Wellington Spirit win entry to the Spanish Open and Australia Cup

Wellington Spirit have won the 2012 Warren Jones Match Racing Regatta in Perth Australia after four days of intense competiton on the Swan River.

The team started slowly with two wins from five matches on day one of the event as they struggled to find their combinations. On day two and three the team started to show some good form climbing back up the standings to qualify for the quarter finals in fourth place.

Wellington Spirit made short work of the "33 Degrees South" racing team from Sydney in the quarter finals winning by 2-0. The same score line was achieved in the semi finals against "True Blue Racing" also from Sydney.

This put the Spirit up against David Gilmour representing the host Royal Freshwater Yacht Club. Gilmour was on red hot form having not dropped a match in the last three days of racing and having finished on the podium in the last two years of the regatta.



Wellington Spirit came out firing and won the first match of the finals but Gilmour fought back hard in match two to even the best of five matches final.

In match three the Spirit were penalised after an agressive dial down half way up the first beat. With the racing very tight the team chose to use a top mark trap as an opportunity to wipe off their penalty. They exited the mark without the penalty but behind Gilmour. Down the final leg the two teams luffed and gybed furiously with the Spirit gaining the slightest of margins just as they crossed the finish line.

The final match saw Wellington Spirt lead all the way to win the match and secure the title.

Wellington Spirit skipper Matt Steven said "we are really pleased with the way the regatta went this week. We really wanted to win over here as that gives us entry and travel support to the Spanish Open and Australian Open later in the year."

"If we are the top qualifier in both these regattas then we will gain entries to the St Moritz and Monsoon Cup events on the World Match Racing Tour which is our ultimate goal for the year"

Watch this space!