Knickerbocker Cup: Kiwis fourth and seventh

Briton's Mark Campbell-James (GBR), with crew Andy Clark, David Mason, and Andrew Yates, has won the 2005 Knickerbocker Cup. This was a 'big win for us,' said Campbell-James. 'Beating the other British team three times when they are ranked seventh in the world is a big deal for us. We always felt we were at least as fast as everyone else. By the time the semi finals and finals came around, we thought we had the best boat handling. When the air was light on Manhasset Bay and all the other teams were waiting for the wind to come in, we were out there practicing and then practicing some more.'

 (Photo: Paula Davis)

Quarter finals were dispensed with and racing began Sunday, August 28, the fourth and last day of racing, with Matteo Simoncelli (ITA), ITway Match Race Team up against Simon Minoprio (NZL) and Campbell-James (GBR) vs. Ian Williams (GBR) in the semi-finals, in a best of three series.

The first match between Campbell-James and Williams was quite close but Campbell-James prevailed and crossed the finish line first. The second match between the Brits had Williams ahead at the first mark, but Campbell-James was able to overtake him, and go on to win, giving them a 2-0 score, and moved the team into the finals.

 For the remainder of this story and results see: www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=18888  

Source: www.sailweb.co.uk

Knickerbocker Cup: Kiwi Match has two wins

Kiwi Match are currently in New York for the Knickerbocker Cup. The team for the event is Laurie Jury, Daniel McLean, Robbs Heilkema and Damon Jolliffe.

Racing was suspended after a light wind got lighter. (Photo: Paula Davis)

The Knickerbocker Cup has a long standing tradition within the small yacht club of Long Island, the Knickerbocker Yacht Club. www.kyc.net

The event is sailed in privately owned J105's. These boats have a roller furler headsail, a retracting prod and a gennaker. Laurie also has to steer with a wheel rather than the common form of a tiller.

The event started last night (NZ time) and the team were sailing for the first five flights. On a very light and shifty day they found the conditions very hard going and finished the day with a 2 win - 3 loss scoreline. Damon reported the day as follows 'Due to the conditions the leads in races were changing often and in the space of 1 minute you could gain or lose 10 boat lengths easily. It was very difficult to predict these conditions'

For the remainder of this story see: www.sail-world.com/indexs.cfm?nid=18819  

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Kiwi Match Heads for New York

In just over the week the Kiwi Match Racing Team will be opening their account in the Knickerbocker Cup, sailed off the Knickerbocker Yacht Club in New York.

This will be the second year at the regatta for the young Kiwi Match Team, having finished sixth in the 2004 event. Kiwi Match is a team of young match racers trying to 'crack' the international match racing circuit, as so many of their fellow Kiwi sailors, such as Chris Dickson, Russell Coutts, Dean Barker and Gavin Brady have done in the past. All of the Kiwi Match Team are graduates of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's Youth Training program.

Kiwi Match finished sixth in the 2004 Knickerbocker Cup(photo: Paula Davis)

They will be keen to improve on their last regatta, the Internationaux de Match Racing de France sailed in early-mid August off the small town of Pornichet in Brittany, France.

This event was an ISAF Grade 1 event and required the team to come together from all parts of the world. For this regatta, the Kiwi Match Team comprising Laurie Jury arrived from London, Rob Hielkema and Dan McLean from Valencia and Brad Marsh from New Zealand.

The regatta was sailed in Beneteau First Class 8 metres and it was the first time any of the team had sailed these boats. They were faced with a daunting challenge of new boats, new venue, tough regatta format and a very tough fleet of opponents.

The regatta format was one round robin and then semi finals and minor sail offs. At the end of the tough round robin they were at the bottom of the table and this placed them into a sail off with Seve Jarvin for 11th and 12th place. After a hard fought battle Kiwi Match lost to Seve and finished in 12th place. this placing was a little disappointing for the team as their goals were to make the top ten. The result does not reflect however just how much the team learnt from the fantastic experience. The racing was extremely close and on many occasions the results came down to very close calls made by the umpires.

