Black Sheep Out

By Tom | Published: August 28, 2010

We had three remaining matches to conclude the round robin here at the Knickerbocker Cup and we lost them all. The errors varied from race to race and each loss was by no more than a length. In sum, our performances in this regatta have been well below the standard we set ourselves. The fault is all ours and we will remedy this as we work towards becoming more consistent.

The quarter finalists are Eugieny Neugodnikov (RUS), Bill Hardesty (USA), Phil Robertson (NZL), William Tiller (NZL), Anna Tunnacliffe (USA), Sally Barkow (USA), Dave Perry (USA) and Taylor Canfield (USVI).  Racing is currently underway. We will be supporting our fellow Kiwis!

Next up on the list for us is a much needed ten day break before heading to Korea to compete in the Hahn River International Match Race.

Black Sheep Racing would like to thank the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, friends and family for your support. Thank you!

Black Sheep Racing

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Black Sheep do it Tough at the Knickerbocker Cup

By Tom | Published: August 27, 2010

We didn’t get off to the best start at defending our Knickerbocker Cup title, finishing the day on 3 wins and 5 losses. True to form we have made it hard for ourselves going into day two. This now means we have to win our remaining three matches to make the top six.

We had plenty of close races, with penalties going either way, but more often than not, couldn’t quite finish the job.

We have the first six races off tomorrow so will have time to relax and have an easy morning, before finishing our remaining round robin matches tomorrow afternoon.  The pressure will be on but we know we perform best under pressure so look to see us come out firing. This is a similar position to where we were last year after day one so we know we can come back from this.

Racing can be seen live at: http://www.manhassetbayyc.org/Default.aspx?p=DynamicModule&pageid=227670&ssid=76747&vnf=1

Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the live stream.

Black Sheep would like to thank the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, friends and family for their support. Thank you!

Regards,

Black Sheep Racing

Tom Bentham

Reuben Corbett

Brad Farrand

Andrew Clouston

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Dog Day in Detroit

By Tom | Published: August 22, 2010

Howdy all,

Black Sheep won two from three today. The entire first flight was raced in very marginal conditions as half the competitors requested redress due to the course being lop sided. However, the race committee was determined to finish the round robin regardless, so all results stood. We didn’t request redress but we did lose the match despite leading until halfway down the final run. It was almost one of those races where you are too far ahead which increases the risk if a shift or significant change in pressure occurs. We lost our race to Chris Van Tol (USA) to then beat Sergey Muskhin (RUS) and Taylor Canfield (USVI).

Start Gun

The organizing authority decided to cancel the quarter finals as they are worried about completing the format. Dave Perry 9 wins, Taylor Canfield 8 wins, Laurie Jury, Anna Tunnicliffe, Bill Hardesty and Black Sheep are all on 7 wins. Six doesn’t go into four so the semi final competitors had to be worked out using the count back system. This worked in favour of Laurie Jury and Anna Tunnicliffe. Top ranked Dave Perry had the right to choose his opponent, he chose Taylor Canfield. This leaves Laurie Jury and Anna Tunnicliffe to race in the other semi final. Weather conditions remain marginal so everything is on hold at the moment.

Black Sheep finished in sixth place. It’s a tough way to be knocked out of a regatta but that’s the nature of the beast. The team is now getting ready for the last regatta of the USA Trifecta which is held at Manhasset Bay, New York.

Black Sheep would like to thank the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, friends and family for their support. Thank you!

