Matchrace Thailand Championship at Royal Varuna Yacht Club - Day 2
by Chris Dando 7 Mar 2015 08:38 GMT
5-8 March 2015
Change at the top
The Royal Varuna Yacht Club appreciate the support from North Sails and Land Rover Thailand to ensure that the competitors had the same excellent equipment throughout the event. This was emphasised on the second day of this year's closely fought event. This gave all of the sailors an equal opportunity to demonstrate their skills in the Platu 25 class boats used for the event.
With the racing underway on time in a great south-westerly wind and sunshine, it was one of the founders of the event, Morten Jacobson (THA), who started in fine form by winning his first 4 matches. This included a key win against Mati Sepp (EST) who had been joint leader with Maximilian Soh (SIN) overnight. The race was decided by the narrowest margin with Mati ahead for most of the run down to the finish, but Morten just managing to get across the finish line ahead as Mati did his penalty turn for an earlier infringement.
Maximilian Soh (SIN), a winner in Thailand at previous matchrace events, was soon back on the water. In his first race of the day, he met up with Mati! After a tough battle it was Mati who took the win to maintain his challenge for the leadership of the competition.
Maximilian bounced back with a win in his next match but then came across Kohei Ichikawa (JPN) and it was Kohei who came out on top in a significant race between the two teams.
With the leaders close on points it was the last races of the day that were to decide the final overnight order after all the teams had sailed against each other in the round robin series. Morten continued to sail consistently and made no mistakes against his opponents including Kohei. However the top seed, Staffan Lindburg (FIN) was over his jet lag and getting up to speed. In the final matches of the day he first scored a win against Mati and then followed this up with a further victory against Maximilian.
The very competitive round robin series has laid the foundation for the quarter finals on Saturday with Morten Jacobson leading the event.
Results after Day 2:
1st Morten Jakobsen (THA) 8-1
2nd Mati Sepp (EST) 7-2
3rd Kohei Inchikawa (JPN) 6-3
4th Maximilian Soh (SIN) 6-3
5th Jon Eriksson (FIN) 5-4
6th Staffan Lindberg (FIN) 5-4
7th Marek Stanczyk (POL) 4-5
8th Ebrahim Abdulla (BHR) 3-6
9th Vanjamas (THA) 1-8
10th Williwat (THA) 0-9