WMRT- Match Race Germeany

[Guest]

The World Match Race World kicks off tomorrow night in Germany as they start by racing in the latest designed braveria racing tubs. Last year Waka Racing had their best result in Germany coming third and with the Waka team having just taken China Team to their highest individual race placing, can they do even better and win a tour event for the first time. Unlike Waka Racing KiwiMatch will be racing for the first time with a tour card and will be keen to show why they deserve to be on the tour. Stay tuned for more info as it comes.

[Guest]

Rivalry and a Point to Prove

 

While much of the pre-season focus has been on Williams’ bid to equal Gilmour’s record four titles, a national rivalry story has added extra spice to this year’s Championship race with Sweden, New Zealand and Australia each represented this year by two Tour Card Holders. Swedish sailing legend Magnus Holmberg recently raised this subplot after favouring Johnie Berntsson over Bjorn Hansen as his pick for the series. Responding to Holmberg’s belief that Berntsson is a stronger bet to win the 2012 Tour, Hansen said: “We want to be on the podium this year and we want to be the best Swedish match racing team. Are we good enough to beat Johnie [berntsson]? Definitely.”

 

Hansen admits his team feels they “have unfinished business” to tend to. Although victorious at the Korea Match Cup and a runner-up at Stena Match Cup Sweden, his Mekonomen Sailing Team’s 2011 season was marred by inconsistent form, something Hansen is intent on putting right in 2012: “We need to raise our ‘lower level’. When we weren’t on top form, we were losing too many matches. You need to also win ugly to become the Champion of this series.”

 

Phil Robertson is another Tour Card Holder who may well be feeling he has a point to prove after a tough opening season in 2011 and, with fellow Kiwi Laurie Jury now also holding a card, Robertson will also have to fight for the bragging rights back in New Zealand.

 

Another key subplot focuses on the challenge that awaits the crop of young sailors who have earned Tour Cards this season. Few would expect teams to compete at the top end of the leader board in their first season, but in Pierre-Antoine Morvan and Simone Ferrarese, Tour fans have been given an indication these two could be challenging the podium sooner rather than later.

 

Simone Ferrarese, the youngest Tour Card Holder, recently received a ringing endorsement from current Champion Ian Williams, who fully expects him to “make an impression on the Tour this year” following a semi-final appearance at the Congressional Cup in California. Ferrarese downplays this expectation but knows he can’t stay under the radar for long: “There is no expectation for us this year and I think that might work in our favour. We’re a young team and hopefully we can use our position as underdogs to take a few people by surprise.

 

“Once we’ve proved we can be consistently competitive at each event this season, we know that people will expect us to step up and that’s fine. I think we can challenge for a Championship title in the next few years.”

 

Pierre-Antoine Morvan is more bullish about his chances in his first season and as current No. 3 in the ISAF Match Racing World Rankings and finalist at last season’s St. Moritz Match Race, he feels he needs a podium finish in his first season to really underline his pedigree: “The Alpari World Match Racing Tour is match racing at the top level. It’s a big step up for us but we have the ability to get up to speed quickly and secure a podium in our first season. We have to be aiming for that to really make an impression and we’ll call on our good friends Mathieu [Richard] and Damien [iehl] and our coach Bertrand [Pace] to try and achieve it.”

 

Sailing fans will not have long to wait to see who seizes the early advantage. The first two chapters of the season will already be concluded in the next fortnight with Match Race Germany falling back-to-back with the Korea Match Cup, which starts on 29 May.

[Guest]

Well the waka boys have had a good start to the regatta as they have been able to win their first 3 races while Kiwi match racing havnt sailed a race due to light winds and they are looking forward to their first race.

 

Robertson and Morvan Seize Control

 

Phil Robertson and new Tour Card Holder Pierre-Antoine Morvan made the most of a difficult first day’s racing at Match Race Germany in Langenargen, posting three wins from three.

 

Morvan (FRA) Vannes Agglo Sailing Team joins the Tour in 2012 with an ISAF World Match Race Ranking of 3rd and a previous 2nd place finish at the St. Moritz Match Race in 2011. He is also being accompanied by experienced coach Bertrand Pacé, who said prior to today’s sailing:

 

“We’ve just started working together so we are still settling into this relationship. We’ll judge how well it is working after the first couple of events and decide whether it’s something we want to pursue for the full season.

 

“Pierre is a great skipper and match racer, that’s for sure. However, experience is very important as is confidence which is what we are focusing on most.”

 

Morvan showed few nerves coming into his first event as Tour Card Holder, even before heading out onto the water, saying: “The plan is to learn this year, podium next year, and win in two years.” He backed up that self-confidence by taking victory in all three of his early flights.

