Black Swan Racing finish sixth at Bermuda Gold Cup

'Swinton and Ainslie - King Edward V11 Gold Cup' World Match Racing Tour &copy Click Here to view large photo

Keith Swinton from Black Swan Racing, reports on the final day of the Bermuda Gold Cup. Black Swan Racing, from Western Australia, finished sixth, after racing against some of the world's seasoned match racers.

'The morning briefing saw us draw Sebastian Col as our opponent for the 5th-8th sail off, the winner of our match would then go onto face the winner of Matteui Richard and Ian Williams to battle for 5th and 6th places.

'The race against Col started with us having the advantage off the start. We defended our lead around the racecourse and Col could not find an opportunity to pass. At one stage in the race he managed to close up on us, but we protected the right and starboard rights to ensure Col had no passing lanes.

'We comfortably held him off down the last run to go through to the next race for 5th and 6th against Ian Williams, who had just defeated Matheui Richard.

'We entered from the starboard side against Williams, we controlled him comfortably for the first 3minutes of the prestart until we reached an obstruction. A complicated umpire call allowed the control to reverse and Williams was then able to push us up to the start line early. He luffed us close to the line which also resulted us receiving a penalty and allowing Williams to have the advantage off the start. From then on Williams sailed conservatively and did not let us back into the race and he sailed to secure 5th place and left us with 6th place.

'We were very happy with our progression throughout the regatta and managed to improve with each stage of the event. Finishing 6th at our first World Tour event is a very satisfying result and caps off a great European season that has seen us climb the world rankings and allowed us to race against the world's best match racers.'

Final Results (Top 8 of 24 teams)

1st Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team
2nd Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing
3rd Ben Ainslie (GBR) Team Origin
4th Mattias Rahm (SWE) Stena Bulk Sailing Team
5th Ian Williams (GBR) Team Pindar
6th Keith Swinton (AUS) Black Swan Racing
7th Sebastien Col (FRA) French Team/K-Challenge
8th Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Team/Team French Spirit

www.blackswanracing.blogspot.com/

by Keith Swinton, Kyle Langford, Adam Martin