December 16, 2022
1 minute reading time
Sydney's southerly turns on for Quarter-finals
The southerly breeze increased again today on Sydney’s iconic Harbour for Day 3 of the World Match Racing Tour Final 2022 at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. Completing the repechage round, the top eight teams now advance to the first-to-three point quarter-final stage.
As the forecasted southerly breeze built to a fresh 18-25 knots ion Sydney Harbour today with gusts of 30knots in 22 degrees sunshine, it was a test of the best match racing skills as eight teams battled for a place in the quarter-final to join USA’s Chris Poole and Denmark’s Jeppe Borch who already secured their place from the qualifying round.
Local Sydney sailor Cole Tapper and USA’s Dave Hood/DH3 Racing were the first to depart the competition, both strong teams, showing the breadth of the competition at the WMRT Final.
“We had a shocker today to be honest,” commented Tapper on his return to the dock. “We had opportunities in every race, but poor decisions cost us today – there have been no easy races this week, but we have really enjoyed the event and it has been a great experience being part of the world championship”.
The remaining six teams joined Borch and Poole to complete the draw for the quarter-finals which got underway in the late afternoon after the skippers drew their opponents in front of the Sydney Opera House.
Completing the first flight of the quarter-finals before the end of the day, event favourites Chris Poole, Jeppe Borch, Nick Egnot-Johnson and Harry Price went to win their opening matches against their chosen competitors.
The forecast for tomorrow is expecting all but the same conditions with the Southerly breeze set in for the weekend.
Racing for Day 4 starts tomorrow at 1200 AEST with live coverage by Adventures of a Sailor Girl, Nic Douglass which will be streamed across the World Match Racing Tour channels.
Results after Day 3
Text and images courtesy of WMRT.com