CMRC Autumn Open A win to Seah Chin Yew

by Chicago Match Race Center on 11 Sep 2011

Seah and Team Zoke Kiwi Match - CMRC Autumn Open A Chicago Match Race Center

With conditions a far cry from yesterday's chop and varying winds, today's final day of the CMRC Autumn Open A event was a nail-biting day of comebacks and fallouts, with the Hong Kong-Kiwi team led by skipper Seah Chin Yew emerging on top of the field of 10 teams from 5 nations in this Grade 3 event. Seah raced with Laurie Jury Logan Fraser and Michael Edmonds, who themselves are on a winning streak after capturing last week's 4-event US Grand Slam Series title.

In today's Quarter, Semi and Final stages raced in moderate, consistent breezes, the results of yesterday's Round Robin were completely re-shuffled, with teams like Brad Funk's falling from their second place spot into fourth and teams like Seah coming from fifth place to climb all the way to the top.

It started for Funk early in the day, where Sharon Ferris-Choat and her team displayed they had learned the boats and were able to give Funk and his team a run for their money in the Quarter Finals. The teams split wins in the first two matches resulting in a must-win for Funk to make it into the Semi's. Funk eventually prevailed under pressure to defeat the Canadian team in the deciding match, an impressive feat for this Florida-based aspiring Laser Olympian racing only his third-ever match race event.

Like Choat, Jakub Pawluk and his team from Poland also sailed much faster today in the light breeze, even taking a surprising win from Round Robin leader Maggie Shea in the Semi-Finals. Yesterday was the team's first day sailing together as well as their first time in the CMRC's TOM 28's. Given this, Pawluk was pleased with his team's results, especially being able to survive to make it to the Final Four. 'Today we just meshed much better,' he said, 'and so I feel much better going into tomorrow's B event.'

Like Pawluk, Funk's march to the Final also ended in the Semi's as he faced Team Zoke who found their stride today. We were very eager for creating a situation with too much time to spare. This backfired and gave us a double yellow penalty in the prestart,' Funk admitted. But if not for just a few short feet at the finish of the third and deciding match, it could have been Funk rather than Seah in the Final. Funk tried to burn the penalty at the finish, but Seah was too close on his heels and passed him during his penalty turn.

But the match that dominated the conversation on and off the course was the first match of the Finals between Shea and Seah. Seah had earned a penalty at the top of the course, but retained a lead of two lengths on the final run. Deciding that there was not enough of a lead to complete a penalty turn on the line and still finish ahead, Seah began to slow to set a trap for Shea.

It's from here there are varied perspectives on what occurred next and the appropriate rules to apply, as a flurry of whistles and flags erupted the pair engaged, ending in two penalties for Shea and only one for Seah, resulting in the Hong Kong team crossing the line penalty-free to take the first point in the first-to-two point series.

Shea then came back with a vengeance and was able to pull off a bold steel-balls maneuver in the pre-start to take control get ahead of Seah off the start. Seah appeared to have more speed, but Shea was able to fend off Team Zoke and keep their lead throughout the race despite an intense gybing duel on the final leg.

Now tied, the last deciding match looked like it could be a repeat of the fiery Match 1, with Seah once again earning a penalty but retaining the lead. However, the teams split on the second upwind leg, Seah trying deep left and while Shea split right, with Seah finding more pressure and gaining enough lead to do their turn, cross the finish ahead, and take the title.

Joining us tomorrow for the Autumn Open B Event are British Olympic hopeful Lucy Macgregor, Shawn Bennett and CMRC founder Don Wilson. Macgregor and Bennett are using this event to tune up for the Nation's Cup Grade 1 in Sheboygan, WI next week.

Races are due to start at 9AM tomorrow weather pending.