Summary of our Days at Kuala Terengganu
We won the Championship last weekend at Kuala Terengganu, everything looks so easy on the news we were kinda portrayed liked it was an easy win but was it?...
It wasn't.
The level of match racing in Malaysia keep increasing every year, and the event were much more worthy of the grade 3 event tag compared to the years before. Winning it was an uphill task and here is our account...
Despite not being the defending champion we have always been one of the firm favorites to win it. For on paper every single crew member have won something on their own or with the team .
On day one and two, we were rusty and nervous, almost throwing our first race away. We also took a lot of penalties and even received a black flag on day one. We tried to improve on day two but our progressed was slow but was lucky to end the day winning 3 matches in a row and also taking a race off the defending champion
On day 3, we identified 2 weakness, our speed was not up to the par in the light wind, and we were too aggressive in trying to get other teams penalty. So we took some measure in overcoming the weakness, we made 2 rules, rule 1 we are not allowed to point at all today and rule 2, we remained aggressive but avoid contact with
another boat at all cost.
It started really well, until we gave away 2 races in a row, putting us in a very vulnerable position. We had to win the remaining 2 matches for a spot in semi final, winning one race only may tie us at 9 point with Tiffany and Razali but we will lose out on count back.
so it was risky, but the matter are still on our hand, and we could not rely on others result as we starts early for the last two flight.
We hold on to our breathe and made it. Winning the race against the defending champion and the finalist of MMRC 2009. Both races we won the pre start and lead from the start to the end.
After racing two round robins we begins to feel weary and tired, but despite that we were convinced we are fitter than the other teams and in the semi final against Nik, we took first race without any problem, on second he was late on the pre start, we made most of the opportunity to give him a penalty and he ended up with a black flag.
On the last final race, the pre start was pretty neutral with Nik reaching the windward mark first, we pressed on, and was unfortunate to be penalized for not giving him enough room when we passed by a navigation buoy where our spinnakers touches.
Yet we were not nervous, we tailed him closely, and manged to get under him near windward mark, luffed him up just enough to give us space , while he had bear off to round the mark, we gybe and bear off to offset our penalty inside him...that was our best move in the MMRC2010, we came back side by side heading towards the finishing line, a gybing battle ensued and we came out on top to win the race!
On the Final race, the wind continues to blow, Tiffany started the race really well, we knew her team was tired, and engaged her in a taking duel. We were spot on as she loses out about 2 boats length after few tacking. Knowing that we can take advantage of her weary crews. We continuously engage her in the next two races. We were really tired too but we had our game face on. We were relieved at the end of the day for managing to live up to our team's name.
No comments:
Post a Comment