 

Jan-Eike Andresen (GER) MRV Match Race Team is here flying the flag for the host nation but has left himself with an upward climb to reach the quarter-finals after losing three from three. A tough opening session against three Tour Card Holders, including 4-time World Champion and 3-time Match Race Germany winner Peter Gilmour, did not hand him the kindest of days. Andresen can consider himself unlucky in his first race, losing by a margin of only four metres to Robertson.

 

A second match against Frenchman Pierre-Antoine Morvan also ended unsuccessfully for Andresen after leading for the majority of the race, relinquishing the lead late on in the light air. Reflecting on his day, the German said:

“It was a bit like David v Goliath today as we faced some strong opposition, but we felt we performed well and were a bit unlucky, especially in the first match against Phil [Robertson].

“We are taking confidence from today and looking forward to converting defeats into wins tomorrow.”

[Guest]

The kiwis are on fire in Germany lying in 1= and 2nd respectively.

 

Morvan and Robertson Power Through Qualification

 

Pierre-Antoine Morvan and Phil Robertson lead the standings after impressive performances on the second day of Match Race Germany while Bjorn Hansen looks likely to fall short of the knockout stages after a torrid time at the first event of the 2012 Alpari World Match Racing Tour.

 

Yesterday’s light breeze gave way to perfect sailing conditions today on Lake Constance, with a wind speed of 10 to 15 knots allowing a packed day of racing to bring the qualification round into its latter stages.

 

Pierre-Antoine Morvan (FRA) Vannes Agglo Sailing Team won four of his five matches with his one defeat coming against Staffan Lindberg (FIN) Alandia Sailing Team, after he was given a black flag for accumulating three penalties. He said: “It was an amazing day for us, losing only one match. We especially enjoyed beating both Peter Gilmour and Karol Jablonski, both World Champions who favour the bigger boats. We just need to focus hard on our remaining matches to give ourselves the best chance of qualifying first.”

 

Both Morvan and Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing have an added incentive to finish top of the standings after the qualifying sessions as the first placed team will receive a bye to the semi-finals, just as Bruni did last year before going on to win the event. The quarter-finals will then be contested by the teams placed 2nd to 7th.

 

Robertson reflected on the day’s success and the importance of his earlier match against Morvan: “We’re pleased with our day, the boys worked well out there. Looking ahead, we lost an important race to Morvan this morning so we need him to post a few losses as he’s got the jump on us right now.”

 

Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Mekonomen Sailing Team will have little to take away from Match Race Germany, in confidence or points. After competing at Match Race Germany seven times, he has still ‘never come away with a good result.’

 

Reflecting on the day, he said: “We won the side we wanted seven out of eight times but got it wrong on the first shift. Boat speed and manoeuvres were good but we tacked at the wrong times really. It feels like it’s just one of those days so we’ll come back from it and have Korea to look forward to.”

 

Jan-Eike Andresen (GER) MRV Match Race Team was another sailor to struggle here today and remains without a win to his name. When asked what he could have done differently to stem his run of defeats, he said: “Sailing fast upwind would have helped! We lacked match practice and that showed in our handling which was poor.

“Was it about the level of opposition? No, not really. We had some great starts and held the lead several times but we committed some really basic errors which you cannot afford to do here.”

 

 

Laurie Jury (NZL) Kiwi Match and Eric Monnin (SUI) Team Okalys Corum sit ahead of a group of teams including Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing, Karol Jablonski (POL/GER) Jablonski Sailing Team and Keith Swinton (AUS) Black Swan Racing who stand on 4-4 and will hope to post a couple more wins tomorrow morning to see them through.

[Guest]

And the waka racing boys have just drawn first blood in the first of many kiwi match ups this year. There are two flights left in the round robin and then they will start the quarter finals hopefully today.

[Guest]

Qualifying Goes to the Wire

 

Peter Gilmour, Phil Robertson and Laurie Jury each have the upper hand in their quarter-finals at Match Race Germany where they are bidding to join Pierre-Antoine Morvan in the semi-finals. The day’s main story though is all about the conclusion of Qualifying in which many of the new young Alpari World Match Racing Tour Card Holders were in the thick of the action.

 

At the start of the day, there were six flights from Qualifying remaining and even after the first three had been concluded, few of the overnight questions had been answered. What was certain was that Simone Ferrarese (ITA) Ferrarese Racing Team was out and Eric Monnin (SUI) Team Okalys Corum was assured a quarter-final place and put himself in contention to qualify in first place after a run of three wins. Karol Jablonski (POL/GER) Jablonski Sailing Team and Joachim Aschenbrenner (DEN) Team Trifork would have to sit through the final three flights before they knew their fate.

