World Match Racing Tour Croatia Match Cup - Day 2
by Ben Blake 28 May 2017 00:34 BST
26-28 May 2017
Results flipped today as we moved to the second qualifying session. Jonas Warrer and Olivia Mackay were the big winners, sliding their way up the leaderboard to be within semifinal contention, whilst Joachim Aschenbrenner with a strong start to today's qualifying session ends day two at the top of the table.
Danish team ART Sailing are no stranger to the top of the qualifying leaderboard. At the last World Tour level event, Gothenburg Match Cup, Joachim and crew also found themselves in a leading position and progressed through to the semifinals.
"Our boat handling has been solid throughout this regatta. We have one new crew on board doing the mainsheet but he settled into the role after just a couple of races. We were winning the majority of our starts yesterday afternoon and continued that today." With performance growing this season, Croatia Match Cup could be Aschenbrenner's time to catch one of the two qualification spots to WMRT Match Cup America up for grabs at this event.
Experienced WMRT skipper Evan Walker crews for The Magenta Project this week and reflected on their performance today by saying, "Yesterday we had so many learning opportunities in the prestart, but with every race being different there was no chance to practice what we had learnt. After a team debrief last night, today we got to execute and that showed with 4 wins."
In the middle of the pack after today's racing is Polish skipper Lukasz Wosinski.
"We feel great after today. We won every start and in two races we pushed two boats over the line early. With more experience in the boat we understand the sailable angles better and were able to hit the line with speed and perfect time on distance." Delphia Sailing Team will need to carry this winning form through tomorrow's conclusion of qualifying if they can make it through to the knockout rounds.
The race committee were put to the test today also. The natural curvature in Peskera bay provides an ideal arena for match racing, however with the breeze swinging left and right, keeping the course tight in to the shore kept them on their toes. After delivering a tactically challenging 10+ knots all morning, the wind reduced and racing was called off late afternoon. With better breeze expected tomorrow morning the qualifying session is scheduled to wrap up shortly after lunch before moving on to the knockout rounds.
Croatia Match Cup concludes tomorrow and we will have a winner, as well as two qualifiers to WMRT Match Cup America.
Detailed results at wmrt.com/results/world-tour-events/season-2017/wmrt-croatia-match-cup-2017