It was another slow burning day at the St Moritz Match Race, the fifth event on the 2012 Alpari World Match Racing Tour. It started strongly, but the weather forecast was not good and the Alps and the Engadine valley have been hit by unusual weather. The normally consistent sunshine that drives the Maloya mountain wind has been replaced, temporarily, by rain. Despite the problems, YANMAR Racing had a good day and pulled up to third place on the leaderboard.
The Maloya made a brief appearance in response to some early morning sunshine, and after a delay ashore the race committee got a couple of qualifying flights in – and YANMAR Racing were in both of them. Trimmer Thierry Douillard talked through the day. “The first race was against Kiwi Phil Robertson, and we had a good pre-start until the last few seconds when we made a stupid mistake.”
“We were reaching towards the start boat,” explained Douillard, “and had the space and time to make a good start, but our timing was just out and we put a couple of metres of the bow over the line early. We had to go back to restart and after that it was pretty much a dead match. It was a shame because otherwise, we could have had a good, winning start.”
YANMAR Racing’s next match was against the local boy, Eric Monnin, and the team went for the same pre-start, and this time they nailed it. Douillard again, “We were reaching towards the start boat on port again, and made our tack onto starboard right on time. Eric was just behind us, and he tacked underneath. It gave us a good lead at the top mark. But it was very shifty and we didn’t have a good hoist, and by the middle of the second leg he was in contact. Fortunately, Peter (Gilmour AUS, skipper) and Fred (Guilmin FRA, tactician) worked us into a one-to-two boat-length lead by the next mark and we held that to the finish.”
YANMAR Racing had the next three flights ashore, which was fortunate because the wind then failed as the rain came in, and they were able to wait without the pressure of an imminent match. The race committee did try to get another race underway but the wind was just too unstable and at five pm they cancelled for the day. They have scheduled an early start tomorrow, but the forecast is not good, with more rain and some cold temperatures – but they will try to get flight eleven underway as soon as possible.
Thierry Douillard reflected that at three wins and two losses and third on the leaderboard they were in good shape. “We know the racing here could go either way, and so this is not so bad, we have a good feeling in the starts, but need to get better in the last 30 seconds. We have to improve in the manoeuvres as well, we don’t normally do the events with four-man boats, and so this is not our normal way of working. But we are in the game with our results, and Peter is feeling good about the boat and we have already improved a lot.”
The St Moritz Match Cup is the fifth event on this year’s Alpari World Match Racing Tour and is held in St Moritz from the 28th August to the 2nd September. Qualifying racing will resume tomorrow as soon as possible after the 9am briefing.
30th August 2012
St. Moritz Match Race – Results after Qualification Round 2
Laurie Jury (NZ) Kiwi Match 5 – 0
Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team 4 -1
Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing 3 -2
Mathieu Richard (FRA) Loire Atlantique Sailing Team 3 – 2
Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar 2.5* – 2 (0.5 point deduction for boat collision)
Jerome Clerc (SUI) Team CER 2 – 3
Eric Monnin (SUI) Okalys Corum 2 – 3
Phil Robertson (NZ) WAKA Racing 2 – 3
Pierre-Antoine Morvan (FRA) Vannes Agglo Sailing Team 2 – 3
Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Mekonomen Sailing Team 2 – 3
Josh Junior (NZL) Wellington Spirit 1 – 4
Keith Swinton (AUS) Black Swan Racing 1 – 4