11th in Gold Cup

Hi Guys



Lighter breezes were a welcome change on the 4th day of the Gold Cup as we set out for the repechage stage. The competition was no easier than we had previously imagined so the task at hand was not a simple one. Six teams, one round robin with the top two progressing through to the quarter finals.



We started off against Torvar Mirsky where we were deemed over the line at the start, forcing us to re start and fight from behind. A few freak puffs in light conditions gave us the lead again at the top mark but not as much momentum, giving him the opportunity to roll us. He regained the lead and we didn’t get a sniff in as he dominated the race from there.
We then won our race against 5th ranked Damian Iehl after sealing a good start and the early lead. We didn’t let this one slip away, capitalising on our early advantage by extending our lead in the second lap. Next up was local man and Gold Cup veteran Blythe Walker. Down speed off the line we had a fight on our hands. We made little gains up the first beat rounding the mark 1 length behind. Downwind he maintained the small lead until the second beat where we managed to gain the right hand side and starboard advantage. We held him off at the top and rounded the mark, after a big luff by a boat length. We made a small error by letting him gybe first and then the waves we hit after didn’t help. A very close finish was inevitable but another error on our behalf didn’t help the cause and he crossed the line ahead by half a boat length. Disappointing for sure but an area highlighted for us as something to work on. The last race was against Dave Perry another match racing veteran. A great start towards the favoured side sealed the race for us and we extended our lead throughout. Unfortunately only two wins in this round didn’t quite get us through to the next, knocking us out of the competition in a solid 11th place out of 24.

Waka rolling downwind to the finish ahead of Peter Gilmour

This draws our tour to an end for Waka Racing. We were satisfied with the result but a little gutted with missing out on the top 8. Waka sailed well this regatta, being the first time in Bermuda and in boats that were difficult to manoeuvre. We adapted really well to the old, slow and unorthodox characteristics of the IOD’s and managed some really good wins against tough competition.

The team is now looking forward to heading back to the comfort of home. After 6 months of travelling and sailing we are excited about getting back to Mum’s meals and a good bed! Thank You for all your support over the trip and we will send a full summary report when we get back.

We would also like to thank Stefan of Widex, Pacific Sports Community Trust, Ian of Tax Management NZ, Ross Munro of Line 7, RNZYS, Simon from Frontend Design and the WAKA racing supporters club for all their help and generosity.

Cheers,

Waka Boys,

Phil Robertson
Garth Ellingham
James Williamson
Sam Bell

Eyes on the Prize

Supporters and Friends,

Competition here is fierce and the format is ruthless. With 3 groups of 8 we needed to qualify in the top 4 in to go through to the next stage. The top two spots in each group automatically qualify for the quarter finals and the next two move to a repechage round to fight for the remaining two spots in the top 8. We drew a very hard group, Peter Gilmour, Jonny Berntsen and Mathieu Richard have all won the regatta in the past, with Blythe Walker and Mattias Rahm also making the semi finals at in the competition a couple of years ago.

Our solid day yesterday set a great foundation to work off today. We had two wins on the board and knew we needed at least two more to move through. We made quick work of this by taking down Charlie Enright and Don Wilson in our first two races putting us in a good spot on the points board. We then had a slightly disappointing race against Walker, coming off the line behind and with a penalty, the team did a fantastic job catching up. We set up a trap to get rid of our penalty but unfortunately copped another in the process and couldn't come back from there.

With 4 wins, 3 losses on the board we finished 4th in our group and moved through to the next stage ahead of Peter Gilmour and Mattias Rahm. A great achievment for the team to beat them both considering it is our first time competing here in these difficult boats.

The repechage round started with one race for us this afternoon which was unfortunately a loss. We got pinned out in the start and couldn't quite gain enough ground to attack Bjorn Hansen who crossed the line first. Four tough races to go tomorrow which we are all amped for and have our eyes set on making the quarter finals.

Thanks for all you support and encouragement.

