BlackMatch Reports on Blurimini Sailing Week
'BlackMatch Racing reports from Blurimini Sailing Week Match Racing in Italy.'
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BlackMatch racing reports from Blurimini Sailing Week Match Racing in Italy.
Hi all from BlackMatch,
Today was the first day of racing in the Blurimini Sailing Week Match Racing event, Italy. It is a grade 2 event held in the town of Rimini, on the Adriatic Sea. There are 8 teams competing here, among them World #8 Torvar Mirsky from Australia and Ian Ainslie, the World #13 from South Africa who we defeated in the semi final of the Open Match Cup last week.
The regatta is being sailed in Blusail 24 Sport, four man boats. They are great little boats, well suited to this style of racing and developed by Match Racing guru, Paolo Cian.
Conditions today were absolutely perfect for match racing, an 8 knot sea breeze that slowly built all day to 15 knots. We finished 7 races, in doing so managing to win all 7 and finish the round robin in 1st also qualifying for the semi finals.
Our first race of the day was against our Australian rival Torvar Mirsky, we managed to gain an advantage off the start line when we won the favoured pin end and narrowly crossed Torvar who was on starboard tack. We sailed a solid race and lead the whole way around the course, taking the win against arguably the toughest competitor at this event.
Tomorrow the top 4 teams will race the semi finals, vying for a spot in the final in a best of 5 series. As we qualified top of the table we have the choice of who to race. The other three teams in the semi finals are Jure Orel who we defeated in the final of the Open Match last week, Jacopo Pasini from Italy and Torvar Mirsky. Perhaps the biggest surprise thus far in the regatta was the failure of Ian Ainslie to qualify for the semi finals, managing to only win 3 of his 7 races. It is great to be going into the semi finals with a perfect scorecard, however we will have to keep sailing well and improving to make it through to the final and we are looking forward to tomorrows racing. For any additional information on the event, please visit www.rycvv.com.
We would again like to say a special thank you to our sponsors: FedEx Express, Ross Munro from Line 7 and Waiwera Infinity, their ongoing support is helping make this opportunity possible for the BlackMatch boys. To the RNZYS and everyone else, thank you for your support.
BlackMatch Racing
www.blackmatchracing.com
by BlackMatch Media 
Turners Beach, TAS
