The Matador 2009 season according to skipper Guillermo Parada

2009 was a long and tough year for us on Matador.

After lying second at the Medcup for most of the season, we finished fourth.

Many things happened in between (I lost my mother during the Portimao regatta, and our bowman lost his father when we were flying to Cartagena) but, no excuses, we made a lot of mistakes, sailed poorly, and were beaten fair and straight by ETNZ, Quantum and Artemis.

We then looked at the Worlds as a perfect opportunity to get things back on track, we talked and learned about the mistakes we made and we were always confident in our team ability and in the speed of our Vrolijk design Matador, we just needed to put all things together.

Palma is a venue that we perfectly know, it suits our style, and we all feel there as at home.

Matador won the 3 TP52 events held at Palma (Palmavela , Copa del Rey and Worlds), so that speaks for itself.

Off we went into racing, and after a decent first day of sailing, we found ourselves DSQ in the second race, being the middle boat on a 3 boats incident.

We always felt that we were in the right, and we were able to reopen the hearing by bringing new evidence, to find out that the jury ratified their original decision, as they didn´t find a reason to change it.

We've been told that this was a very unusual case, and that a Q&A was being sent to ISAF to clarify it, as they couldn't tell us what we could have done differently not to be disqualified.

At this stage we were under a lot of pressure, as not only we needed to prove our innocence, but to keep sailing in a way to keep our chances open in case we were reinstated, not an easy thing to do.

After the abandoned costal race, we found that the Jury reinstated us on the second race, under rules 66 and 20.2

We were obviously very happy with this, as we kept fighting on the water and we were now 2nd overall going into the final day of racing.

The last day presented as challenger as ever, as the weather was very unstable, with small tornados developing over the mountains.


Quantum got the best start and took advantage of the left side to win the first race of the day.

We were not that lucky in the first beat and rounded in 5th, position that we held until the last run, when we made a good move to the left of the fleet to come back to third. Bribon was 4th and Artemis 5th.

At this stage and going into the final race, Bribon was leading from Quantum , and we were third overall, but Bribon had a protest from Artemis that was going to be held after racing.

We needed to win that race and have one boat in between us and Quantum to win the tie breaker.

We liked the right of the beat, so after a clean start , right we went.We used our good speed to take advantage of a right hand shift and led every mark of the race.

Quantum was middle fleet until the last run, when they played the right of the course and came back from 5th to 3rd, just 1.5 lenghts short of 2nd.

This was just enough for us to tie in points and win the tie breaker as we had same amount of firsts, but one more 3rd position.

We won the regatta on the last day on the water, nobody can argue with this , and hopefully ISAF will clarify the rules in order to avoid this happening again. Wining this regatta was a big accomplishment for us, a big life lesson to keep fighting until the very end and never let us down.

As a balance for the season, we won 4 out of the 8 TP 52 regattas of the year (the only ones together with ETNZ to win a TP52 regatta) and we reversed the trend of the last 2 Medcup events by winning the World Championship, so hopefully we can start building from there for the future.

We made it happen, on the water, and on the right way.

Something that we all feel very proud about.

AUDI Medcup - Cartagena Trophy - Day 2: Preview

Can it get worse than yesterday? Hopefully not but, unfortunately, the forecast isn't very promising either. The entire east coast of Spain will be affected by the front hanging over the Mediterranean for at least one day and we might have in store yet another long and tricky day. The official forecast from the AUDI Medcup organization calls for unstable and shifty winds, ranging from 2 to 10 knots in velocity and 60 to 240 degrees in direction.

After yesterday's botched attempt to hold at least one race, the TP52 fleet is scheduled to sail three races while the GP42's have less pressure since there racing starts today. With Emirates Team New Zealand holding a 52-point lead over the rest of the fleet, it is very probable the Med champion will be from the Pacific. The battle for the remaining 2 podium spots will be between Matador, Quantum, Artemis and, marginally, Bigamist.

Morning quotes:

Ray Davies, tactician on Emirates Team New Zealand: Yesterday I said we could have one or two races and in fact I think we could have gotten that first one. That was the only opportunity in the day to have a race, albeit a very shifty and difficult one, but still it would have been OK. Today the situation is similar to yesterday but a little bit better. We are in postponement ashore and I don't think we'll have any significant wind before 2pm but it is very tricky making predictions.

Highlights from the first day of the Cartagena Trophy. Cartagena, 15 September 2009. Video copyright AUDI Medcup

Guillermo Parada, helmsman on Matador: We have a 5-point lead over Artemis and Quantum and the feeling onboard Matador is good. Without any doubt, this year the circuit is very challenging and we have lost a lot of points halfway through the season when we tried to attack Emirates Team New Zealand. It was a risky tactic in order to win the Medcup but they showed to be more consistent and committed less errors than we did. As a result, we are now paying the price for it and in addition, in Portimao some issues unrelated to sailing, resulted in a bad outcome despite the effort we put.

Guillermo Parada

All these issues have now reduced the advantage we had over the rest of the fleet but we still feel confident. The boat is fast and this is an extremely difficult race course where you can't have a conservative sailing strategy. In my opinion, the best strategy to hold on to our second position overall, is to race well and win this regatta. You can't focus solely on these two boats, because if you do, one of them will escape and ruin you. As I said, we feel very confident. We have a good boat, we know we can sail well and finish the season in second place.