The winner of the event was Ian Williams from GBR. Second went to the Russian entry, Neugodnikov and then Sebastian Col from K Challenge was third.

The Knickerbocker Cup will be sailed in Manhasset Bay, New York at the end of August. This is an ISAF Grade Two event that the team competed in last year and the Kiwi Match team for this event will be Laurie Jury, Dan McLean Rob Heilkema and Damon Jolliffe. Their hope is for a good result in this regatta before heading off to yet another ISAF Grade 1 event in Poland directly after.

The Kiwi Match Team is supported by Davis Langdon NZ, Dorlon and Gearlocker on Beaumont St. The team represents the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

Source: www.kiwimatch.com

Europe: Cayard ousts Kiwi Match in Match Race Lugano 2005

Young Kiwi crew of Laurie Jury, Daniel McLean and Robert Hielkema, representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron have finished sixth after a countback from a fourth place points in the Match Race Lugano 2005. Theere was a three way tie for fourth place overall, at the end of the Round Robin phase, with Paul Cayard (USA) and Ian Williams (GBR)

Match Race Lugano is a grade 2 match racing event. The regatta is sailed in UFO22 - a 22 foot sports boat with a gennaker and retractable prod, and a three man crew. Ten teams from USA(1), Germany(1), Switzerland(1), Denmark(1), Russia(1), Italy(2), New Zealand(1), Poland(1) and  England(1) competed for the event, which is held over four days.   The event format is a single round robin with the top four progressing to the semis with a two boat final.

Several very experienced competitors including USA’s Paul Cayard, skipper of America One in the final of the 2000 Louis Vuitton Cup, raced in the regatta.

The Kiwi Match team reports: ‘We had one practice day before the regatta in which to get use to the boats which we have never sailed before. Also try to understand how the wind shifts around the mountains of Lugano.

‘On the 16^th of June the first day of racing our first race was against Lars Nordbjaerg from Denmark who is ranked 17^th in the world match race rankings. After waiting until about 3 o clock for the wind to fill in we finally got a race in, we sailed well in very light shifty conditions to take the win.

‘Next we had Paul Cayard. We won the start and lead around most of the course on the second run  we had some problems with our tack line on the gennaker, this allowed Paul to catch up to us. When our pole retracted though a jibe Paul over took us to take the lead down the last run, coming into the finish we caught back up and looked to be in front but Paul got a little more wind and only just beat us on the finish line.

‘Our next race was against Eungeny Neugodnikov of Russia who is ranked 10^th in the world. Again we started well but we got caught on the wrong side of a large shift up the first beat and rounded the top mark behind. The wind then shifted further left turning the race into a one side affair, we had no opportunity to overtake and finish behind.

‘The next day we started with a race against Eric Monnin of Switzerland, so far he had been undefeated and proved to be very fast in the light wind. We had a good start but went the wrong way up the first beat; Eric got a penalty for rocking off the start line.  At the top of the second beat Eric did his penalty and we were able to get to the right side of him. We stopped him form rounding the mark and in the process got two penalties, we sailed on to win the race.

‘After a break we raced Przemek Tarnacki from Poland.  We started well to windward on starboard tack. Unfortunately Przemek was a little faster and he was able to get in front.  He held his lead though to the finish.

‘Our last race of the day was against Vito Moschioni, we went to the wrong side up the first beat and Vito had a small lead at the top mark, we rolled him down wind and then luffed him on port tack, Vito received a second penalty which he did not complete quick enough and was Black flagged giving us the win.

‘On the last day the points were very close with Matteo Simoncelli on 7 wins and most other teams on three or four wins, we had three wins and had to win our last three races to make the semis.

‘Our first race was against Stefan Mister from Germany, we went the wrong way up the first beat and he lead around the top mark, we kept close to him down wind and closed up to him on the second beat, on the last run to the finish he got caught out to the port side of the course by another match, we were able to find some more wind and over take him on the finish line.