 

Although Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Mekonomen Sailing Team had only a slim chance of qualifying when he took to the water for Flight 19, he could still help determine the fate for several teams. His opponents were Gilmour, who needed at least one win from his final three matches, Robertson and Morvan, who were both locked on 7 – 1 overnight and in the hunt to qualify in first spot to earn a bye to the semis.

 

An epic match race ensued between Hansen and Gilmour, the lead changing three times during the race. It was Hansen though who prevailed leaving Gilmour still in need of another win with his next match against countryman Keith Swinton.

 

Hansen then faced both Morvan and Robertson in his final two matches. After a defeat for Robertson and a victory for Morvan in the penultimate flight, both young skippers were tied on 8-2 with Morvan on top on count back. Morvan assured himself of top spot with a win over Hansen while Robertson fell to an increasingly impressive Swinton.

 

Some skippers believe it’s a disadvantage to earn a bye into the semi-finals. For Morvan though, the positives outweigh the negatives: “The main aim today was to take the top spot in the qualification table. Reaching the semis is important – we’ll get a little bit less training on the boats but that’s only a small disadvantage. We would certainly prefer that than having to win another match against this top class field to get there.”

 

All eyes were now firmly back on Gilmour who was in a do or die situation in his final match after losing his second match against Swinton, the younger Australian leading from start to finish. This time, against another new Tour Card Holder, Laurie Jury, Gilmour used all his experience to muster a win to put him on 5-6 and in a tie with three other teams. As in 2011 here, Gilmour edged through, this time in seventh place with Aschenbrenner in sixth.

 

Coming off the water for the quarter-final draw, the three-time Match Race Germany winner said: “We’ve just made it through so all in all it was a good day. We won when it mattered and we were in the hunt against Hansen. If we have to scrape through the qualifiers then manage to raise our game in each round through to the final, we’ll be in good shape”.

 

With around 12 knots of breeze across Lake Constance, the Race Committee decided to get the quarter-finals underway. After one flight, Gilmour leads Swinton, Robertson has the advantage over Aschenbrenner and Jury is one up against Eric Monnin.

[Guest]

It has been a great event with both the kiwi teams making ti through to the semis. Laurie Jury and the Kiwi Match team face the top qualifier who went straight through to the semis while Phil Robertson and Waka Racing face Peter Gilmour. Racing should start shortly with live video kicking in sometime around 12-12:30am for two hours.

[Guest]

Thrilling Semi-Finals Set Up All-Kiwi Final

 

Phil Robertson will face fellow Kiwi Laurie Jury in the final of Match Race Germany, the first event of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour, after a thrilling conclusion to the semi-finals in which both matches went to final flight sudden-death.

 

Pierre-Antoine Morvan (FRA) Vannes Agglo and Phil Robertson (NZ) WAKA Racing were both on the brink of reaching the final, each skipper holding early 2-0 leads against Laurie Jury (NZ) Kiwi Match and Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing respectively. However, spirited fight backs by their opponents set up for a nervous finish with the scores locked on 2-2. Everything rested on the fifth and final flight. It was an intense finish to a day in which the tactical skills of all the teams were tested in light and fickle winds.

 

With Morvan picking Jury, Robertson was left to take on four-time ISAF Match Racing World Champion Peter Gilmour, who made the final of the event in 2011 and was improving as the regatta progressed. Gilmour, said: “These conditions make sailors very nervous as you have less control over things. Phil should probably have put us away in the third flight but opened the door and that’s a dangerous thing to do with us. We then led in the last and it’s not like us to give up the lead but he managed to get a puff and get inside us at the mark and that was the race.

 

“The three young Tour Card Holders [Morvan, Robertson and Jury] have all gone very strongly here and I think that’s a sign of what’s to come this season. It’s a pretty amazing outcome.”

 

After battling through the final deciding flight, Robertson, said: “That final flight was intense – a few doubts set in after Peter pulled two back to level and he kept coming back at us, but we held our nerve. It’s a great start to the Tour for us and we’ll be very determined to beat Laurie in the final.”

 

Morvan continued his domination of the early rounds by taking a 2-0 lead against Jury after having received a bye through to the semi-finals. He was unable to capitalise on that lead though, saying: “There was a lot of pressure on us to win that, especially if you’re two up. We can take some positives from this - we learnt a lot about this type of boat as we weren’t as confident on the heavier boats with wheels. We’ll talk through what happened later but at the moment we’re just disappointed.”

