“Provezza” are Match Race Champions

Winners of the 6th Stavros Match Race, Simon Fry, Ali Tezdiker & Andy Beadsworth.

In the end it all came down to just one boat length!

The final day began with a briefing to hand out the final “pairings” which gave every one of the 10 teams a chance to still win the 6th Stavros Match Race title.. First there was a “repechage” of the bottom 4 boats to see which 2 would join the top 6 seeds in the quarter-final. Then on a straight knock-out basis the winning quarter-finalists progressed into the semi-finals.

The surprise of the day was JPN 50 helmed by Bocci Aoyama who after finishing the “Round Robin” in 10th position, suddenly kicked into gear and not only beat Mihkel Kosk (Estonia seeded 7th) in the repechage but took out one of the favourites Henrique Anjos (Portugal seeded 2nd) to surge into the semi-finals.

A fantastic final day, 4th overall JPN 50 Norio Igel, Martin Payne & helm Bocci Aoyama 🙂

In 3rd place was Pedro Andrade who had sailed well with his Irish crew and just lost out to Andy Beadsworth in the “best of 3” semi-final.

3rd overall of the Stavros Match Race, Pedro Andrade, Jay Bourke & John Given.

So it was left to RUS 76 “Strange Little Girl” helmed by Dmitry Samokhin to fight former America’s Cup helm Andy Beadsworth for the title… and what a final it was. Dmitry drew first blood after an aggressive luff gave Andy a pre-start penalty, plus an additional 0.25 point deduction for “hard contact” so  Dmitry won the first race. However, not only did the sailing team “Provezza” win race two, but they then went onto win race three after completely dominating the starts… But this was still not enough as the rules state it’s the first boat to score 2 points. So with the “hard contact” penalty, Andy Beadsworth, Simon Fry and Ali Tezdiker were still only on 1.75 points….

So to decide the final a 4th race was sailed in a dying breeze at around 5.30pm. Again team “Provezza” had the upper hand on the pre-start to lead off the line and open up a comfortable advantage… However, on the final downwind leg to the finish the breeze began to drop completely giving Dmitry a chance to overtake… In fact he came from 50 metres behind to 30, then 10 and then 5.. and began to roll over Andy who was just inches from the finish.

Then as everyone held their breath and heartbeats quickened the experience of the Provezza sailing team pulled through and they crossed the line to take the title by just one boat length…

Having to settle for the runners up spot Dmitry Samokhin, Andrey Kirilyuk & Alexsey Bushuev.

It was a fitting end to a great competition and last night all 10 teams enjoyed an excellent Prize Giving Dinner at O’Pescador in the heart of Cascais….

Many congratulations once again to TUR 1212 “Provezza” Andy, Simon & Ali

Higher, Faster, Longer……….     Stavros.

P.S.  My heartfelt thanks, as always, to Top Professional RICARDO PINTO for these wonderful photo’s…