Group 1, Qualifying Session 1
Phil Robertson:
“It was good, nice just getting back into the swing of things. It was very much a starting day, if you get ahead you get to stay ahead. Nice day, nice breeze, little bit shifty, breeze up and down, so, kept everyone on their toes.
It averaged about 12 knots, probably dropped down to about 8 knots at one stage, top end 14 knots.
Nothing too out of the blue. Everyone seemed to be going pretty fast. Placing your boat right seemed to be the key. A couple of times we got nice starts and it lead to race wins, a couple of others we were a bit deep and it was hard and we were battling.
Matt had a pretty good day, I think he had a little wobble there, race 2, but they’re a fast team and always going pretty nicely, and if they can get a clean start they’re definitely a bit of a threat.
I’ve never sailed out there, it’s a nice area, it’s shallow, so the water was quite steep, steep waves, choppy, 2-foot chop, which made it that more challenging. It’s a nice race course.”
Matt Jerwood:
“You can’t complain. You’re always aiming just to have a solid first day, no crashes, no massive blowouts, we’re pretty happy.
The last race was definitely the best, we just nailed the start and the first gybe and we were gone, we were absolutely launched. It was an easy race from the there.
The first race was really close, we had a good fight with Phil Robertson and PJ Postma all the way around, but our tactician kept putting us in the right place and we just snuck around Phil at the final mark.
Race 2, we were a bit slow to deploy off the start, the wind went a bit soft and we were slow to get our gunmaker out. From there we actually sailed a pretty nice race, but we were just too far behind to get back into it. We were a bit disappointed because it was a pretty basic error, but we’ll move on and learn from it.
The wind really dropped down in the middle two races, the last race it came back up again. It was quite tricky out there, there was a little bit of current running we thought, but that wasn’t a major factor, it was more getting the start right.
As frustrating as it is drawing the number one seed in your group it always toughens you up for the coming regatta. It’s always fun racing Phil because he and his boys are so good, you’re racing the best in the world when you race Phil.”
Viktor Serezhkin
“It was a good day. We stuffed one (race) up with the gennaker sheet, there was a big heel, the loops were swimming and then looped round the rudder. It was disappointing for us, we finished last, we touched the boundary, they (the umpires) gave us a penalty. But after that, in the next race, we recovered and finished second.
I don’t know the conditions here, I sailed here 8 years ago, but I’m told the westerly winds are typical.
I think if we can cut out these situations (the mistake) we can do well. I think our group was quite strong with Robertson, Jerwood and PJ Postma. At the starts, upwind was quite good and downwind was not quite right. But if we can finish second in this group it’s not bad.”
Pieter-Jan Postma
“We had 9-11 knots, medium wind. We had a real nice fight; we had Jerwood and Robertson, so it was quite close racing and I’m really proud of the teamwork, we’re getting there. It felt like we’re on the verge of getting more to the top.”