 

Jury came into his semi-final having notched up a commanding 3-0 victory in his quarter-final with Eric Monnin (SWI) Team Okalys-Corum in the morning. He struggled after a midday wind shift with conditions seeming to catch him off guard before regrouping successfully for the final three flights. Jury, said: “There was a fair bit of pressure on board out there in that final match. We made a good start and the right calls having learnt a bit in the previous race. Tomorrow’s Kiwi final will be interesting - we haven’t raced Phil for a while so it’ll be good to see how we stack up.”

[Guest]

Who do you think will win the all kiwi final between Waka Racing and Kiwi Match to claim bragging rights?

 

I think Waka Racing will claim their first title tomorrow morning, but it will be hard fought against a worthy opponent. Waka Racing have the experience edge over Kiwi Match in these boats and conditions which means they will have some tricks up their sleeves that could be the difference in the expected close racing.

 

Kiwi match's advantage in this final is that your opponents experience doesnt count for much if your hitting top form and that is something that Kiwi Match is in. They will also hope that Waka racing produce some over aggressive moves and pick up some penalties as they were known last season for being very aggressive which cost them crucial matches.

[Guest]

There is no wind on the lake at the moment and their only expecting 1-2knts of wind. if they cant race then Waka racing will win the title being the top qualifier out of the teams. Heres hoping it doesnt come to that

[Guest]

live streaming now

 

http://new.livestream.com/WorldMRT/germ ... dium=email

[Guest]

Congratulations to Waka Racing on winning their first ever World Match Racing tour Event

 

It was a shame that the wind didnt turn up so that one of the kiwi teams could claim bragging rights to being the top kiwi team on the tour handing the crown to the Waka boys as they were the top qualifiers out of the two teams. It is not all bad news though for kiwi match Sailing Team as Waka Racing were using match Race Germany as a training event and will not be able to claim points from it, making Kiwi Match the current tour leaders.

 

The teams will fight again in several days time as the next event in Korea starts on Thursday so stay tuned for more action.

[Guest]

Robertson Wins Season Opener

 

Langenargen, Germany – 28 May, 2012: Phil Robertson’s WAKA Racing team has won Match Race Germany, the opening event on the 2012 Alpari World Match Racing Tour after taking victory against Laurie Jury in an all-Kiwi final in Langenargen.

 

In the end, a count-back decided both the final and petit final on Lake Constance. The event has had both the best and worst of sailing conditions throughout the week and unfortunately the wind failed to build for the final, forcing the Race Committee to end racing with no races completed in either the final or petit final.

 

Robertson (NZ) WAKA Racing came into Match Race Germany looking for match practice ahead of a busy season in which he hopes to make a significant impact on the Alpari World Match Racing Tour. This win will give him plenty of confidence after last year when he struggled to find consistent form in his first season as a Tour Card Holder.

 

A jubilant Robertson, said: “Today turned into a pretty relaxing one for us! It’s a shame there was no wind but we’re really happy to take this victory. It’s our first Tour win and we’ve learnt a lot from it. We’ll have to celebrate it on our long flight to Korea!”

 

Robertson’s WAKA Racing team and Laurie Jury’s Kiwi Match will now become two of the teams to watch in the ISAF Match Racing World Championship. Laurie Jury picked up 22 points for his runner-up spot here in the first event of his first full season on the Tour. A sole outing in 2011 came at the Argo Group Gold Cup in Bermuda and he couldn’t have hoped for a better start to this year’s series:

 

“We were looking forward to racing Phil and felt good about way we were sailing the boat but at the end, it was just taken out of our hands. We’ll take some confidence from the event and get straight back into it at the Korea Match Cup. We want to show that this wasn’t a fluke.”

 

The earlier petit final which was set to pit four-time World Champion Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing against Pierre-Antoine Morvan (FRA) Vannes Agglo Sailing Team was also ultimately a victim of the weather at Match Race Germany. Gilmour, said: “We battled back from a slow start to the event and just missed out on the final after a tight finish against Phil [Robertson].”

 

“Sitting out there waiting for conditions for the petit final was frustrating because we knew that we’d finish 4th if the race didn’t start. That’s just the way it goes sometimes.”

 

Gilmour’s performance has shown he will be in the hunt this season while Morvan has now finished on the podium for his second consecutive Tour event, having placed second at the St. Moritz Match Race in 2011. The young Frenchman looked unstoppable in his early rounds before losing against Jury from a commanding 2-0 lead in the semi-finals and will be one to watch when racing gets underway at the Korea Match Cup.

 

The race for the 2012 ISAF Match Racing World Championship continues at the Korea Match Cup in Gyeonggi, South Korea from 29 May to 3 June, which will feature eight of the nine Tour Card Holders.