Black Swan Racing out of Argo Gold Cup

by Keith Swinton on 11 Oct 2009
Keith Swinton, Black Swan Racing reports on the team's Argo Gold Cup campaign.

'Having to win two of our final three group 1 round robin races to have any chance of progressing we came ready to fight hard.

Conditions on Hamilton Harbour were very blustery causing many boat break downs prior to our first match against reigning World Match Racing Tour Champion Ian Williams. Finally our match got underway in 18-20 knots of wind speed. Following some brief maneuvering in the pre-start area we went to complete our first gybe of the race and bang our boom broke clean in half. Unfortunately this meant the end of our race as breakdowns are not grounds for redress.

This meant out next race against Damien Iehl (French Match Racing Team) was a must win. We managed to get a great start however we picked up a late penalty giving Iehl the advantage. We managed to hold a narrow lead throughout the whole race and on the final leg we attacked Iehl to try and negate our penalty. We managed to do a reasonable job of this luffing Iehl and completing our turn coming out neck and neck with the French team. As both boats approached the finish line we had to look to the finish boat for the result Iehl took the win ending our chances at Gold Cup 2009.

Our final race of the regatta was against our local rival Torvar Mirsky (Mirsky Racng Team). Our races always seem to be very close which is enjoyable and not wanting to bow out of the regatta with a loss we pushed MRT hard in the pre-start gaining a penalty in the final seconds before crossing the start line. Both teams fought hard for the lead throughout the race with MRT rounding the final mark with a small lead. MRT worked hard to try and trap us by slowing down but we kept a safe distance and took our opportunity to pass when it presented, crossing the line ahead and taking a deserved win.

'Having done so well here last year it is very disappointing to be knocked out early this year. With this format it was really important to start the regatta well we didn't do this loosing some early matches against lower ranking opposition. This made is hard for us against the top teams' Keith Swinton.

We now head back to Europe to close out the season with our final regattas in Spain and Italy. '

Black Swan Racing would like to thank our following supporters:
South of Perth Yacht Club
Brian Kerman from Kerman Contracting
Brad Abbott from Abbotts PTY LTD Chartered Accountants
Musto Australia and Scott Olney from Musto Western Australia/Liquid Leisure Agencies
Philip Ericson from Trendmark Sweden Agent for Musto
The Ron Tough Yachting Foundation

Black Swan Racing - http://www.blackswanracing.blogspot.com/