YANMAR Racing in dangerous waters at Stena Match Cup Sweden

Gilmour and Mirsky at the Stena Match Cup Sweden 2010 Dan Ljungsvik

Stena Match Cup Sweden 2010 is stage 5 of the World Match Racing Tour and has a rapid fire Round Robin stage. Split into two groups of eight teams, only four teams from each group progress through to the quarter finals, the others go home.

Having won this event seven times before, Australia's Peter Gilmour and his YANMAR Racing Team came to the Stena Match Cup Sweden starting amongst the favourites, after winning the fourth event on the ISAF 2010 World Match Racing Tour, the Portugal Match Cup, last week.

However after just one day of racing Gilmour and his YANMAR Racing Team consisting of Cameron Dunn, Thierry Douillard, pitman Yasuhiro Yaji and bowman Kazuhiko Sofuku, find themselves in dangerous waters. With a 1-3 scorecard and only three matches to sail, they are in great danger of exiting early from this event.

Peter Gilmour said ‘Today was an interesting day on the water. We had some close ones but were on the losing side of two that we let get away, against Williams and Mirsky.

‘We need a big improvement to go through for the quarter finals.'

YANMAR Racing Tactician, Cameron Dunn detailed how the day unfolded. ‘There was quite a bit of a breeze today; we were on the small jibs all day, it certainly freshened as the day went on and finished at 20 knots I guess. It was beautiful actually - breeze and a few waves.

‘Our first race was against Ben Ainslie (GBR) TeamOrigin. We had control of him in the pre-start until we made a mistake with about 50 seconds to go and ended up losing that control and then the start. He had the favoured right hand side and he slowly extended away from us, then got a couple of nice shifts at the top of the beat and rounded four lengths ahead, we never got back into the race.

‘Then YANMAR Racing had a cracking race against Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team. We forced him over the start line but he closed up behind us at the top mark. With him right behind us, we had to hold him off in luffing and gybing duels. Berntsson closed up on us on the last run, but made contact and was penalised so we managed to win.

‘We then raced against Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team and that one was basically lost in the pre-start. We got a double penalty in the box. It was a good call from the umpires, we can't complain about it.

‘Against Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar, we had a nice start, tight to leeward, had control of him and extended out to the left. We decided we should cross and protect the right as we got close to the top mark. A bad mistake. There was more pressure on the left. Ian rounded the top mark ahead of us and we just couldn't get close enough to put pressure on him.

'The 1-3 result is obviously disappointing but we are still in the event. We know that it is a simple calculation from here on in - YANMAR Racing must win our last three races in order to have a chance of progressing.

‘The second half of the Draw is racing tomorrow. So we have a day to contemplate our situation.

‘We weren't particularly fast today and I don't think we were all that smart either. The worst of both combinations.

‘YANMAR Racing have made some adjustments to make and we will certainly come out firing on Thursday!'

Day 1: Current Round Robin Standings

Group A
Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing 1-3
Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team 4-0
Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team 3-1
Francesco Bruni (ITA) Azzurra 2-2
Bj??Hansen (SWE) Hansen Global Team 0-4
Mattias Rahm (SWE) Stena Bulk Sailing Team 0-0
Staffan Lindberg (FIN) Alandia Sailing Team 0-0
Jesper Radich (DEN) Rudy Project Sailing Team 0-0

Group B
Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar 4-0
Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team 3-1
Ben Ainslie (GBR) TEAMORIGIN 2-2
Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing 1-3
Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team 0-4
Keith Swinton (AUS) Black Swan Racing 0-0
Magnus Holmberg (SWE) Sigma Racing Team 0-0
Reuben Corbett (NZL) Black Sheep Racing 0-0

For more news and information on YANMAR Racing, please visit http://www.yanmar.co.jp/en/racing/
To discover more about the World Match Racing Tour see http://www.wmrt.com

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