Regards,

Black Sheep Racing

Tom Bentham

Reuben Corbett

Brad Farrand

Andrew Clouston (Coach)

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Black Sheep Still In The Hunt

By Tom | Published: August 21, 2010

Howdy all,

Black Sheep had to wait for eighteen matches before it was their turn to hit the water again. At 4pm they ventured out for three races. Black Sheep won their first race against Nicolai Sehested but lost their following race to Bill Hardesty courtesy of a bad start.

picking the next puff

The last and final race of the day was against Anna Tunnicliffe. Black Sheep had the better start slightly, protected the right for the most part of the beat before deciding to head left for more pressure. However, there was a right hand shift which proved more worthwhile so Black Sheep rounded the top mark right behind them. Black Sheep are showing some great pace downwind and with good positioning slipped inside them at the bottom mark. Black Sheep protected the right throughout the beat slowly pushing Anna and her team out to the port layline. Unfortunately Black Sheep were a bit generous in the final lee bow allowing them to live there. A luffing duel ensued near the top mark before both boats tacked for the mark, they shut Black Sheep out at the mark and the umpires agreed The Sheep didn’t have room so they were behind with a penalty, race over.

The remaining nine matches in the round robin will be completed tomorrow along with quarter finals, weather permitting.

Competitors / Results (win/loss)

Dave Perry (USA)    7-1

Bill Hardesty (USA)     7-4

Laurie Jury (NZL)     7-4

Anna Tunnicliffe (USA)   7-4

Taylor Canfiled (USVI)    6-2

Black Sheep (NZL)     5-3

Chris Van Tol (USA)     5-3

Sergey Musikhin (RUS)     4-4

William Tiller (NZL)     4-4

Hendrick Haddad (BRA)    3-8

Nicolai Sehested (DEN)     2-9

Kent Colpaert (USA)     0-11

Black Sheep Racing would like to thank Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, friends and family for their support. Thank you!

Regards,

Black Sheep Racing

Brad Farrand

Tom Bentham

Reuben Corbett

Andrew Clouston (Coach)

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Black Sheep Hit the Water in Detroit

By Tom | Published: August 20, 2010

Plenty of racing on day one in Detroit at the Bayview Yacht club, situated on lake St Clair. The racecourse is situated directly in front of the clubhouse which provides great viewing for the spectators. As you would expect there was quite a lot to be gained from staying out of the current. Today, the race committee completed almost half a round robin so they will be looking to complete it tomorrow.

Competitors / Results (win-loss)

Anna Tunnicliffe (USA)     5-0

Laurie Jury (NZL)     4-1

Black Sheep Racing (NZL)    4-1

Dave Perry (USA)      4-1

Bill Hardesty (USA)      3-2

Taylor Canfiled (USVI)     3-2

Chris Van Tol (USA)     2-2

William Tiller (NZL)     2-3

Sergey Munsikhin (RUS)     1-3

Henrique Haddad (BRA)     1-4

Kent Colpaert (USA)     0-5

Nicolas Sehested (DEN)    0-5

We had a beautiful westerly breeze and started the day with a loss to US legend, Dave Perry. This was our only loss for the day and currently we are sitting in second equal on four wins and one loss, with Dave and fellow Kiwi Laurie Jury. Leading the way is defending champ and Beijing gold medallist, Anna Tunniclifffe on 5 wins. The two sides of the draw will meet tomorrow.

Probably our best race was our come from behind victory against Henrique Hadddad (BRA). We lost the start but managed to keep it close and make some small gains by following him for the first part of the run. Henrique then gybed out into the current back to the mark, but we chose to continue, picking up some more pressure and spending longer out of the current. We gybed back on a perfect layline enabling us to enter the two boat-length zone at the bottom mark overlapped inside and entitled to mark room. Henrique then didn’t give us enough and forced us wide where he was then given a red flag penalty, to be completed immediately. We were able to cover from here to win the race.

We have the morning off tomorrow so will be able to have a sleep in and will be looking to continue our good start to the regatta.

The regatta updates and live streaming of racing can be viewed at http://www.byc.com/

Black Sheep Racing would like to thank the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, friends and family for their support. Thank you!

Until tomorrow,

Black Sheep Racing

Brad Farrand

Tom Bentham

Reuben Corbett

Andrew Clouston (Coach)

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Black Sheep make Finals

By Tom | Published: August 16, 2010

Hi all,

They do it differently here in Chicago as the top qualifier chooses their opponent and boat for the quarter finals. Surprisingly we were the last team to be chosen despite our results leading into the quarter finals. Don Wilson (USA) was nominated our competitor. Don beat us in the round robin but our team sailed well leading from start to finish in both quarter final races, winning 2-0.

