Danish Open Day Four

 
Once again, we woke up to yet another team member with food poisoning. This time our bowman, Graeme Spence had been struck and was unable to sail with us today.

With two crew sick throughout the round robin, and only 6 wins to qualify we were lucky to make it through to the semis, but at the start of the day we were on equal ground with Sebastian Col with both teams on 1 win. With Graeme out, we were missing a large chink of our team and it showed as Col dominated throughout the series. We were given one win to take the scores to 2-2 in the 4th race when Col received a penalty in the prestart, but he won the 5th prestart convincingly and managed to extend his lead to qualify to the finals.

We were given a chance at revenge over Johnnie Berntesson’s black flag penalty yesterday as he lost to Ian Williams in their semis, and at first we thought it was going to come quickly. We won the first race of our petit finals convincingly, and were leading in the second race until he managed to roll us just before the bottom mark. This gave him the choice of which side of the course he wanted and he chose the heavily favoured right. The next time the two boats met, Berntesson had extended to a comfortable lead which he kept up to the finish. The next race, Berntesson pushed out to the right again and managed to gain a small advantage which he defended well to win the series.

Congratulations to Ian Williams and his team for taking out the title.

A special thanks to Line7, Harken and the Royal Perth Yacht Club for their support

Danish Open DayThree

A wise man once told me that it’s better to be born lucky than born rich, and after today’s events, not a truer word was spoken as we got the better of a 5 way tie to qualify for the semi finals.

Going into the day we knew that we needed at least 2 more wins to qualify for the Semi Finals, and we were granted one of those in our first race of the day against Matthiu Richard. The conditions were very shifty and we managed to get the better of him off the line thanks to a small right shift. The second upwind saw a big split that we thought had jumped us into a massive lead, but the right slowly filled in and Richard ended up rounding just behind us on the run to the finish. We managed to get a better set and defended our position to win the first of the day. Our second race against Johnnie Berntesson didn’t go quite so smoothly, when we were black flagged just after the start, which made our next race against Adam Minoprio of Blackmatch Racing vital. Once again, lady luck was not on our side and Blackmatch managed to get the better of us off the line and outsailed us to leave us on only 6 wins.

We went back to shore in dismay, only to be told that we had managed to finish the round in 4th after a 5 way tie breaker. Richard’s team and our team were the only two out of the 5 who had beaten the Round Robin winner Ian Williams, and therefore one of us were going to make it through. The morning’s race against Richard ended up determining who made it through, and this time, lady luck had granted us a favour.

Williams had the power to choose who he was going to race in the semis, and despite us only finishing 4th, he chose Johnnie Berntesson who qualified in 3rd. This meant that we were paired up against Sebastian Col from the French Sailing Team.

As we left the docks once more, the sea breeze and the land breeze began their battle, leaving us with very fluky conditions. We lost our first start against Col, however we were awarded with a massive right hand shift towards the top mark which put us in a comfortable 10 boatlength lead. We couldn’t relax properly until the finishing horn sounded, as we ran out of wind three times during our final downwind leg, and Col halved the distance between us. The second race was in a much steadier sea breeze, but Col got the better of us once more in the prestart, giving us a penalty and winning the favoured side. We fought hard to get a piece of him, and managed to catch up downwind, however he kept the starboard advantage and lead around the bottom mark. From there, he covered us tightly and didn’t give us a chance to fight back.

Just after finishing our second race of the semis, the breeze shut off and racing was postponed until tomorrow.

A special thanks to Line7, Harken and the Royal Perth Yacht Club for there support.
 

Danish Open – Day Two

Despite being plagued with illness, MRT dominated on day two of the Danish Open winning three races straight. We had the morning off, which allowed us time to get our heads around the shifty conditions.

The left side of the course was majorly favoured in our first race was against Danish local Peter Wibroe, making the fight for the pin end start vital. We managed to push Wibroe into coffin corner, making him tack off for the boat and giving us the power of the left. The conditions were so tricky that we had to cover throughout the race, but managed to fend them off to add another win to our tally. The second race against Bjorn Hansen ran smoothly again, as we once again won the left side, which turned our even start into a 10 boat length. Although Hansen fought hard to make up for lost ground, we managed to fend him off to take our score to 4-3.

Our third and final match of the day against the defending champion Jesper Radich turned out to be a thriller. This time, the right side of the course paid off for us giving us the first cross. We extended our lead through the first lap, but an over ride and traffic on the course during the second upwind lost us some time and we were forced to dial Radich down at the top mark to defend our position. He rounded the top mark right on our hip and a bad gybe made both boats overlapped running to the finish. We managed to maintain the overlap and give him a penalty for not keeping clear as windward boat, and lead once more to finish the day with 5 wins and 3 losses, putting us well in contention for a spot in the top four tomorrow.

