Saturday 16 August 2008

BlackMatch at the Baltic Match Cup 2008, Helsinki, Finland

from Adam Minoprio

BlackMatch is currently competing in the Baltic Match Cup in Finland. It is a grade 2 event held in Helsinki on the Baltic Sea and unlike Qingdao, racing got underway today in a fantastic 15 knot breeze and near perfect match racing conditions. There are 12 teams racing here and with a line up that includes world #4 Bjorn Hansen, it is definitely going to be a tough regatta.

BlackMatch finished today with a record of 4 wins and 1 loss. The loss today came in a hard fought race against Australian and 2008 Hardy Cup Champion, Evan Walker. Evan and his team got a slight advantage off the start line and kept the slimmest of leads throughout the race to take the victory. BlackMatch lost to Evan in the Hardy Cup final earlier this year and today he again proved that he is a very talented sailor.

The regatta is being sailed in four man J-80 class boats. They are the same boats used for the Internationaux de France (won by Australian Torvar Mirsky) in France a fortnight ago but the BlackMatch team is now gaining confidence in how to handle the boats and looking forward to finishing the round robin off positively on 16th August.

BlackMatch would like to extend a special thank you to our sponsors FedEx Express and Ross Munro from Line 7, also to our yacht club the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. To our friends and family back home we also thank you for all of your support.

BlackMatch Racing

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