Sunday 20 June 2010

La Rochelle, Summer Cup: Black Sheep Racing say Bonjour from La Rochelle

by Reuben Corbett

After two days, four flights and a train ride, we made it to La Rochelle, France for our next event. For this grade three event we welcome a La Rochelle local who has so far lived up to our expectations after being told “he is the best bowman in France”. We are also joined here by fellow New Zealanders, Kiwimatch.

The conditions were almost perfect for match racing, with 6 to 8 knots and flat water, gradually building as the day went on. We got through the races with great efficiency in the perfect conditions, managing to complete an entire round robin.

We had a reasonable day, winning 6 from 7 races. The one race we lost we had a fairly even start but lost the control shortly after with our opponent to the right of us. We kept it extremely close around the track, but couldn’t quite make the pass and finished one boat-length behind. This puts us in a share of first as we move into the knockout stages of the event tomorrow.

As always we would like to thank those who helped make all of this possible, The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, family, friends and supporters.

Black Sheep Racing is Reuben Corbett, Brad Farrand and Thomas Bentham.

Black Sheep Racing
Summer Cup (Coupe d'Eté), La Rochelle Grade 3 Match Racing