A special thanks to Line7, Harken and the Royal Perth Yacht Club for their support.

Danish Open – Day One

We arrived in Frederikshaven yesterday after two days training in Gothenburg with a number of competing teams. Although feeling confident during our training sessions, we got off to a slow start in today’s windy conditions.
 
After a good prestart against Sebastian Col in our first prestart of the day, we lost our advantage when we ducked his stern poorly. Things only got worse for us as we approached the bottom mark rapidly with a spinnaker but no jib. This served as a good reminder that our opponents weren’t going to let any mistakes slide, and we knew that we were going to have to step it up to make it through to the next round – a tough task in the single round robin to finals format. Our next race started well, leading to the top mark ahead of Magnus Holmburg. After an intense downwind, we reached the bottom mark with two penalties. As Holmburg was rolling us we luffed to defend our position, and the umpires ruled that we didn’t give enough room for him to keep clear. This once again put us on the back foot and we had to follow him to the finish.

The pressure to perform was starting to get the better of us as we prepared for our next race against Russia’s Andrew Arbuzov, but we slowed it down and managed to get a good start, and sailed smoothly around the course. We covered tightly throughout the race, and the deal was sealed when Arbuzov hit the top mark. With a win under our belts we got our confidence back and it showed in our next against Ian Williams. We once again won the prestart and managed to push out to the starboard side. Towards the first mark, we dialled Williams down, and he was late to react, only just managing to duck our stern. Although there was contact, the umpires gave both teams a penalty, cancelling each other out. Now Williams had the starboard advantage and we were forced to follow him around the mark. After gibing first onto the layline, we rolled Williams into the mark and won back our lead. Williams didn’t take his foot of the accelerator, attacking us throughout the race, but we managed to maintain our speed and led into the finish to one more win.

Although 3 losses and 2 wins isn’t the ideal way to start a regatta, we are feeling more confident after our boathandling was put to the test today. Tomorrow’s forecasts are for lighter winds, where we feel our strengths lie. The pressure is still on us to make the top four, but the scores are very close and we still have a very good chance of making it in.

A special thanks to Line7, Harken and the Royal Perth Yacht Club for their support.

MRT Heading to Denmark

After winning the French grade 1, Internationaux de France, we are now shifting our focus back onto the World Match Racing Tour and its next stage – The Danish Open.

We are once again going to Stockholm for two days of training on the familiar DS-37’s to dust off any cobwebs and give ourselves the best shot in Denmark. We will be training against our usual partner Ian Williams who is still grasping onto the top position in the World Tour standings.

With only 4 events remaining on the 2008 World Match Racing Tour, the fight for the title of World Champion is getting more and more intense. MRT is currently tied in 5th place on the World Tour rankings, despite only counting 3 event results. With the next event being held in the same boats as Match Cup Sweden where we placed 2nd, we are looking for another opportunity to raise our status on the Tour.

Internationaux de France Day  Final Day MRT Triumphs!

Our favourite event has come to an end with us once again taking home the Manu Minard memorial trophy. It is good to look back at this week with only three losses, especially when facing the World number one Matthiu Richard in his home town.

We woke up this morning still with the hurdle of the semi finals to overcome. A small windshift at the start put us in a strong position over Peter Wibroe, and we managed to capitalise on our advantage with our superior upwind speed. Wibroe and his Danish team put up a strong fight, but we sailed defensively to take out the series 3-0.

After a short break, we left the dock once again to face off against Matthiu Richard and his French Sailing Team, who had defeated fellow Frenchman Damien Iehl 3-1 to qualify. Our first race ran smoothly, winning the start and extending our lead, however it was clear that Richard’s downwind tactics and speed were stronger than ours, as he closed the gap up to a mere half boatlength at the finishing line. The next race didn’t run quite as smoothly as we had hoped, when Richard once more displayed his downwind dominance, catching up to us and giving us a red flag penalty at the bottom mark. Despite making some small gains upwind, Richard didn’t give us any opportunity to pass and brought the scores to 1-1.

In the third race, we got Richard back with a double penalty after he barged inside without any rights. This once again put us in a comfortable lead, with Richard still having one penalty to clear. With this advantage, we put the scores back in our favour.

The fourth and final race was ours for the taking, and we jumped at every opportunity to make a gain. We lost the start, and were forced to make two short tacks to attack Richard’s lead. Once we had positioned ourselves in a clear lane, we went hard to get our upwind groove on, and got the next cross on Richard. Once again we sailed smart and fast, extending our lead to win the Internationaux de France Manu Minard Trophy for the second year in a row, giving Graeme Spence the perfect Birthday present.

