BlackMatch Reports from the Korea Match Racing Cup

by BlackMatch Racing Mrdia on 12 Jun 2008
BlackMatch reports from the opening of the Korea Match Racing Cup:

Hi all from BlackMatch on the opening day of racing here in Korea,

We are currently competing in the Korea Match Cup World Tour Event, this is the 3rd stage of the World Match Racing Tour 2008 and with 6 of the top 10 teams in the world competing here, the inaugural Korea event is sure to be a great spectacle.

The media surrounding this event is unbelievable, matches will be streaming live on www.sail.tv/ and the onboard cameramen will be getting close up shots from the heat of battle, along with each skipper wearing a microphone to really bring the action alive. Coverage will also be made available to every continent through a combination of live broadcasts and highlights shows, with broadcasts stretching throughout Asia, Europe, Africa and Australasia, including Sky Sports NZ, Showtime Middle East, Eurosport Asia and others.

Today we were treated to a magnificent opening ceremony that took in the colourful Korean culture. The public support was amazing, with 10,000 people turning out to check out the purpose built venue and take in some of the action on the water, the specially designed Bakewell White 36's built here in Korea, providing some very exciting racing.

For this regatta we have our normal crew of Adam, Dave, Tom and Nick, but we also welcome aboard Tony Rae from Team New Zealand, who will be doing mainsheet for us. Tony has won the Auld Mug twice with Team New Zealand, raced in 7 America's Cups and was part of Sir Peter Blakes Steinlager 2 Whitbread campaign that won every leg in the Round the World Race.

We completed 5 races today and managed to gain 2 wins against World #1 Mathieu Richard and the local team skippered by Lim Seung Chul. We are feeling very competitive here in Korea and our first goal will be to make the top 8 quarter final after the first round robin. We had losses today against Jesper Radich, Sebastian Col and Bjorn Hansen.

Our loss against Bjorn was very unfortunate, after leading for the majority of the race we found ourselves with a four boat length advantage going into the final downwind. On rounding the top mark we gybe set for better wind pressure, Bjorn came around the top mark already in the better breeze and in the shifty conditions he overhauled us on the run to the finish. We know what we have to do in our remaining 6 races of the round robin and will be looking to step up our game tomorrow, vying for that quarter final berth.

A special thank you to our sponsors, FedEx Express, Ross Munro from Line 7 and Waiwera Infinity, their ongoing support is making this opportunity possible for the BlackMatch boys. To the RNZYS and everyone else thank you for your support and we look forward to a big day on the water tomorrow.

BlackMatch Racing