After that, the next stage will be the TP52 Worlds in October and then 2010 since we have the intention to continue in the Medcup circuit. In fact, next week we will launch a 52-foot yacht in Buenos Aires that will follow the new TP52 rule in order to take advantage of our summer and test as much as we can. The changes in the TP52 rule were much-needed, they are indeed a step ahead, they make the boats more modern and simply reflect what their owners had been claiming for some time. The most important issue will be to correctly manage the transition period between the two rules in order to avoid huge differences between the new boats. If we can achieve this, the final result will be better than expected.

I think the new TP52 rule has been conceived in order to reduce costs but at the end of the day, if one wants to spend a lot of money they will still do it. It will be possible to do a TP52 campaign for less money but that doesn't mean that the teams with the biggest budgets will necessarily reduce them!

As far as the newly-created Louis Vuitton World Series is concerned, as a sportsman I'm obviously very interested and it would be great for me to participate. But from being a personal wish to having a Matador team in the series, it's quite some way. We first have to see whether it makes sense to participate and whether we are able to set up the team for it. For 2009, it is impossible since we have already made our plans and have other races scheduled during the Nice regatta in November. For 2010 it is still too early to tell but I would like to at least consider the possibility of Matador taking part.

AUDI MedCup : Matador wins Alicante Trophy after nail biting last race

The Argentinean sailing war machine fired on all engines this afternoon in Alicante. A second place and a bullet in the day's two races as well a mediocre last race by both Emirates Team NZ and Quantum, gave the Alicante Trophy to the boat helmed Guillermo Parada.

Matador is the winner of the trophy with 36 points, followed by Artemis with 37, Emirates Team NZ with 38 and Quantum Racing with 40. Four boats separated by just 4 points guarantee a long, tough and close season.

The first race was simply an Oscar-winning performance by the winners of the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup. Emirates Team New Zealand led from start to finish despite the tough pressure put on by Matador and Quantum. Dean Barker got off the starting line with clear air on the pin end and the first part of the beat turned into a drag race against Quantum and Matador. Having a slight speed advantage, NZL-380 got on the lead and rounded the top mark 9 seconds ahead of Matador and 15 ahead of Quantum.

Neither of the two trailing boats was able to threaten Emirates Team New Zealand that, on the contrary, increased their lead by 5 seconds at each mark. Still, in the last run Matador was able to shorten the kiwi advantage, crossing the finish line a mere 10 seconds behind them. Quantum finished third close behind.

Guillermo Parada helms Matador to overall victory in the Alicante Trophy. Alicante, 17 May 2009. Photo copyright Jesús Renedo

After the end of the race, Emirates Team NZ were overall leaders, holding a 3-point margin over Quantum and a 4-point lead over Artemis and Matador. All they had to do was sail conservatively, keep clear and avoid trouble. Well, nothing of that took place. In pure Latin style, the Argentineans imposed themselves and left the other contestants no chance whatsoever.

Matador had a brilliant start on the pin end and started a drag race with the kiwis towards the left side of the course. The Argentineans came on top, rounding the top mark 6 second ahead of Pisco Sour. Vasco Vascotto's boat was the one to have opted for the furthest left edge of race track, a strategy that paid off. Artemis was close behind third.

On the other hand, Quantum, being the first of the leading boats to have tacked to the right, paid dearly their move and came into the 1st run eighth. From that point on, Matador kept their lead until the finish line while the New Zealanders and Quantum sailed poorly, finishing 7th and 6th respectively. On the other hand, Artemis continued their very consistent performance and finished second. They are also second overall, squeezed between Matador and Team NZ, with just three points separating the teams.

@Nico Martinez / AUDI MedCup

Guillermo Parada, helmsman Matador: "It was a great day for us. We learned a lot from the errors we committed throughout the week and made sure we didn't repeat them today. Everything went well today. We had two excellent starts, the boat had a very good speed with a little bit more of breeze, Francesco made some brilliant tactic calls and crew work was very smart.

I think the key to today's success were the two very good starts. We immediately got in the top 3 boats after each start and with our good boat speed we sailed very well. I have to repeat that everybody on the boat did an excellent job today and was very concentrated.

We knew in the morning that we did have a chance for first place and we were conscious it depended upon us and that we had to fight until the finish. This result clearly shows us, and the rest of the teams, that we are alive and that we will fight."

@Nico Martinez / AUDI Medcup

Russell Coutts, tactician on Artemis: "We are very happy with the overall result in the Alicante Trophy. Finishing second, just one point from the lead is very good result. We sailed well and we are very happy with our new boat in terms of performance.

Nevertheless, this is just the beginning of a long and tough season. Even if the number of boats is smaller this year compared to last year, the level has considerably increased and got much tougher."

@Chris Cameron / ETNZ

Ray Davies, tactician Emirates Team New Zealand: "We had a brilliant first race and led from start to finish. In the second race we were at a very good shape in the top mark, 4th, but down in both runs we lost places, two in the first run and another one in the second run. We have to work on our downwind sailing and on getting better speed in light airs.

Finishing just 2 points from the lead means that we are very, very close to the best teams here in the TP52 circuit. In the light and shifty conditions it's a little bit a roll of the dice so we have to work in our light air percentage gains. Overall, we are quite satisfied. In this very first regatta we wanted to survive and make sure we are in contagion. We feel we have to keep improving as the season goes on. We are very, very happy to be just two points from the lead. There is still a long way to go but of course people always expect the best from Emirates Team New Zealand."