Adam Minoprio updates from Baltic Match Cup in Helsinki

Hi all from BlackMatch,

We are 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.

We finished today with a record of 4 wins and 1 loss. Our 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. We 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 that we sailed in France a fortnight ago but we are now getting confident that we are improving how we are handling the boats and looking forward to finishing the round robin off positively tomorrow.

We 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