After a long day that started with having to defeat one of his own team mates from the French Match Racing Team, Sebastian Col (FRA) and his crew have won the Troia Portugal Match Cup. Getting past Magnus Holmberg (SWE) and his Victory Challenge team 2-0 in an exciting Final series, Col and crew have taken the top prize. Col and his French Match Racing Team/K-Challenge crew had to get better, as the conditions became increasingly challenging throughout the day for the remaining teams in the competition. Besides the fresh 15-22 knot easterly blowing straight down the Rio Sada in front of the Troia Resort Marina, the other huge factor today was the strong tidal current, which reached a staggering 4 knots at its peak. This made pre-start and mark rounding tactics interesting and at times unconventional. The day started under a cloud of uncertainty, as three teams in the morning’s final flight of the Round Robin had a shot for the last remaining spot in the Semi-Finals. With Paolo Cian defeating Torvar Mirsky in the second match, all eyes were on the final run of the third match, where Bjorn Hansen were fully entangled in a furious match with Damien Iehl on the final run to the finish. Just metres short of the line, Iehl’s one last luff managed to get his SM40 across by what PRO Miguel Allen said was “20 centimetres,” thus earning him the win and the tie-break to the Semis.
Since yet another member of the French Match Racing Team, Mathieu Richard, was on top from the Round Robin, he was free to choose Holmberg to play, the only non-French team in the stage. It didn’t start well for the mostly-Swedish team: 2-0 in the first-to-three point series, and with an all-French final looking imminent, Holmberg rallied in the third match to lead Richard around the track and even draw a penalty on his French rival at their bottom mark turn. In a close fourth match, Richard got managed to get past Holmberg on the run towards the bottom mark. A disastrous kite drop by the French allowed Holmberg to waltz through into a convincing win to bring the series even.
In the last match, Holmberg chose the right side of the beat, Richard the left, and while right was initially favored, it soon caved in, so when Holmberg tacked to cover the closing French, he did so a little too close, earning him a penalty. He still kept the lead by tacking back left, getting to the top and bottom marks first, and extending enough on the beat to do his penalty turn before Richard closed to within only 2 lengths at the finish downwind.
And in the Finals, Holmberg and Col initially split off to different sides of the first beat, with a shoal area on the left side providing a little more relief from the gushing tide than the beach side on the right. Since Col got there and controlled that side better, he led throughout the first match and even managed to extend enough to wipe off a pre-start penalty.
With a major wind shift requiring course realignment and a new boat to rig, the decision was made to shorten the Finals and Petit-Finals to first-to-two points. So, under increasing clouds, breeze, tide, and approaching rain, the stage seemed to have more fireworks among the two French teams in the Petit-Final, with Iehl and Richard taking one each under the watchful eyes of match umpires.
The Troia Portugal Match Cup was the seventh of nine stages on the World Match Racing Tour.
