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2010 United Insurance Match Cup
Regatta Reports
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2010 United Insurance Match Racing Cup
The inaugural United Insurance 2010 Match Racing Cup has just concluded this past weekend with the crowning of a new champion! Only the third time that Match racing has ever been held in Barbados this type of sailing event is growing in popularity attracting foreign competitors to our shores. This year two teams from Grenada and St. Vincent came to match whit and skill with the Bajans! In match racing it doesn’t matter whether you win by one second, one minute or one mile there is no second place making it one of the most aggressive and competitive forms of racing sailboats of the same design. “Mano a Mano!” this duel takes place on the water and as we saw this weekend there were many deadly dances.
The really important Group stage Knock Out format took place on Saturday December 4. Only 4 boats were going to qualify for the Semis finals and Finals, and therefore every race mattered. No quarter was to be given since each point won was one step closer to the Cup. All the boats would race against each other and it was clear from the start that former champs Hawkeye, owned and skipperd by Robert Povey sponsored by Williams Industries, were the odds on favorite early as throughout the day their dominance and skill prevailed winning all 6 of their races. The real battles were fought out amongst the trenches behind them. The team from St. Vincent, Saltfish, skippered by Phil Barnard started off on the wrong foot with a loss to ISIS, but they soon corrected the imbalance and were able to finish the Group stage strongly with 4 wins. The loss just mentioned to the JADA sponsored ISIS, owned by Greg Webster and skippered by Nick Lashley was to play a pivotal role in the tie break system later in the day. ISIS started strongly with two straight wins, but stumbled during the middle races falling to some great racing by the teams BNB Impulse and Xpelair –Fadeaway . ISIS facing sudden death in its last group stage match race pulled out all the stops in a deadly fight to the finish line with the Grenadian team Island Waterworld –Die Hard. ISIS managed to hold off Die hard forcing them outside of the finish and then whipping the boat around to cross the line just in front. ISIS having fought its way into the Tie Break with with Fadeaway, and the CGI boat Fully Covered, owned and skippered by Bruce Bailey, broke into the Semis in 3rd place overall with 3 points, while Fully Covered also on 3 points decided their tie break having beaten Fadeaway in their Group stage match.
The Semis final stage was set up brilliantly for Sunday December 5th. The return of the reigning champs, and 3 total newcomers to the final stages of the United Insurance Cup! This stage was to be a best of 3 series between 1st and 4th and 2nd versus 3rd. The winners would face each other to determine the overall champs and the losers would battle it out for the runners up 3rd place overall.
It was clear from early on that Hawkeye had its hands full from the start as Fully Covered was out for blood. Hawkeye managed to break away during the initial dial up stage of the 1st match and dominated the race by protecting their lead throughout the match. The first sign that things were not going their way this day was in the 2nd match as Fully Covered did the reverse to them setting up a sudden death 3rd and final Match. In this final match Hawkeye took control early herding their opponent away from the start line, until the optimal moment when they whipped around and turned on the speed to leave their opponent in their wake. Having secured a 2-1 victory Hawkeye was through to the Final! Meanwhile Saltfish found they had their hands full with a fully charged up crew of ISIS. ISIS dominated both starts of their matches against Saltfish herding them away from the start line, and controlling the starts. In each match while ISIS could not cause their opponent to foul them and incur a penalty the tactics of keeping their opponent away from the start line allowed ISIS to cover Saltfish to the bone and control the match thereby exploding into the Final with a 2-0 victory. Saltfish went on to beat Fully Covered 2-1 and claim 3rd place for themselves and St. Vincent. The 2-0 victory for ISIS was critical as it placed ISIS in the favored starboard controlling position at the start of the final stage with the reigning champs Hawkeye.
The Finals – This is what it’s all about, the blood is pumping the Adrenaline is running high and there is no pain, no exhaustion only one goal…Winner takes ALL! Despite ISIS starting in the controlling seat Hawkeye was able to wrestle control away during the initial deadly dance in the start box. After the first couple of circles around one another an attacking move by Hawkeye charging at ISIS on starboard put ISIS on the defensive and they had to back off so as not to incur a penalty. Great boat handling skills by the Hawkeye team allowed them to break away from ISIS getting to the start first and thereby controlling the entire race; 1-0 to Hawkeye. It was Sudden Death now for ISIS as any further loss would mean the championship run was over. They dug deep and went for the kill in the 2nd match immediately. Despite starting on port and with an aggressive series of tacking and gybing eventually putting ISIS into a controlling position in starboard of which they took advantage and attacked Hawkeye who were attempting to break away onto port. Hawkeye was forced to “luff” up and wait to see what ISIS would do. In control of the match now, ISIS broke away from Hawkeye. Despite some extremely close tacking, and gybing down the course Hawkeye could not regain the boat length distance to attack ISIS and a with a good tactical call to go north on the last windward beat and being in place for the favorable wind shift. The 2nd match was over and it is 1-1. ISIS was still in the hunt.
The final match and the madness of the dial up was repeated, circling like sharks trying to close for the kill and this time the ISIS team used the starboard start to their advantage and came out on top forcing Hawkeye into a penalty, The sweet sound of the penalty whistle and Hawkeye had been flagged!! ISIS tried to break away immediately, but this time it was not to so easy as Hawkeye, brilliantly leading ISIS to the start immediately did their penalty and started to reel ISIS back in. With only one leg of the course to go ISIS lead their opponent into the last Leeward mark and during the spinnaker take down Hawkeye hit ISIS with the sail incurring 2nd penalty and effectively being knocked out the race, as ISIS cruised to victory. The JADA sponsored ISIS team went on to close out the finish comfortably and thus be crowned the NEW 2010 United Insurance Cup Match Race Champions!!!
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2010 United Insurance Match Racing Cup
Click here for full results
| Boat Name |
Skipper |
Race 1 |
Race 2 |
Race 3 |
Final |
Final Position |
| J 24 Class |
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| Isis |
N Lashley |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 (Champions) |
| Hawkeye |
R Povey |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
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| Salt Fish |
P Barnard |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| Fully Covered |
B Bailey |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
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