Laurie Jury (NZL), Taylor Canfield (USVI) and Mike Buckley (USA) were the other successful quarter final competitors. Taylor Canfield, being the top ranked chose to race Mike Buckley who again caused an upset to beat Taylor 3-0 in there semi final. Laurie Jury and Black Sheep were once again paired together for a semi final, where all five races included penalties, lead changes and overall some thrilling match racing for the spectators. After being down 2-1 Black Sheep pulled through to win 3-2 thanks to some great team work.

Come finals time the wind started playing tricks shifting 90deg+ in either direction, predominantly offshore. That combined with an ever increasing sloppy sea state with a race track held a couple of lengths from the shore made for a fleet racing style final. Mike Buckley and his team who had been sailing the boats really well the entire regatta continued to do so and took out the final 2-1. Black Sheep are happy to have improved their placing from eighth at the beginning of the day to second at the end, however, it isn’t first.

The team now heads for Detroit to compete in the Detroit Cup, grade 2 match race.

Final Standings

1st Mike Buckley

2nd Black Sheep Racing

3rd Taylor Canfield

4th Laurie Jury

5th Bill Hardesty

6th Nicolai Sehested

7th Don Wilson

8th William Tiller

9th Chris VanTol

10th Sergey Musikhin

Black Sheep Racing would like to thank the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, friends and family for their support. Thank you!

Regards,

Black Sheep Racing

Brad Farrand

Tom Bentham

Reuben Corbett

Andrew Clouston

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Black Sheep Scrape Through

By Tom | Published: August 15, 2010

Black Sheep at Chicago Match Cup.

In an ambitious format decision, we set out at the beginning of today to complete a second round robin, after one remaining match from yesterday. In this race we convincingly beat Taylor Canfield to put us on 3 wins from 9 races and 8th in the first round robin.

We now had our work cut out to make the top four and had to win all of our races to be in with a shot. The wind then shut down as the first flight was being started and our race was abandoned. During the long 4 hour delay we had the chance to watch the air and water show taking place overhead. Racing then commenced in marginal conditions and after two flights the racing was called off for the day.

At the end of the day the decision was made to hold quarter finals, so we just scrape through as the bottom qualifier. We now have a clean slate and will find out who we race tomorrow.

Thank you to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, friends and family for your support, it is most appreciated!

Regards,

Black Sheep Racing

Tom Bentham

Brad Farrand

Andrew Clouston

Reuben Corbett

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Black Sheep Win York Cup

By Tom | Published: August 9, 2010

Greetings all,

Black Sheep have begun their North American tour starting with a road trip from New York to Toronto, Canada. The team has a series of regattas including the York Cup, Chicago Match Cup, Detroit Cup and then back to New York for the Knickerbocker Cup.

The team prior to leaving New York

Black Sheep Racing proved the goods in Toronto, Canada where we won the York Cup.

After a poor start to the regatta, the team gradually came together throughout the event to qualify for the semis in second place. We then won the semi final 2-0 before taking out the final 3-1 against Peter Wickwire.

The aim of this event was to hone the teams skills prior to the Chicago Match Cup held August 13th- 15th as Andrew Clouston has joined the team for the next set of regattas. With Andrew doing his maiden regatta on the bow and Tom doing main for the first time in a long while we were all a little out of our comfort zone but it came together in the end.

We also continue our rise up the rankings, the latest of which includes our second placing at the Manu Minard Trophy in France. We moved up seven places to 18th.

The York Cup with Toronto skyline in the background.

We would like to thank the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, friends and family for their support. Thank you!