Internationaux de France day 2

Another long day on the water leaves us sitting on top of the leader board at the end of the Round Robin, only dropping two races to Damien Iehl and Matthiu Richard. After losing most of yesterday’s racing to poor sailing conditions, the race committee were pushed hard to finish the Round Robin, and did so – completing all 8 flights in just over 10 hours.

We approached our last race with confidence after winning all of our races, except for the world number one Matthiu Richard after a mix up with which mark to round. However we were quickly brought back down to earth as Damien Iehl won the heavily favoured pin off the start line. We initiated a tacking duel, and made some good gains up the first beat. We managed to force a split in the second upwind, but unfortunately it was to the wrong side and we were back to square one.

Although it is always nice to finish the day on a high, it was probably to our advantage to get a reality check before entering tomorrow’s quarterfinals.

The Scores after the Round Robin are as follows:

Mirsky          9 wins
Richard         8 wins
Iehl            8 wins
Minoprio        7 wins
Brenac          7 wins
Wibroe          6 wins
Baritel         5 wins
Ainslie         5 wins
Orel            3 wins
Morvan          3 wins
Neugodnikov      3 wins
Lanier          2 wins

Internationaux de France Day 1

Our first day of racing was fairly laid back when light winds in the morning caused a 6 hour delay. However our relaxation time was cut short when a large dark cloud brought 25 knots. We only managed to get three races finished as the extreme, contrasting conditions forced the race committee to postpone further racing until tomorrow morning.

Our first race of the day against French sailor Victor Lanier literally came to a standstill at the finish line when we went gybe for gybe to protect our lead in the sub 5 knot winds. The finishing line was so close yet so far, but we managed to create some apparent wind with a strong pump out of one of our gybes, and inched across the line to take our first win.

Highly contrasting this situation, our race against world number one Matthiu Richard took off in hang-on-and-go winds, as gusts of up to 30 knots blew down the course. We won the start marginally and managed to get a powerful lee bow which gave us the lead into the first top mark. We extended downwind and once again upwind, putting us in a comfortable 10 length lead at the second top mark. A strong gust brought us rocketing down the final run, when we realised that Richard wasn’t rounding the same mark as us.

Our bottom mark had approached a lot faster than expected, causing havoc on our boat. Although we recovered well and managed to achieve a good rounding, in the confusion we had missed the change of course signal. Although we were frustrated at losing in such a manner, we are still happy with our boathandling and speed and feeling confident that we will be able to build on our two wins tomorrow.  

Mirsky Racing Team arrives in Pornichet

Once again we arrive in Pornichet to compete in the Internationaux de France, the event which kick started our sailing careers last year when we defeated Areva Challenge Skipper Sebastian Col to take home the Manu Minard memorial trophy.

This event means a lot to us as a team as it marks the anniversary of our core team competing together for the first time when last year, Tudur Owen impressed us in this same event and earned a permanent position in our team. We are looking forward to racing these great boats in our favoured conditions after disappointing ourselves in Poland where we only managed a 7th place.

With the ISAF rankings today revealing that the points are getting tighter at the top, every regatta is becoming vital in reinforcing our 7th position, and helping us steadily climb up the ladder. Our 2nd at Match Cup Sweden has brought us up close to Swede Bjorn Hansen who now only sits 344 points ahead of us in 6th place. With this event, the Danish Open and St Moritz counting towards the next ranking release, we are hoping to take another step up in the rankings – both on the World Match Racing Tour leader board and the ISAF rankings.
 

Toyota Sopot Match Race – Day Three
 
When we woke up this morning, we were in the same position we are now. It is never easy to come off the water with no wins, but to look on the bright side, we are still well in contention for the semi finals tomorrow.

Despite being happy with our boat handling and tactical decisions today, it seemed that lady luck was holding a small grudge against us, as in all 6 races we managed to lose our lead as our opponents were gifted with seemingly phantom pressure. The wind was very light and was constantly swinging throughout the day, and at times dying out to almost 0 knots.

Once again, the team who managed to get on top of the tricky conditions was Black Swan Racing, skippered by Keith Swinton. The Grade 1 debutant is still sitting in first place after winning all 3 of his Quarterfinal races.

Although it is difficult to put a day like today behind us, we are still aiming high for the finals tomorrow. We are still comfortable as a team, but it is clear that we simply have to step it up tomorrow to get the ball rolling once again.

A special thanks to Line7, Harken and the Royal Perth Yacht Club for their support

Toyota Sopot Match Race – Day Two

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