WMRT Swan River Match Cup at Royal Perth Yacht Club - Day 2
by John Roberson 24 Jan 2017 14:25 GMT
23-25 January 2017
Perth Match Cup day 2 © John Roberson
Burling under pressure from the locals
While Peter Burling and his Kiwi super stars still lead the Swan River Match Cup, at the end of the second day, he is coming under increasing pressure from some of the local skippers.
Matt Jerwood remains just one point behind him, though has failed to beat him on the water, while just one more point back is Steven Thomas from the Royal Perth Yacht Club.
One of the upsets of the day came early in the second round robin, when another local skipper, Will Boulden of Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, who is down in fifth place on the leaderboard managed to score a win against Burling and his team.
When Jerwood was asked whether he thought he and his Redline Racing crew could beat the Kiwis he said he believed he could, "they are obviously a very professional team," he added, "and they don't make many mistakes, so when you get your opportunities you've got to take them.
"We were in front a couple of times today, but they played some smart moves and we made a mistake, and they got past us both times."
Redline Racing are now a very strong team, and although they have not managed to secure a ticket for the whole World Match Racing Tour this year, they have already been given a wild card entry to the first event at the championship level, which is in Perth in March.
Sweden's Mans Holmberg has lifted his game today, climbing to fourth place on the leaderboard, to keep his hopes of a place in the semi-finals alive. However the Swede was on the wrong end of the other major upset of the day, when Malaysia's Jeremy Koo scored his first win of the regatta in the last race of the day.
The day started out with a light and shifty east to south easterly breeze, then after a period with no wind, the sea breeze filled in to make for sparkling conditions in the afternoon.
The World Match Racing Tour is sailed in M32 high performance catamarans, and uses the same course format as the America's Cup events.
Results after Day 2:
1 Peter Burling (NZL) 9 pts
2 Matt Jerwood (AUS) 8 pts
3 Steven Thomas (AUS) 7 pts
4 Mans Homberg (SWE) 6 pts
5 Will Boulden (AUS) 5 pts
6= Torvar Mirsky (AUS) 4.5 pts
6= Harry Price (AUS) 4.5 pts
8 Matt Chew (AUS) 3.5 pts
9 Logan Beck (NZL) 3 pts
10 Jeremy Koo (MAS) 1 pt