BNP Paribas Match Racing International 2012 - Backe victorious

by RHKYC Media/Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 14 May 2012 It was a good day on the water yesterday, and all the round robins were completed on schedule, with proceedings wrapping up in the sort of bright sunshine that makes Hong Kong harbour really shine. But...

After an overnight wind shift of 180 degrees, conditions today for the semis and finals of the BNP Paribas Match Racing International Regatta finals did not look promising, with a torrential downpour greeting RO Inge Strompf-Jepsen as she made her way out from RHKYC into Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour to check out the breeze and select the race area.

Once the rain had passed, the breeze struggled to get back above 5 knots. However Strompf-Jepsen laid her course a little further east than the previous two days and decided to get proceedings underway in 7 knots. The first two matches got away without difficulty, but by the time match 3 was approaching their first windward rounding, the breeze had died completely, leaving the boats stranded. Strompf-Jepsen made a quick decision to raise the N flag and wait out the quiet patch. Someone muttered, 'typical Hong Kong match racing conditions,' but it was spoken too soon.

At 1200hrs the RO was on the verge of sending the boats back to shore keep them out of the noonday heat when, literally as she dropped the AP in preparation for AP over H, she spotted breeze coming through the harbour giving 9 knots at the start line.

The finals were back on in a big way, with the breeze holding and gusting up to 19 knots.

The winners of the semifinals were the first boats to register two wins, and Peter Backe managed to subdue Morten Jakobsen in two matches, giving his team a break before the finals. Vladimir Lipavsky had to work a little harder, with a blown spinnaker halyard giving the second match to Somerville and taking the semi to a third match. Some spare parts coupled with a Russian at the top of the mast sorted out the hitch, and Lipavsky won the third match emphatically to book his place in the final.

After a hiatus during which the draw of boats for the finals was effected, the round robin for 5th to 8th places continued as one match in each flight, with Balladares emerging top of the table thanks to a match-winning windshift, and running out with three wins for the day, ahead of Kaye, Mead and Toya.

With a huge rain belt approaching Hong Kong from the west - bringing breeze, but not rain, to the racecourse - the breeze was constantly shifting, and several adjustments were made to the ODM and to W2 and W3 to ensure the competitors could not lay the windward mark from the start. Somerville polished off Jakobsen in two matches to claim 3rd place.

Backe took the first match in the final against Lipavsky after the mother of all kite hoists allowed him to accelerate away from a a close rounding at the last top mark, and almost cruise down to the finish. In the second match, Backe looked to have wiped off Lipavsky when the two boats ran into traffic left over from one of the lower-placings matches, but the move spun the Russians off to the right and into stronger breeze. Score one to Lipavsky.

In the third match, which started in 18 knots, Lipavsky seemed to be well ahead until a less-than-smooth kite drop at the leeward mark allowed Backe to go right and claw back the lead to make it 2-1.

The fourth match was the closest sailing seen all weekend, with plenty of feisty pre-start action. A tacking duel in 19kts of breeze up the first beat left Backe on Lipavsky's windward hip, from where he sailed the Russians well past the layline before nipping smartly back to take the lead and defend it successfully all the way to the finish.

At a spirited prizegiving the International Umpiring team of Marianne Middelthon, Masaaki Tanaka, Tom Sheppard and Tony Lu, together with their assistants, were thanked long and hard for their time and efforts on the course, while a special cheer was reserved for Inge Strompf-Jepsen, RO for both this event and the recent BNP Paribas Hong Kong Nationals.

BNP Paribas Match Racing International Regatta – Final Results
Place Wins Skipper
1 11 Peter Backe (SWE)
2 7 Vladimir Lipavsky (RUS)
3 8 Tim Somerville (AUS)
4 5 Morten Jackobsen (THA)
5 5 Ridgely Balladares (PHI)
6 5 Marty Kaye (HKG)
7 3 Laurence Mead (GBR)
8 1 Toshio Toya (JPN)