Regards,

Black Sheep Racing

Tom Bentham

Andrew Clouston

Brad Farrand

Reuben Corbett

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BSR Foot it with the Best‏

By Tom | Published: August 5, 2010

Howdy all,

First up on the schedule this morning were semi finals where both pairs resumed battle after concluding yesterday all tied up at one a piece. Pierre-Antoine Morvan (FRA) beat Alvaro Marinho (POR) 3-1 while we beat our intense rival Eugeniy Neugodnikov (RUS) 3-2 after again losing the first match of the day.

Finals action

So the final was set, Pierre-Antoine Morvan otherwise known as PAM up against Black Sheep Racing. PAM was actually our training partner prior to the event so we knew each other fairly well come finals time. We managed to nail a couple of starts on the trot and again by racing smartly we held PAM off in each race to take a 2-0 lead. The following race intensified, after a split tack start we bounced tack for tack up the beat which included a penalty each for different offenses. PAM held a narrow lead from mark one to take the gun. Race four, again there was a split tack start and we continually traded tacks up the beat until PAM put in a big luff on starboard close to the starboard lay line. Three lengths from the mark both boats came to a stand-still before PAM went for the mark. We were hot on his tail and threw everything at him for the remainder of the race but PAMs team did an exceptional job defending. Race five proved to be much the same as we traded tacks and gybes again but each split a little when the opportunity arose to make the most of the odd patch of breeze.  PAM took it out 3-2 and won the Manu Minard Grade 1 Regatta. Congratulations to PAM and his team!

Black Sheep while disappointed they didn’t put the nail in the coffin are happy with their progress since embarking on this tour. Next up on the list for BSR is a regatta in Toronto Canada August 7th-8th closely followed by a mini tour of the states.

Black Sheep would like to thank the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, friends and family for their support. Thank you!

Regards,

Black Sheep Racing

Brad Farrand

Tom Bentham

Nicolas Derberque

Reuben Corbett

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Black Sheep Prevail in Quarters

By Tom | Published: August 1, 2010

Dear supporters and friends,

Another long day on the water with a directionally steady but significantly patchy breeze tested the patience of many. It was a day of minimal tacks, sailing to the pressure and finding a good lane rather than keeping it tight. Penalties aplenty made many matches closely fought and undecided until umpire calls in the proximity of the finish line. Check out results below:

Quarter Final Results

Mathieu Richard (FRA) vs Alvaro Marinho (POR)   1-3

Eugeniy Neugodnikov (RUS) vs Phil Robertson (NZL)   3-0

Philippe Presti  (FRA) vs Black Sheep Racing (NZL)   2-3

Damien Iehl vs (FRA) Pierre-Anton Morvan (FRA)   1-3

Semi Final Results

Eugeniy Neugodnikov vs Black Sheep Racing   1-1

Alvaro Marinho (POR) vs Pierre-Anton Morvan   1-1

Crossing Presti

The quarter finals were yet another ding dong battle but in the end superior team work prevailed. We had a glamour start in the first race but uncharacteristically struggled for pace to lose the first. Second race, we lost the start but did a great job of minimising the loss and with some new found boat speed took off to even up the scores. Race three we started with pace found clean lanes throughout the race to take the score to match point. Philippe Presti stepped it up in the next match to win a very tight race and levelling the score 2-2. In the decider we were in all sorts of trouble late in the prestart to windward of the line. Presti was leading back fully in control so we took a gamble, hoisted our chute and attacked his leeward quarter on port gybe forcing him to gybe in order to protect his lane to the line. We kept the chute up, took his windward quarter and gybed to leeward of him on starboard from where we gained control, luffed and with a glamour drop from mouse we kept pace to start at the favoured end right on the gun. Presti was slow and at the unfavoured end, from here we didn’t relinquish the lead.

In the semi finals we have had two extremely tight races with Eugeniy Neugodnikov with four penalties included. We took a race each so tomorrow we will resume battle for the finals spot.

Thank you to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, friends and family for your support and enthusiastic comments!

Bed time,

Black Sheep Racing

Tom Bentham

Brad Farrand

Nicolas Derberque

Reuben Corbett

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