Match Game

Roller Coaster

What a roller coaster our last day at The Nation's Cup was. We had an early morning start, and despite the cold weather and early wake up call we were fired up for a big day. We had quite an opportunity ahead of us, sailing in a semifinal with two teams ranked in the top ten and an America's Cup team. Mathieu Richard, skipper of the French team and ranked 7th in the world, chose us as his opponent. Part of our routine each day is to check over the entire boat for anything that has or could break, as well as tape anything that could possibly snag or come loose. We quickly found that our mainsheet cleat was breaking free, so we flew our white flag to signal that we had damage. The repair team decided it was too difficult to fix, so they sent us in and gave us a new boat. The repair guys were very nice enough to help us rig as quickly as possible, but the Race Committee was urgent to get the full schedule in (As I think we all were), and the sequence was started well before we were done rigging. When we entered for the pre-start we were rigged but far from ready, and it didn't take long to show. At the start both boats were over, but France was able to get back much quicker than us, and that was all it took to put us down 1 race to 0 in the "First to 2 points" series. I think the whole situation left us all a bit shell shocked, and in the next race we had another poor start, and before we new it, our shot at the finals was gone. Looking back on it, it feels like a switch was turned off when we were sent in to switch boats, and we were never able to turn it back on.

The only good news that came out of the semis was that we would be sailing the Russian team, ranked 6th in the world, in the "Petit Final" - the sail off for 3rd place. We had two great races against the Russians in the early rounds - we won the first, and lost the second by only feet - and we were again eager to take our shot at a top team. In the first race, we took the leeward position at the start and quickly took a lead up the first leg. Near the top mark, we had a close cross in which we forced them to tack to leeward of us, but it was a good tack, and the Russians quickly pinched us off and forced us to tack just shy of layline. As we approached the mark on port, we threw in a quick luff and then separated to leeward and tacked. The luff left the Russians somewhat stuck to try and pinch around the weather mark, while we tacked back and powered in with more speed. The Russians rounded just ahead, but not before hitting the mark. They maintained their lead on the first down wind leg, and on the 2nd upwind leg they did they're best to stretch as much of a lead as they could, in order to spin their penalty. At the top mark, they went for the turn, but the lead wasn't enough. We crossed just ahead and took about a 10 foot lead into the last mark. The last downwind leg was an absolute S@$* fight.

The Russians did everything they could to find a passing lane, but we kept them on their toes with a few quick jibes. When we reached our layline to the finish pin, we threw in one last jibe and weren't able to keep our spinnaker flying in the bad air of the Russians. We quickly went for a hard luff and missed hitting the Russians by only inches, when we stopped our turn. We threw our "Y-flag" to ask for the penalty, as the Russians had stopped turning to keep clear, and we felt we had to avoid them- but to our surprise, the Judges ruled a green flag (no penalty). They told us after the race that they believed we would have missed the Russians if we had kept turning. If there is one thing we have learned over the years it's that the view of the racer is often very different from the view of the umpires, and I don't really know who was right in this case. We'll just have to look forward to seeing the video footage later on. The Russians once again beat us by only feet. In the next race, the Russians took an early advantage on the left side of the course. Again the race was close all the way, but in the end it was the Russians prevailing by a boat-length. We finished the regatta in 4th place. The French went on to win easily.

It's always disappointing to lose out in the semifinals, but on the bright side, this was our first semifinal in a grade 1 event. I think we will be most proud of our 7 and 2 record in the second round robin, including the must win final race with the Swedes, after putting our backs up against the wall on the first day. It also looks like we will break into the top 30 on September 20th - a goal that we set for the end of the year! We still have at least two more big events to go, including the US Match Racing Championships and the Bermuda Gold Cup, which will be our first regatta on the World Match Racing Tour! It was also a great experience to represent our country in such a prestigious event.

Thanks to everyone who helped us get here! It's been a huge team effort and we couldn't have done it without any of you!

Until next time,

King Harbor Match Racing (USA)
lazer50000@aol.com

09/13/06