Sunday, 29 November 2009
'Captain Ben Ainslie, First Mate Iain Percy and Team Origin in action at the Sunseeker Australia Cup'. Image copyright Sail-World.com/AUS.
by Rob Kothe
After the Round Robin series in the 2009 Sunseeker Australia Cup, the top three skippers on the World Match Racing Tour, New Zealand’s Adam Minoprio (Black Match Racing Team), Australia’s Torvar Mirsky (Mirsky Racing Team) and Great Britain’s Ian Williams (Bahrain Team Pindar) are atop the leaderboard.
With less than a week to go before the final World Match Racing Tour event of 2009, the Monsoon Cup, the Australia Cup is providing skippers with valuable 'on water time' in the Foundation 36's.
The inaugural Australia Cup, sailed in Perth in 1983, was won by John Bertrand. He took his winning form into the historic 1983 America’s Cup.
Twenty six years later, the key matches in the 2009 Sunseeker Australia Cup have been sailed on new waters, the Swan River’s Perth Waters course above the Narrows Bridge right in the heart of the CBD.
Ben Ainslie and Phil Robertson pre-start circling. Image copyright Sail-World.com/AUS.
Two hundred and thirty nine years ago Captain James Cook on the Endeavour, on the first of its epic voyages, ran hard aground on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. After lightening the ship by throwing their cannons, water, some stores and much of their ballast over the side, the Endeavour was refloated.
Another famous British Captain ran aground on Australia’s West Coast on Day Two of the Australia Cup. This time it was Captain Ben Ainslie, the triple Olympic Gold Medallist.
Ian Williams and Keith Swinton in pre-start circling. Image copyright Sail-World.com/AUS.
In the first match of the afternoon Ainslie, sailing against Perth local and World Match Racing Tour second placed Torvar Mirsky, grounded his Bakewell White Foundation 36 on the Perth shore line. There was no need to throw cannons or crew overboard, the British boat was soon towed out of the soft river mud.
The race was resailed later in the day and was won by Mirsky.
However the Sunseeker Australia Cup Radio commentary team were quick to name the location Ainslie Point.
Two Kiwi teams: Phil Robertson and Adam Minoprio. Image copyright Sail-World.com/AUS.
Another significant incident for Ainslie occurred in a titanic battle with fellow Brit, Ian Williams, the 2007 and 2008 World Match Racing Champion when their two boats crashed together in a robust tacking encounter. Ainslie incurred a red flag and lost a round robin point as well as the match.
At day's end the match between the Round Robin leaders, 24 year old Minoprio and 23 year old Mirsky, showed that these two southern hemisphere young guns deserve their Tour rankings. There was a fierce pre-start battle with a small collision, with Minoprio incurring a penalty; however it mattered for nought as Mirsky won the match on the water.
Minoprio commented ‘We came here to make sure we’d be on the pace for the Monsoon Cup. Last year we sailed in the New Zealand Match Racing titles as our tune up, but the opportunity to sail here against Torvar, Ian, Ben and Mathieu on the Foundation 36’s makes this event very important.
Mirsky said ‘If we are to win the World Tour, being currently 12 points behind Adam, we will probably have to win in Malaysia, with Adam third or worse so we are looking to be going well this weekend to carry momentum into next week.’
After the completion of the Round Robins, Minoprio, Mirsky and Williams were at the top the table. Ainslie was next, ahead of Asian Match Racing Champion Phil Robertson from New Zealand.
Francesco Bruni gets a penalty on his opponent. Image copyright Sail-World.com/AUS.
The Italian Francesco Bruni just scraped into the quarter finals, still recovering from his huge effort in the Louis Vuitton Trophy last week. So too did Frenchman Mathieu Richard, who will need to lift his form to stay in this event and for next week's for the Monsoon Cup.
The last two Australian Match Racing Champions, Seve Jarvin (2009)and Evan Walker (2008) missed the cut.
Ian Williams and Bahrain Team Pindar. Image copyright Sail-World.com/AUS.
Minoprio 7.0 9 1
Mirsky 7.0 9 1
Williams 7.0 9 1
Ainslie 6.5 9 4
Robertson 5.0 9 5
Bruni 3.0 9 6
Richard 3.0 9 6
Swinton 3.0 9 6
Jarvin 3.0 9 6 *
Walker 0.0 9 10 *
Sunseeker Australia Cup