Congratulations Adam, you've just hit the Top of the ISAF Rankings. How does that feel?

Feels like warm apple pie.

It seems like your path to the top started at the Monsoon Cup 2007, tell us a bit more about how you put your plan together?
Three Years ago BlackMatch Racing was a group of mates that joined together to do some events. We ended up winning the qualifier to the Monsoon Cup 07. We did the event, saw where we wanted to be and came up with a team plan from there of winning the World Match Racing Tour by 2010.

You have a pretty consistent crew, talk to us about the team and how you all came to sail together?
Most of the team have been sailing together since completing the Royal New Zealand Youth Training Program in 2006, and it has been a great combination. Our team consists of Dave Swete, Nick Blackman, Tom Powrie and new member Dan Mclean who helped us out when Nick was injured and is now our 5th man. One of our strengths is our consistent crew as we all working towards the same goal.

What issues do you have as a team and how do you overcome them?
Deciding what match racing events to do other then the World Tour can be difficult, as they often clash with other sailing events or result in a lot of time away from home. We tend to make decisions as a team, weighing up the pros and cons and trying to keep everyone happy, while ensuring whatever we do will help us win the World Tour.

Who does what within the team to cover all the bases of running the project?
I organise the financial side of the team, as well as regatta entries.
Dave is our media liaison, writing daily media reports during regattas.
Nick organises our team kit, through Line 7 one of our main sponsors.
Tom ensures we all have enough of the right stuff to eat and drink at regattas, as well as all the small bits of gear required on board such as tape and tools.

The ISAF Rankings have their idiosyncrasies, is there a way to go about getting to the top?
Due to fact that regattas are counted over two years, it takes a year and half of good sailing to see the results on the ISAF rankings. We had a really successful year last year and are only now seeing the effects of that, by gaining points with every new ranking release this year.

You are now second in the Tour after leading for the first four events. How do you plan to get back ahead?
With two events back to back coming up, we are confident we can again have a strong showing in St Moritz, and hope to improve on a disappointing result last year in Denmark. As long as we are near the top going into the final event in Malaysia, we feel confident we have a good chance of taking out the title.

There must be things that you've done on the way that you would do differently if you had a second chance. What one piece of advice would you give to others with aspirations of getting to the top?
When flying with Ryanair, always ensure you have checked in online and printed your boarding pass, otherwise this can be costly at the airport.

What do you and the team do when you're not match racing to take your mind off things, both when you're at events and between events?
At events we all enjoy a beer after racing, and between events we try to do as much sailing as possible to further our sailing knowledge.

What about girlfriends? Living out of a suitcase can make things tricky?
At the moment I have no time for girlfriends as I am trying to do as much sailing as possible to get my name out there in the sailing circles. My crew on the other hand have very understanding girlfriends that let them off the leash for Match Racing Events and more.

How did your association with ETNZ come about?
Emirates Team New Zealand had no representation on the world Match Racing Tour due to other commitments, so we approached them hoping to change this. It benefits both parties by lifting the profile of our team, and ensuring ETNZ is represented on the World Match Racing Tour.

What's next? What does the future hold for BlackMatch?
Our main goal currently is to win the world Match Racing Tour, and after that who knows...

From worldmatchracingtour.com