Mirsky to race Gilmour at Match Cup Sweden

by Mirsky Racing Team on 4 Jul 2008 Mirsky Racing Team will be up against mentor Peter Gilmour and his PST crew at Match Cup Sweden tomorrow.

After tough rounds against the world's best match racers, Torvar Mirsky and his MRT currently lie in fifth place, 6-5.

MRT's reports on Day Two and Three at Match Cup Sweden are below.

Match Cup Sweden - Day Three

The round robin finished with a number of upsets as the Tour leader Ian Williams got knocked out on 5 wins. The field was incredibly close with only 4 points separating the 1st to 8th places.

We had three tough races today against Sebastian Col, Paolo Cian and Peter Gilmour. After the morning’s ProAm race, we started the day’s serious racing on a positive note, winning against Sebastian Col. We started to windward with good pace, and after a few short tacks, managed to hold him past the starboard layline. With this advantage, we lead comfortably around the race track to add one more win to our list.

The second race was far more eventful, this time against Brasil Sailing Cup winner Paolo Cian from Team Shosholoza. We got a penalty in the prestart and lost the starboard advantage off the line, which proved detrimental as Cian made big gains in close to the rocks on the right. We exchanged penalties at the top mark, and managed to lead around to the finishing line. We still had a penalty coming into the line, but sucked Cian into barging on the pin, wiping our penalty and putting one on him. This race ended up being a very decisive race as it put us onto 6 wins, confirming our entry into the Quarterfinal stage tomorrow.

We finished the Round Robin in 5th place, putting us up against fellow Australian and somewhat of a mentor, Peter Gilmour. Although we lost our race against him today, we are feeling comfortable with all aspects of our sailing. Having said this, the old fox is going to be hard to beat with his excellent team, and on his old stomping ground here in Marstrand.

Match Cup Sweden – Day Two

The day started on a positive note, winning our first two races in the shifty conditions against Matthias Rahm and Bjorn Hansen. After the call for our lunch break, the sea breeze kicked in to a steady 8 knots.

After lunch we had three big races against Matthiu Richard, Magnus Holmburg and Ian Williams. We lost each of these matches marginally, but weren’t disappointed in the way we were sailing as a team as only minor errors lost us the lead in each race.

All of the races have been closely fought out by every team, with only slight errors deciding the winners. The result of this is an incredibly close field, with ten teams still in the running for the quarterfinals.

The two standout teams have been Magnus Holmburg and Jes Gram Hansen, both of whom are sitting relatively comfortably on 6 wins each. Both teams have clear advantages with Holmburg shining out as the veteran of Match Cup Sweden, and Jes Gram Hansen’s young Danish crew who are all very familiar with the DS37’s.

We have three races to look forward to tomorrow, and three more chances to strengthen our position. We have improved our teamwork dramatically since Korea, and are feeling a lot more confident in improving on our previous World Tour results.

A special thanks to Line7, Harken and the Royal Perth Yacht Club for their continued support.

http://www.mirskyracingteam.com/