Keith pushing him to the left lay as it was closest, this was a huge mistake as Keith got the huge lefts and ahead, we were right on his tail though and chased hard and tried to roll him on the down wind, he luffed and we broached and Keith bore off to sail to the bottom mark, then to make things worse our kite halyard came down.

We lost that race but did not let it get us down as there was still two races left. The next race we again won the start and got the left, we headed to the left and got the shift and took off to win the race comfortably. the last race was to be the decider, again we won the start and got the left and won the race.

As usual the Warren Jones Regatta was run perfectly, a big thanks must go out to all the guys on the organising committees and everyone involved in the regatta.

BlackMatch Racing would specially like to thank the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and SailNZ for their support and helping us get to this event.

Regards,
Adam and Team