Eventful first day

Ian Williams reports from the Auckland Match Racing Cup

Battle resumed on the Waitemata Harbour in Auckland today after a four year hiatus. The newly named Auckland Match Racing Cup, run by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, lived up to its billing with plenty of close races in the Farr designed MRXs.

The Williams Sail Racing Team had an extremely eventful first day, posting a 3-3 score line. Starting off against Dean Barker (Emirates Team New Zealand) in 15 knots of breeze, we were given a clear lesson on how to sail the MRXs, losing by six lengths. With those lessons learnt, we proceeded to have two very close races with Staffan Lindberg and Bertrand Pace (BMW Oracle), both races being decided by the umpires right on the finish line. Fortunately for us, it was Lindberg and Pace who received the penalties having crossed the finish line first.

Following a drop in breeze as the centre of the low pressure passed close to Auckland, Williams Racing were forced over the start line early by Chris Dickson (BMW Oracle). Confusion followed as the recall flag was not raised for 5-6 seconds after the start, the result being a clear win for Dickson. Following the inevitable red flag protest, the jury found that there was an error by the race committee, but that it had not affected the result of the race so the result stood.

Next for Williams Racing was Sebastian Col (K Challenge). A clear four boat-length lead at the top mark soon turned into a huge deficit as we were reduced to half-speed for the run after hooking up a lump of kelp the size of the New Forest on the rudder and one the size of the Amazon on the keel. After limping across the line a distant second having used a mooring rope to clear the keel and a boat-hook to clear the rudder during the race, we then had the ignominy of being informed by our umpires that they though we had some stuck on the prop shaft!

The final race of the day for Williams Racing was against Magnus Holmberg (Victory Challenge). On a very one-sided track due to the strong current in the harbour, a one boatlength lead at the start soon turned into a six boatlength lead and a comfortable win for the team. So after a lot of luck - both good and bad, Williams Racing are sitting in equal 5th place after the first day. However, with only six races of the 18 race double round robin completed, there is a long long way to go.

The grinners for the day were Dean Barker and Cameron Appleton (both on 5-1), closely followed by Mattieu Richard and Chris Dickson (4-2). The big surprise of the day was the poor form of three time world champion Ed Baird (Alinghi – 1-5). However, you wouldn’t bet against him coming out much stronger tomorrow and still making the semi-finals.