NEW NAME!...NEW WEBSITE!

Hi everyone we leave for europe in four days! with our first event starting on the 22nd April in Calpe, Spain. Before that however we have the hugely competitive Young 88 Nationals on the 18-19th of April.

Also we now have a new name that is 'WAKA Racing', therefore we have to get a new website. The new address in http://www.wakaracing.blogspot.com/ . Like the old website we will be updating our progress and uploading reports on our events on the new website. We hope you all continue to follow us with a big year planned in europe.

Cheers,

The Boys from WAKA Racing!

4th in Hardy Cup

It was a tough and disappointing day for the team, after going down 2-0 to Nikki Souter we then lost the petite final 2-0 also putting us 4th overall. We never really fired this regatta, we struggled in the pre start a little, purely because the boats are so manouverable making it hard to trap someone or use our skill and experience to our advantage.

Our Semi Final against Nikki was tough. With the girls being heavier helped their speed upwind but that wasn't the winner. She sailed really well and the two races against her she came off the line slightly better each time.
Evan Walker was then our opponent in the Petite final. He also had a tough loss after picking fellow RNZYS team Adrian Short as his opponent,going down 0-2. We sailed a little bit better against him but we still weren't at the top level we knew we had in us. We lost the first race in the start and then the second one we were ahead but failed to gybe for pressure and got passed downwind. It just wasn't our day

We would also like to congratulate the other RNZYS team Adrian Short for taking out the Final 3-1.

PJR into Semi Finals

Yesterday we finished off the round robin,ending up with 9 wins and 2 losses. This Qualified us 2nd for the super 6 today. We had our first race today against Walker again,after throwing away the pre start after controlling the whole thing we were already to far behind to find any chance of passing. We won the next two races and then lost again to Niki Souter. We coped a penalty in the pre start and then had the lead for the whole race. After trying to get rid of it on the last downwind, we ended up getting another and then losing it, causing a huge mess and we finished right behind her. A little gutted we didn't win the race but knew it was only a small penalty that lost it for us. We then won the last race which put us into the semi final.

With Evan top Qualifier the other 2 opponents are Nikki Souter and Adrian Short our fellow RNZYS member. We know we haven't peaked yet and are looking to really lift our game tomorrow and try and knock this one off.

Thanks for all your support and we will post the final placing tomorrow. Special thanks to the RNZYS and Setafan Goldwater of Widex for all their assistance.

Panama Jack Racing

Day 1 Hardy Cup

A strengthening Sydney Sea Breeze welcomed us today as we hoped onto the boats around mid day for the start of our regatta. We faced off first against Evan Walker who is the top ranked team. After an even pre start we lead back to the right hand side of the course. He gained an early advantage with a little shift and then put a very tight cover on us. With almost 15 consecutive tacks we finally got out of phase heading to the favoured right. He managed to hold a small lead at the top and we then gained a tad downwind. We put pressure on his spinnaker drop and did a nice job of setting up for our rounding. He came round slow and we came into the mark right behind with pace and did enough to luff a little and put a penalty on him. We then kept it close and did a great job of putting another penalty on him on the last downwind as he tried to trap us to get ride of his other. A great start to the day and the regatta. The rest of our races were all very close. Winning 4 out of 5 today. Our only loss came in the 3rd flight against Nikki Souter. We had a better start and held a very small lead for the best part of the race. We struggled to extend during the race as her speed was very good. We rounded the second top mark a couple of lengths head and she did a good job of taking our air. She ended up rolling over the top of us and we couldn't quite gain back what we had lost. She sailed a very good race and we learnt a couple of valuable lessons.

Tomorrow we will finish off the round-robin with the goal of making the top 6 and then the top 4. Our boat handling Isn't quite up to scratch but hopefully after another day the shock of jumping into a tiny boat will wear off.

Good bye for now

PJR

Final Day of Warren Jones

Going into the final day of the Warren Jones Regatta we had the right to choose our semi-final opponent. After a little bit of deliberation the whole crew agreed on choosing Robert Gibbs, who we have raced against many times and we thought we had an advantage in the prestart. This turned out to be the right decision with the first race being a very close race but the next two Phil dominated the pre-starts with us winning all three. Putting us through to the Finals.

