Ireland's Student Match Racing team got their World Championship campaign off to a good start in Crete yesterday, with five wins from six races yesterday giving them the overall lead.
Marty O'Leary, team captain, emailed a bulletin yesterday, with team spirits sounding high.
"Racing started this morning, a little late due to sorting all the boats out, new sails were bought for the event so few small problems there,
"We got in 8 full flights, which is 32 races, we had six races today, against, Denmark, Poland, the womens' olympic team, GBR, Italy and Greece.
"We came out mainly unscathed, with five wins out of six, which should leave us as overnight leaders, only losing to GBR on the finish line and a very exciting race were we trading penalties and lead numerous times, along with a few broaches for good measure.
"GBR won by about four or five inches in the end. The other races had their moments too.
"[We have] another long day ahead of us tomorrow with eight more teams to race, as there are 14 different teams from 11 nations."
There is an event website HERE but little detail has been provided to date.
Update:
Results are a downloadable pdf HERE.
There's also some commentary from day one HERE. Interestingly, the website gushes about the performance of the Singaporean team.
"The most astonishing team today is Team Singapore, making no tactical mistake, but waiting until the other team which she is competing with is making the mistake. This team is sailing perfectly, everyone knows his place on the boat, we can easily see that they trained a lot, and their position in the air (which is also important) is nearly perfect, as every competitor is covering the air of the other without bringing too much resistance. They are really the best ones in sailing today."
Whatever about their 'position in the air' (gotta love that translation) their position on the scoreboard shows that they won three of their six races, two less than Ireland.
The scoreboard also ranks teams in terms of their percentage wins. Team GBR currently lead, on 100%, but having only sailed three races to date.
