Disappointment in Poland

The final day of the 6^th stage in the Polish Match Tour brought no luck for the team. We had one re-sail to complete against Polish local Szymon Szymik which took 6 hours to get the race completed. Our first race together was abandoned due to the race committees error with the flags, our second race was also abandoned when the wind changed through 50 degrees, before dying to nothing.

Once we were able to race, we had to win to get through to the semis after other results didn’t go our way. After controlling the pre-start and leading off the line we thought we were in an ideal position. Szymik was 2 boat lengths to leeward and got pressure that never came to us.  We were never able to close the gap after the top mark and ended the event in 5^th position. The eventual winner was decided on the round robin result with Marek Stańczyk winning both the event and the whole Polish Match Tour. After two tough events over the past 10 days in Poland we now travel to Slovenia to compete in our final European event.

Another exciting new event has come up in only the last week for the Freshie Racing Team. We are now heading to South Korea to compete in the Han River International Match race in Seoul on the 9^th of September. Eight teams have been invited to this event including 4 local Korean teams and 4 internationals, with the Freshie Racing Team representing Australia. This will be a great event on the 5 man KM 36’s which are used in the Korea Match Cup, these boats are similar to the Foundation 36 but with mast head A-symmetricals spinnakers. Our team will be boosted with Nic Brownie and Luke Payne joining us for our final event.  The other international teams competing are also very strong with our good friends from Black Sheep Racing representing New Zealand who has had a great European summer winning the grade 1 in Russia and coming second in the Pornichet grade 1.

Freshie Racing would like to thank Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, North Sails Western Australia, Zhik, Ron Tough Yachting Foundation and Peter Chappell for their great support.