Corbett leads Photo: Chicago Match Cup Event Media

Corbett pre-start Photo: Chicago Match Cup Event Media

Corbett heads into pre-start Photo: Chicago Match Cup Event Media

 

Corbett pre-start Photo: Chicago Match Cup Event Media

Corbett second at the Chicago Match Cup

Three Squadron teams competed at the Chicago Match Cup with Reuben Corbett 2nd, Laurie Jury 4th & William Tiller 8th, 16 August 2010
Report from Reuben Corbett: 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 Reuben Corbett, Black Sheep Racing RNZYS
3rd Taylor Canfield
4th Laurie Jury, Kiwi Match, RNZYS
5th Bill Hardesty
6th Nicolai Sehested
7th Don Wilson
8th William Tiller, Full Metal Jacket, RNZYS
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 are all graduates of the RNZYS Lion Foundation Youth Training Programme, Brad Farrand, Tom Bentham, Reuben Corbett, Andrew Clouston 

Report from William Tiller

Greetings from Full Metal Jacket Racing
It was a tough day on the water for the boys, after qualifying 5th we were chosen by Taylor Canfield who qualified 2nd to race against in the quarter finals. The racing was really tight but we went down 2-1, a couple of mistakes costing us dearly. As there wasn’t time for 5th – 8th sail offs and all the higher ranked people lost their quarter finals it meant that we dropped right down to 8th.
In the deciding race we lead back to the line with him locked in tight to windward, a slight timing error made us early for the line so we had to bear away down the line giving him a gauge to windward start. From this position it took us a long time to close gauge and affect him enough to make him tack. When he tacked off we extended half a length before tacking, with better boat speed we were gradually rolling over the top of him. Nearing the top mark he went for an extremely aggressive luff that caught us out, we thought he was not going to be able to get to us but he did. To keep clear we had to luff hard, from this manoeuvre he managed to build speed better and held a slim advantage for the rest of the race.
Our next regatta is the Detroit Cup starting on the 19th , this regatta is three up, Harry, Daniel and Will are sailing in this regatta while James is off Competing on the Melges 32 circuit.
We would like to say thanks to SLAM, Aon New Zealand and The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
Stay tuned, FMJ Racing, Will Tiller, Harry Thurston, James Maloney, Daniel Pooley
FMJ Racing are all graduates of the RNZYS Lion Foundation Youth Training Programme