10:55 PM Thu 22 Oct 2009 GMT
Ten skippers competed last weekend at the 7th Bentley Geneva Match Race on the Bay of Geneva. Keith Swinton and his Black Swan Racing team won the event defeating Staffan Lindberg 2-1 in the final.
Swinton and Bertrand Pace met in the semifinals. Pace won the first two flights, but Swinton gained momentum and took the next three to progress to the finals.
'This is the first time I sailed on this ship type (Surprise) and the first time I am in Geneva. In the harbor, the wind shifted a lot and had to quickly get used to these conditions. The fact that there is much wind we certainly benefit from since we have Perth, there is always a sea breeze for the final Sunday, the wind is still rising in strength and smoothness, which we has simplified the task at the tactical level, leaving less room for luck' commented Swinton.
For Bertrand Pace on his first experience sailing at the Geneva Match Race. 'It is always a bit frustrating to finish third when we led 2 to 0 in the semi-finals. But the wind strengthened and the Australian sailed better than us. He clearly had better control of his boat. But overall, we are delighted with this our first experience in the Bise Geneva.'
From Keith Swinton and his Black Swan Racing Team:
Having reached the semi final stage of the competition ranked in third place we raced French Veteran and America's Cup sailor Bertrand Pace in the best of five semi-finals. As we sailed out onto Lake Geneva conditions seemed light however a steady 12-18 knot northeast breeze built in for the start of racing.
In our first two races, Pace gave us some sailing lessons particularly in the second race. Despite leading with a penalty against Pace he managed to overtake us on the downwind leg from here he to sailed us past the bottom rounding mark whilst luffing us to equalise the penalties.
Being two down we needed a big turn around to get back into the regatta. We started the third race behind Pace but sailed well picking a nice left hand wind shift to gain the lead. From here we sailed well to take the win. We knew if we could win the second race and level the series we'd be right in the game. We started well winning the favoured right hand side of the start and crossing teo lengths ahead of Pace as the boats met. From here we managed to defend our lead and level the semi final series 2-2.
Going into the last race we had the momentum. We pulled off a great start, crossing Pace on the start line on port tack. From this position we worked the right side of the course to hold off the fast finishing French and take our place in the final.
Going into the best of three final against Staffan Lindberg of Finland we were very confident. Our first race featured a big collision between the two yachts as we hit Lindberg during the pre-start manoeuvring. Lindberg was given the penalty however our boat was taking on water. Luckily we started ahead and managed to nurse the boat around the course and take race 1. Because of the damage the umpires conducted a race hearing, they deducted Lindberg a full point for damage whilst we were given some blame for the incident and given a half point deduction. This meant we needed 1 more win from 2 races to take the title.
Again we started well leading off the line. Despite Lindberg's best efforts to get into the race we kept control and finished with a comfortable lead winning the 2009 Bentley Geneva Match Race.
'It was a great relief to get a win on the board. Nick Bastow, Ed Hill and Tudor Owen did a fantastic job keeping us in it. We were nearly out against Pace but fought back and after this it was our day' Keith Swinton BSR helmsman.
Final Results
1st Keith Swinton (AUS)
2nd Staffan Lindberg (FIN)
3rd Bertrand Pace (FRA)
4th Jerome Clerc (SUI)
5th Alexis Littoz (FRA)
6th Eric Monnin (SUI)
7th Prezemeck Tarnacki (POL)
8th David Chapman (AUS)
9th John Sheedy (IRL)
10th Jure Orel (SLO)
Black Swan Racing would like to thank our following supporters.
South of Perth Yacht Club
Brian Kerman from Kerman Contracting
Brad Abbott from Abbotts PTY LTD Chartered Accountants
Musto Australia and Scott Olney from Musto Western Australia/Liquid Leisure Agencies
Philip Ericson from Trendmark Sweden Agent for Musto
The Ron Tough Yachting Foundation
Balck Swan Racing website:
click here
by Sail-World.com/Black Swan Racing
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Double Is Pt, QLD
