Adam Minoprio's BlackMatch undefeated at Warren Jones Memorial Regatta

[Source: Black Match] Today was the opening day of racing for the Warren Jones Memorial Regatta 2008. With the temperature reaching 36 degrees on a stunning Perth day we gained 7 wins from our 7 races, which was a great start to the regatta. We are one point clear of our kiwi counterpart Laurie Jurie and three points clear of World number 11 Torvar Mirsky, who is also the reigning Warren Jones Champion. We had some very close races today and have a big task ahead of us tomorrow as we are yet to race either Torvar or Laurie.

Our closest match of the day was against Stuart Pollard and his team from Sydney. We raced Stuart in the Hardy Cup semi final last year and he is always a very tough match. We came off the start line pretty evenly, but Stuart had the windward position and managed to hold us to the port hand lay line. We managed to make inroads down the first downwind leg but after a very high pressure spinnaker drop at the bottom mark Stu still had a slight advantage. A fierce tacking duel ensued up the next beat and BlackMatch came out with the advantage nearing the top of course. While rounding the top mark the Sydney team thought they had gained an overlap and thus had the inside right of way, the umpires deemed that they hadn't and Adam closed the gate nicely, Stuart received a penalty but still maintained his slight lead. The final run for the finish made for an interesting scenario, although we were trailing we did not want to catch up to the boat in front and give him an opportunity to gain a penalty back on us and exonerate himself, so the game of cat and mouse began with Stuart trying to slow himself down and set up a trap. We managed to keep a pretty safe distance from Stu and after a last ditch effort to trap us at the boat end of the finish line, we sailed around his bow and took the gun.

The format for this regatta is two round robins and the top 2 teams race each other in the final, with no semi finals it means that every race counts making a very hard fought regatta. We look forward to tomorrow but have 4 extremely tough races to round out the first round robin, fellow Kiwis Laurie Jury and Phil Robertson, Local talent Torvar Mirsky and John Back from Sweden.

Again a special thank you to our sponsors: FedEx Express, Line 7, Waiwera infinity and also to our yacht club the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, we will be doing our best to gain a few more wins tomorrow.