The 2010 March Match Cup was hosted by Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club on the club’s fleet of BW8 class yachts. Our team for this event consisted of Michael Taylor, Nadia Punselie, Thor Schoenhoff and Anna Aile from Latvia.
Our regatta started off well with two solid wins over David Gilmour and Peter Nicholas’s teams. These two races were sailed in very Easterly strong winds and with a sail suit consisting of just a reefed main and number 3 jib up.
After such a positive start we were keen to maintain this momentum. We managed to do this by also defeating Christopher Lee and team from Singapore University Management, Adele Jackson and her women’s team from South of Perth Yacht Club and also a victory in a tight race against fellow RFBYC Youth Squad sailor Brett Sharpe. So at this stage we were 5-0 and looking for a victory in the final race of the round robin to secure a perfect scorecard for Round Robin 1.
However this didn’t eventuate as we suffered a loss to the lowest ranked team from the University of Western Australia, skippered by Luc Tasker who sailed a great race. A poor start and poor race throughout cost us the perfect start to the regatta.

It was now late on Day One and race officer John Taylor decided to get the first flight of the second round robin out of the way before the conclusion of the day. This meant we faced Peter Nicholas and his team again.
In this race we had the smallest of leads going into the bottom mark rounding however an incident at this mark ended up costing us the race as an umpire call went against us and left us lagging behind. Luckily we had the umpires debrief later that night to clear our minds of it!
Day two begun with a race against David Gilmour and team and this was a very close race. We unfortunately obtained a penalty in the prestart and this ended up putting us behind early on the first upwind as we took it out near the port hand layline. We then fought our way back into the race and into a winning position however  a small mistake in one of our luffs downwind with Dave left us broaching and eventually losing the race.
After a far from perfect start to the second round robin now on two losses we were keen to get back on the winner’s list. We managed to do this with a win against the Singaporean team again and also with a win against Adele and her team after a very interesting prestart where both teams entered from the port end!
We then faced Brett Sharpe and Luc Tasker in our final two races and also secured victories in these races to leave us in equal second but third on count back after the completion of both of the Round Robin’s.
For the Semi Final’s David Gilmour chose to race Brett Sharpe, which left us fighting for a finals birth against Peter Nicholas. We begun with a close win in the first to two points Semi’s and then went on to secure a comprehensive victory with a dominant second race and secure our spot in the final.
Team Gilmour suffered a loss to Brett Sharpe in their first race but then went on to win the next two and advance through to race us in the Final.
The Finals were raced on Monday morning in yet another Easterly wind and this turned the finals series into a fight for the first wind pressure and shift. In the first race we managed a close victory after Team Gilmour hooked a crab pot on the second upwind.
In the second race David and team found that first shift and extended away to even the score at 1-1. It then went into a sudden death final race, one which we managed to dominate and convincingly sail home with the win to secure the 2010 March Match Cup. Peter Nicholas and team defeated Brett Sharpe to clinch 3rd overall in the Petit Final.
I would like to thank my team of Michael, Nadia, Thor and Anna as they did an awesome job the whole weekend. I would also like to thank RFBYC for their continued support and for hosting the event. Thanks must also go to all of the volunteers and umpires who gave their time to make the event possible, to Zhik for sponsoring the event and continuing to support the RFBYC Youth Squad and to Chappell Lambert & Everett for sponsoring the event!!!