New and old Slovenian National Match Race Champions 2014

10 Teams from 5 Countries, 7 in Top 100, 6 J-24 Boats, 3 Days of Racing...it as a special weekend in Izola, Slovenia. We started the event in Izola with 3 races on Day 1 and finished with 2-1 score...

With the SW breeze from 8 to 12 kts on Day 2 we started again with 2-1 score to put us on 3rd place overall with 4-2. Our last 3 matches of the Round Robin came in late afternoon and the wind played it's part in the last 2 when we had a nice lead it decided to play a game with us and let our opponent to win the match. We finished in a Tie with 2 Slovenian teams...luckily we had a 2nd chance for the National Title.

Early Sea breeze on last day promised for exiting racing and boy it was...in a knock-out stages we were almost left for dead but we came back fighting with 2-1 win in quarters againts Patrik Zbroja (POL), semifinal loss was decided with unlucky penalty at the start of match 1 for us...so it was the National Title decider in Petit Final againts our Sparing partner Gorazd Rajar...it turned out a bit more practice in light winds for us was the key in winner takes all third match after two triller matches tied the teams on 1-1.

We managed to defend the Slovenian Match Race Title that gives us the rights to participate at European Championship in Poland in July.

Action packed weekend at Grade 3 in Izola...February in Antibes, France here we come!

Amazing Day 1 with perfect sailing conditions with 6 to 10 kts of south-westerly breeze aloud Race Committe to finish 12 Flights of 15 schedule in Full Round Robin....we finished the day on 5 wins and 1 loss againts Round Robin winner Binder (AUT) in a fierce battle with lead change in 2nd upwind....there were a few surprises along the day with 8 teams still possible to qualify for semis...

 

Day 2 started with storms and squals of 30+kts so it was time to watch olympic mens downhill...but at 12h we got cleared to go out to finish 3 flights of RR...with only 1 win againts Litkey (HUN - Act 1 winner) and 2 losses we had to wait for 4 way tie calculation...as semis were already canceled we got the match for 3rd place againts Mallindine (GBR)...we controled the prestart with opponent penalty down at the start...but as it turned out the speed upwind was the key in this match with wind coming and going it was hard to catch back up...

Round Robin Results

Final Results

Gallery Day 1

Gallery Day 2

February in Antibes, France here we come...we have another Grade 3 with 12 teams from 6 countries on Beneteau First 7.5 boats this week with talented entry field it will be a great fight for overall win...more here

Entry List:

1. Arthur Herreman - FRA - 34

2. Dejan Presen - SLO - 36

3. Lorenz Mueller - SUI - 39

4. Philip Bendon - IRL - 48

5. Halvor Friisk - NOR - 82

6. Emmanuel Taine - FRA - 171
7. Sofian Bouvet - FRA - 246

8. Nelson Mettraux - SUI - 338

9. Pierre Quiroga - FRA - 720

10. Jean Baptiste Bernaz - FRA
11. Dimitri Deruelle - FRA

12. David Tabb - GBR

2nd at the last event of the season

We are happy to finish the season on a high note with the 2nd place...but with only 5 matches sailed every point was critical for the final result....as the wind forecast was not promising we were ready for anything. With a long wait ashore for Group B on Saturday we made everything possible for the fans at home to watch the first ever Live Stream Broadcast of sailing from Slovenia....if you missed the action check it out...

Our racing has started in the late afternoon on Saturday with the really light tricky wind....30sec into the prestart we already penalized our opponent...and won the prestart but they made a nice comeback rounding the top mark just in front of us...we manage to overtake them in the downwind...sailed to prefered side of the race course and extended to the finish...

Day 1

Sunday morning suprised us with a nice sunshine and a fresh brezze around 10 kts...our opponent in the first match was out training partner from November, Hrvoje Petrovic (CRO)...with more experience from the last few season of match racing we manage to trick him to be late at start and from than on we never looked back and sailed to a comfortable win....again wind stoped just few minutes after flight 2 of Group B...