From the 'Island of Love',

The Waka's

Phil Robertson
Garth Ellingham
James Williamson
Sam Bell

Bermuda Gold Cup Day 2

Hi all,
After no racing for us yesterday (due to lack of wind) we finally got onto the water racing today. We had four races against the top four ranked skippers in our pool. The conditions were a puffy strong breeze that made the International One Designs (IOD) quite a handful, with two of the races being sailed with no kites.
First race was against Mattias Rahm where we got a solid windward start with gauge that enabled us to lead around the top mark. Fortunately for us when he turned around the mark his boom clipped the top mark and the umpires gave him a penalty. Then at the bottom with him right behind us he was judged to have hit us from behind and was given another penalty. The final straw came when he didn't do this second penalty immediately and was given the "black flag". First win on the board.
Second race was against the defending champion from last year Johnie Berntsson. We dominated the first part of the pre-start forcing a penalty on him in the dial up but then got ourselves into trouble allowing Johnie to pin us and get us slow to convincingly win the start. We fought hard all race to minimise the gap so he couldn't do his penalty turn but he sailed well and managed to do it and win the race.
Third race was against legend Peter Gilmour whom we had a close race against at the Danish Open. After a tough pre-start in the big breeze Peter came off the line with a windward start and nearly rolled us. We did a nice move luffing him to stop this and forced him to tack off. We then picked a couple of nice shifts to get back to bow to bow with him and when he lee-bowed us we pounced. Managing to partially roll him and take height. Now we had him locked and led around the top mark. With kites back in action the downwinds proved to be ver hairy but the team held its nerve and managed to pull off a close victory that we were very happy about.
The final race against Mathieu Richard proved to be a bit of a disappointment as we had him pinned above the line for most of the pre-start but a boat handling cock up allowed him to break free. Also putting us in a bad situation that we infringed in giving ourselves an soft penalty. We tried hard all race to get rid of the penalty but Mathieu sailed well keeping clean.
Overall the team is pretty happy with the day. If you told us at the beginning of the day we would have two victories against the top four we would definately had taken it. However we know we could have done better. Tomorrow we have three races to finish off our pool with another windy day forcasted. The boys are all keen and ready to go with three wins a must!
Thanks to all our sponsors and supporters for all the encouragement.
Cheers
The WAKA Boys
Phil Robertson
Garth Ellingham
James Williamson
Sam Bell
-- WAKA RACING
email: wakaracing@gmail.com
web site: www.wakaracing.blogspot.com

Bermuda Gold Cup

Hi Guys,

Weeks have past since we last wrote and we have just about completed our tour for the year. We finished the Danish Open 2 weeks ago and are now embarking on the last competition of our tour here on the beautiful island of Bermuda. We are competing in the very very prestigious Bermuda Gold Cup which has been running for over 60 years and we are looking forward to the start of the event in the International One Designs (IOD). We landed here this morning in class, arriving on a private jet belonging to Don Wilson, founder of the Chicago Match Race Centre. We spent the weekend on Lake Michigan doing some much needed training against him in similar boats called Shields. Getting used to the characteristics of the old boats was the goal with the intentions of being able to jump into the IOD's come race day, and be up to speed.

The funny format of 24 teams split into 3 groups throws a spanner in the works for the team. We have a fairly tough group but are confident we can make a top 4 spot to proceed to the next round. Having raced most of the guys, we know we are strong opposition and look forward to knocking down some more big names in the Match Racing world. This event is also the second to last regatta for the World Tour this year and our 3rd one we have competed in. We are really excited about getting under way and stuck into some fantastic racing. Thanks for all your support and letters of encouragement, it all goes a long way and we are very grateful to have you all behind us.

If you would like to follow the racing live or a little closer than our half assed reports you can go to the event website at: www.bermudagoldcup.com/, or www.worldmatchracingtour.com for all the media and links.

Cheers,

WAKA Boys

Phil Robertson
Garth Ellingham
James Williamson
Sam Bell