By now the breeze had started to increase to 12-14 knots and after a tight series in the other semi-finals our final opponent had been decided to be Evan Walker. Our team was quite happy about this as we thought as the wind strength increased we bacame more confident in our boat handling and speed againast Evan.
Due to time restrictions the finals series had to be reduced to a best of 3 format (first to win two races). Race 1 was close all the way round with Evan leading from the start all way through to half way down the last run with multiple double tacks being frequent. We were close enough on the last downwind to take his wind and actually passed him after a big luffing dual. He then tried to do the same thing to us and partially succeed but then tried to gybe onto starboard in front of us without completing which resulted in a double penalty and a hole in the side of his boat for him. With us taking the race.
Race 2 was also close with us coming off the start line with a penalty against us but we then managed to eek out a lead that looked to be enough to complete our penalty turn.
Until our second batten came out of our main sail and then our pit man (Will Tiller) fell over board. After all this we still had the lead and we tried fit our turn in but Evan ended up getting past. He held on well in the final run with more luffing battles to take the race.

Race 3 was the decider and we knew we could win it as long as we got an even start. Phil did superbly controlling Evan in a number of dial ups to force a penalty on him and to still win the start. All we had to do was keep our noses clean and the regatta was ours. We managed to do this and took the series 2-1.
The team was estatic with the result as this is a regatta we really targeted. We'd like to acknowledge all the other teams who pushed us hard through out the event, especially Evan Walker and Keith Swinton. The win means that we now qualify for the Danish Open (World Match Racing Tour Event) and the Open de Espana (Grade 1 event) that are both big stepping stones for the team and will pit us against the best match racers in the world.

Big thanks must go out to Stefan Goldwater from WIDEX and the RNZYS for helping us attend this regatta. Also Chris and Margret Chapple for being wonderful hosts (2nd year in a row) and the Royal Perth Yacht Club and WA Yachting Assosciation for putting the event.

The team is now in Sydney preparing for the Hardy Cup starting on Monday.

PJR Win Warren Jones!!!!

Today we won the Warren Jones winning the semis 3-0 and the finals 2-1. This qualifies us for the Danish Open (World Match Racing Tour Event) and the Open de Espana (Grade 1 event). Full report to come. This is a big result for the team.

Big thanks must go out to Stefan Goldwater from WIDEX and the RNZYS for helping us attend this regatta.

cheers,

PJR.

PJR Top of the Table

Hi all,

Having completed both Round Robbins we have ended up on top of the table with 15 wins and 3 losses. We sailed exceptionally well today by winning 5 out of six races. The first was against Reuben Corbett when we put two penalties on him in the dying seconds of the pre-start when he tried to put his bow between our boat and the committe boat when there was no room. A little tap on our stern and alot of yelling from both teams ended with him coping two penalties. The next tough race was against Keith Swinton. Once again we came out firing and got a penalty on him in the dial up. We split tacked off the line and then rounded the top mark right behind him. The rest of the race we stayed this way with us trailing nice and close as he still had a penalty to complete. We sailed the last downwind two boat lengths behind him until he slowed right down to try and attack us. This was a little too late for Keith as he ran out of runway and we crossed the finish line behind him but with him having to still take a penalty. Another great result beating the top ranked skipper.

Evan Walker was our next opponent and he turned out to be a tough one. We didn't quite get the start we wanted and didn't get the first cross. This proved to be crucial as we found no passing lanes, with him doing a good job of keeping a tight cover on us and stayed a few lengths ahead for the whole race. Disappointing but we were still happy.
We then raced Robert Gibbs in the last race with the winner of the race taking the top spot on the leader board. We had another fantastic pre start putting a solid two penalties on him and held our lead for the rest of the race. This means we qualify 1st after the double round robbin and have the tough job of selecting our opponent for the semi finals tomorrow!!

The Team is wrapped and looking forward to the very tough final series tomorrow.



Another big thanks to Stefan Goldwater of WIDEX and the RNZYS for all there support. It is much appreciated.
Also there is a link off our website www.panamajackracing.blogspot.com to the Warren Jones website, which has live radio broadcasts and results streaming (We are 4 hours behind in time difference).