‘Our next race was against Ian Williams who was top ranked in the event, being 8^th in the world.   We got a penalty early in the pre start for having our prod out.  Ian got a Red Flag penalty at the start gun for barging in to windward of us at the committee boat end of the start line.  We took the lead and extended up the first beat, we rounded the top mark about four boat lengths in front.  Ian Closed the gap up down wind and up the next beat.  We tried to clear our penalty at the top mark but instead got another penalty.  We completed our first penalty then jibed out to the left side of the course. We found more wind and crossed in front. Coming into the finish line we tried to clear our outstanding penalty by luffing, but Ian rolled over us to finish in front.

‘Our last race was against Matteo Simoncelli who was so far clear leader of the event being the only undefeated team.

We started well and choose the right side of the course, we rounded the top mark in front, but on the down wind Matteo rolled over us. We had a jibing duel at the bottom mark and got inside for the mark rounding. Matteo Didn’t give us enough room to round the mark and he got a penalty, we rounded in front but lost the lead up the beat. On the last run Matteo tried to clear his penalty by luffing us but we rolled over him and sailed to the finish taking the win.

‘At the end of the round robin we were tied for 4^th place with Paul Cayard and Ian Williams. Unfortunately we had lost to both these teams so we ended up 6^th on count back.

‘This was the toughest regatta we have sailed in so far with some of top ranked teams competing, we were pleased with our performance and proved that we could compete with the best of them.’

Kiwi Match is sponsored by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, Sail NZ, Dorlon, The Gearlocker and Davis Langdon. At this stage of the season the team is looking for other events to finish off the season. The Kiwi Match team have been confirmed for the Knickerbocker Cup in New York at the end of August – an event in which they competed last year.

Images from: the Regatta website

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Kiwi Match crack  into ISAF Grade 1

The Kiwi Match team have announced that they secured an entry into the Internationaux de France de Match Racing to be held in France on the 3 - 7 August.

The event is held in Pornichet which is near Nantes, and is an ISAF grade 1 event. This will be the highest grade event the team has ever competed in and has a prize pool of 15,000 Euros that will be divided amongst the top 10 teams.

The team for the regatta will be Laurie Jury, Daniel McLean, Robs Heilkema and Brad Marsh. They will be sailing the Beneteau First Class 8 metres provided by the organising authority. The format is a double round robin which entails everyone to sail against each other twice followed by a semi final and a final. ‘We are hoping to again achieve a strong result and gain some valuable points towards our ISAF world ranking,’ says Marsh.

‘We are also working on the program for the remainder of the year and have recently confirmed our entry for the 2005 Knickerbocker Match Racing event in New York at the end of August’, he added.

'Kiwi Match' is a New Zealand Youth Match Racing Team, with a current world ranking of 52 who have achieved consistent top three finishes on the Australasian Match Racing Circuit over the past two years. They are currently on a tour of Europe and the USA competing in several high profile regattas. The team consists of four skilled sailors; all in their early 20’s who have been sailing together for the last three years.

Over the last five years all have been selected to join the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Youth Scheme Program, due to their own individual accomplishments in yachting during our earlier years. The RNZYS youth scheme program is the most intense match-racing program offered to young sailors in New Zealand. It is recognised worldwide through the domination of its students on the world youth match racing circuit. It was specifically designed to develop sailors to a professional level, such as that found in the Americas Cup. After the four sailors had completed the RNZYS youth scheme program Kiwi Match was formed and continued training and match racing.

Their (or rather skipper Laurie Jury’s) ranking of 52nd places the team third in New Zealand behind Gavin Brady (Oracle) and Russell Coutts (ex Alinghi). Their goal is to attend the top regattas and lift our ranking to within the top 20. This will qualify them to be invited to join the Swedish Match Racing Tour – their first major goal in their ambition to become a professional match racing team, with world credibility.

Kiwi Match Is supported by Davis Langdon NZ, Dorlon NZ the Gear Locker and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. For further information and crew profiles visit their website at www.kiwimatch.com.

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