Day 2

After a good hour of waiting Race Committe finaly good the wind we were waiting for with a sea brezze filling the bay of Izola...we manage to do 3 more races...againts Tymon Sadowski (POL) our bad decision to give them the left side of the course left us 3 boat lenghts behind until the 2nd top mark rounding...when we manage to close the gap but it was not enough to win as we lost in the last gybe to the finish....4th match againts Binder (AUT) was exciting as all the matches we had in Act 1...we got a quick penalty in the prestart but we won the left side of the course...as we couldn't extend the lead to do the penalty we made every trick in the book in the last downwind....not hoisting the spy....to slow sailing with overtrimmed sails...but finally just before the finish we manage to trap him at the committe boat to cancel the penalty and win the match....the comment from the team was ''even Alpari WMRT didn't had this exciting matches''....last match  againts Mueller (SUI) decided the winner of our Group B....we had the control of the prestart action to start a few boat lenghts ahead and we manage to stay ahead until the finish.....after long waiting for a new wind the RC was forced to finish with only Group stage completed...that left us in 2nd place overall just behind the top seed Tomislav Basic (CRO) who won all his matches in Group A....

Prize Giving - 2nd Place

Results:

Round Robin - Group A

Round Robin - Group B

Final Results - Overall

Photo Gallery - Day 1

Photo Gallery - Day 2

Article from the organizer about CWMRS - Act 2

4th at CWMRS Act 1

Windy opening to Cleanport Winter Match Race Series 2013/14 in Izola, Slovenia with 15 to 25 kts...we started Day 1 with a win againts Binder (AUT) leading all the way around the course but they came very close at the finish....Match 2 againts Litkey (HUN) was a different story we made a small mistake just before the start and there was no coming back...3rd Race we dominated from start to finish giving our opponent no chance...then came interesting 4th Match with our opponents not wearing Personal Floating Devices as asked from Race Committe with the Y Flag....with big puffs hitting us in the prestart we made a bad judgment just before the start letting opponent start windward of us...but we learned one new useful information after the hearing....last all important match in Round Robin 1 was an easy win againts Sadowski (POL)...with a 3-2 score we finished second in Group A behind Litkey (5-0) and in front of Binder (3-2).

Results: 

Round Robin 1 - Group A

Round Robin 1 - Group B

We qualified to the top Round Robin 2 - Group A for places 1 to 6....in Match 1 we again dominated prestart with 2 pens to Kircher (AUT) and an easy win...next up was a match with our training partners Gorazd Rajar...with a small advantage to them just after prestart we managed to come back in 1st upwind and hold them off until the finish....last match againts Zbroja (POL) was deciding the finalists...in interesting prestart we missed the pin layline giving them a small advantage at the start as they managed to keep the 3 boat lengths lead all around the course....

Results:

Round Robin 2 - Group A (1 - 6 Place)

Round Robin 2 - Group B (7- 12 Place)

With finishing 3rd in RR2 Group A we qualified to Petit Final againts Binder (AUT)...we made 2 bad matches with small mistakes we will fix before the next event in just 3 weeks....

Final Results

Photo Gallery

Bohemia Apple - Title Sponsor for the Team

Here it is the big news we have been promising....we are proud to announce that our team is supported by Bohemia Apple as the Title Sponsor....this is a great boost for us as we are now attacking the top 30 on the ISAF World Match Race Rankings....during the winter months the team will do a series of Grade 3 Match Race events in preperation for the Grade 2's in 2014...don't miss our Upcoming Events schedule...

Bohemia Apple Racing:

Dejan Presen - Helm

Miha Truden - Trimmer

Robert Vysata - Main/Pit

Marko Pihlar - Main/Tactics

Aljoša Cilenšek - Bow

Gal Potrč Pajk - Pit/Bow

Žiga Tratenšek - Bow/Main

Nice video explaining positions on the boat

Match Race Training - Autumn 2013

We had a great 3 day Training in Izola on J-24 boats before the upcoming Winter Match Race Series....with Rajar Match Race Team on day 1 and Hrvoje Petrović joining us with his team for day 2 and 3....we feel ready to attack the Top 30 by the end of the year....Check out the Video :)

Austrian Match Racing Tour Final, Vienna - Grade 3

Full report...from the Austrian Match Racing Tour Final in Vienna. Day 1 and 2 with the wind 15 kts and gusting 20+ provided some exciting action on the water....lead changes, crashes, penalties in almost every match on a tight race course meant for some tight results...we finished with the score 6-3 and a Quarter Finals place....

Day 3 as the forecast predicted there was no wind and rain...so no racing for the knock-out stages...everything was counted back to friday results so 1 win/loss was the difference for 1st or 8th place....now we are looking forward to the Winter Match Race Series in Izola...and some more interesting news from the team coming up soon...