Points Get Closer at the Top Into Final Day
Perth, Australia (January 24rd, 2017) – Despite a few upset results on the second day of the Swan River Match Cup, the order of the top three on the leaderboard is unchanged from yesterday. Still looking strong in second place is local skipper Matt Jerwood and his Redline Racing team from South of Perth Yacht Club, just one point off the lead.
Jerwood believes he can take the top spot in the event but acknowledges the expertise of leader Peter Burling from New Zealand. “They are obviously a very professional team,” he said at the end of the day, “and they don’t make many mistakes so when you get your opportunities you’ve got to take them. We were in front a couple of times today but they played some smart moves and we made a mistake and got past us both times.”
Jerwood also went down to local rival Steven Thomas in the battle of the Swan River, with Thomas representing the Royal Perth Yacht Club which lies right across the river from Jerwood’s club, and anything between the two is always the cause of rivalry, though the guys from south of the river denied this. “We try not to worry about that stuff,” said Jerwood, “but it’s always nice to beat Steve, he’s a great sailor, so I love beating him but not too much rivalry.”
Going on to explain the race he said, “We had one loss to Steve. We were behind at the start, and again we were really happy, we gave ourself every opportunity to pass him and we almost got him at the last top gate but he sailed nicely, he got a nice little shift and just snuck past us again.”
Burling’s Kiwi crew suffered an unexpected loss at the hands of fifth placed Will Boulden, yet another Swan River local, from the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club. Boulden crossed the finishing line to huge cheers from the other crews, and commented that perhaps it was the right day to buy a lottery ticket.
Another upset occurred in the final race of the day, when Jeremy Koo of Malaysia beat Sweden’s Måns Holmberg, to score his first win of the regatta. Holmberg had hauled himself up from sixth place overnight, and at one point during the day was in equal second place with Jerwood and Thomas, but his loss to the Malaysians dropped him back to fourth place at the end of the day.
The day started out with a light and shifty east to south-easterly breeze, which was eventually overcome by a sea breeze to give some good racing in the afternoon. This slight delay has put the racing behind schedule and the race committee will wait to see conditions tomorrow before deciding on the programme for the day.
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