Friday 8 October 2010

WMRT: Black Sheep Through Gate 1 in Bermuda


Black Sheep Racing take a trip to the beach in Bermuda. Image copyright Black Sheep Racing.

by Reuben Corbett

All three groups completed their respective flights this morning, deciding the first six quarter finalists. The repechage will begin shortly to decide the remaining two spots for the quarter finals.

Confirmed Quarter Finalists:
Torvar Mirsky (AUS)
Eric Monnin (SUI)
Taylor Canfield (USVI)
Johnnie Berntsson (SWE)
Jesper Radich (DEN)
Black Sheep Racing (NZL)
TBC
TBC

Repechage Teams:
Ben Ainslie (GBR)
Adam Minoprio (NZL)
Ian Williams (GBR)
Bjorn Hansen (SWE)
Phil Robertson (NZL)
Alvaro Marinho (POR)

The repechage includes a lot of the well established teams who have exceptional records so bets are on it will be a hum dinger. It includes last year’s finalists Ben Ainslie and Adam Minoprio so look for them to take charge.

The breeze today was light, puffy and shifty forming a challenging race area for all. No lead was too big and you were never out of the race until the finish was upon you. However, Jacob Pawluk from Poland pounced on a rookie error we made in the prestart to lead start to finish in our only race of the day. Black Sheep weren’t out though as we had done just enough in the previous days racing to progress straight to the quarter finals. We now wait to see what the pairings will be for the quarter finals.

Black Sheep Racing would like to take this opportunity to thank the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, friends and families for their support.

Black Sheep Racing is Nicolas Derberque, Brad Farrand, Tom Bentham and Reuben Corbett.

Note from SailRaceWin: This is a very under-stated report! Black Sheep Racing omit to mention that they were in the same round robin group as the ISAF #1 and #2 (Minoprio and Ainslie), who were the two finalists in the Argo Group Gold Cup in 2009. Both Minoprio and Ainslie are in the repechage, whereas Black Sheep Racing have qualified directly for the quartefinals.

Black Sheep Racing
World Match Racing Tour