BNP PARIBAS MATCH RACING INTERNATIONAL REGATTA
After an overnight wind shift of 180 degrees, conditions for the BNP Paribas Match Racing International Regatta finals did not look promising, with a torrential downpour greeting RO Inge Strompf-Jepsen as she made her way out from RHKYC into Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour to check out the breeze and select her race area.
Once the rain had passed, the breeze struggled to get back above 5 knots, however Strompf-Jepsen laid her course a little further east than the previous two days and decided to get proceedings underway in 7 knots. The first two matches got away without difficulty, however by the time match 3 was approaching their first windward rounding, the breeze had died completely, leaving the boats stranded. Strompf- Jepsen made a quick decision to raise the N flag and wait out the quiet patch.
At 1200hrs the RO was on the verge of sending the boats in to shore keep them out of the noonday heat when, literally as she dropped the AP in preparation for AP over H, she spotted breeze coming through the harbour giving 9 knots at the start line.
The finals were back on in a big way, with the breeze holding and gusting up to 19 knots.
The winners of the semifinals were the first boats to register two wins, and Peter Backe managed to subdue Morten Jakobsen in two matches, giving his team a break before the finals. Vladimir Lipavsky had to work a little harder, with a blown spinnaker halyard giving the second match to Somerville and taking the semi to a third match. Some spare parts coupled with a Russian at the top of the mast sorted out the hitch, and Lipavsky won the third match emphatically to book his place in the final.
After a hiatus during which the draw of boats for the finals was effected, the round robin for 5th to 8th places continued as one match in each flight, with Balladares emerging top of the table with three wins for the day, ahead of Kaye, Mead and Toya.
Somerville polished off Jakobsen in two matches to claim 3rd place, at which point Backe and Lipavsky were 1-1. With a huge rain belt approaching Hong Kong from the west, the breeze was constantly shifting, and several adjustments were made to the ODM and to W2 and W3 to ensure the competitors could not lay the windward mark from the start. In the third match, which started in 18 knots, Lipavsky seemed to be well ahead until a less-than-smooth kite drop at the leeward mark allowed Backe to claw back the lead and make it 2-1.
The fourth match was the closest sailing seen all weekend with the two finalists covering each other tack for tack in 19 knots. In spite of a fiercely competitive race from Lipavsky, Backe managed to remain in the ascendancy and claimed his third win to take the Regatta.
At a spirited prizegiving the International Umpiring team of Marianne Middelthon, Masaaki Tanaka, Tome Sheppard and Tony Lu, together with their assistants, were thanked long and hard for their time and efforts on the course while a special cheer was reserved for Inge Strompf-Jepsen, RO for both this event and the recent BNP Paribas Hong Kong Nationals.
BNP Paribas Match Racing International Regatta – Final Results
Place Wins Skipper
1 11 Peter Backe (Sweden)
2 7 Vladimir Lipavsky (Russia)
3 8 Tim Somerville (Australia)
4 5 Morten Jackobsen (Thailand)
5 5 Ridgely Balladares (Philippines)
6 5 Marty Kaye (Hong Kong)
7 3 Laurence Mead (Great Britain)
8 1 Toshio Toya (Japan)