A new week of highly competitive match racing begins on 27th September, when the 18 teams competing in the World Match Racing Tour will be in Chicago to again start the on-water duels. The third largest city in the United States will provide an impressive backdrop to the much anticipated racing on Lake Michigan, with this event being the final competitive ‘dress rehearsal’ before the World Championship event in Shenzhen, China at the end of October.
Crédit : I Roman
Spindrift racing’s Yann Guichard spoke earlier this week of his objectives for the event:
“For this event, our main goal is to work on our starts. This is probably our main area of weakness as we are happy with how we handle and sail the boat, but it would be good to save our blushes at the starts! The level of competition has increased over this Tour and it is now not enough to sail well and be fast on the water, you have to know how to win the match racing starts, so that is what we will concentrate on.”
“We have come on a lot since the opening race in Australia and although this was perhaps obvious in St Petersburg, we were more confident in our starts. Chicago is the penultimate event in the Tour before the World Championship final, so we will apply everything we have learnt so far as well as work on the objectives that we have set with our coach Marc Bouet.
“In terms of Chicago, I have never sailed there, but I understand that it is a magical place and that the conditions for sailing at this time of year are excellent.”
RACING SCHEDULE:
Wednesday 27 September – Qualifying Round
Thursday 28 September – Knock out and Super 16 Round
Friday 29 September– Super 16 Round
Saturday 30 September – Quarter Finals and start of Semi Finals
Sunday 1st October – Semi Finals / Finals / Petit Finale
SPINDRIFT RACING TEAM FOR THE CHICAGO MATCH CUP:
Yann Guichard – Helm/Skipper
Christophe Espagnon – Mainsail
François Morvan – Trimmer
Sam Goodchild – BOW
From Spindrift
