Gilmour and Baird undefeated in quarter finals

by Sean McNeill on 15 May 2005 Reigning Swedish Match Tour champion Peter Gilmour (AUS) took a step towards repeating his Match Race Germany victory, winning his first five races of the Quarter-final round at the event held on Lake Constance in southwest Germany.

Gilmour, skipper of the Pizza-La Sailing Team, should be assured of advancing to the Semi-final Round. He has two races remaining in the quarter-finals, and his current 5-0 record is three wins better than any of the other three skippers who sailed five races today.

Ed Baird (USA), of Team Alinghi, also seems on his way to the semis. Baird won all three of his races today before two of his three scheduled byes sent him shoreside for the final two flights of the day.

Bertrand Pacé (FRA), representing BMW Oracle Racing, Ian Williams (GBR) and Staffan Lindberg (FIN) also sailed five races today. Pacé and Williams each finished the day with a 2-3 record (Pacé holds the tiebreaker by virtue of his head-to-head win in Flight 1), and Lindberg is 1-4.

Ben Ainslie (GBR) sailed two races and stands at 1-1. He was over early in his first race against Pacé which created a deficit he couldn’t recover from. Ainslie rebounded with a solid win over Lindberg.

Sten Mohr (DEN), making his return to competitive match-racing after a five-year hiatus, finished the day 1-2.

He lost to Baird, defeated Pacé and then lost to Gilmour, who barely completed a 270-degree penalty turn on the finish line to win. The boats crossed the line overlapped, but Gilmour’s bow was a half-length ahead. Gilmour had been penalised for hitting the windward mark on the first lap.

Jesper Bank (DEN), the skipper of United Internet Team Germany, had a rough two races. Bank, who won all five of his round robin races, lost his first two races in the quarter's. Gilmour beat him soundly when he won the pre-start to windward and ahead. Bank then lost to upstart Williams on the finish line.

Bank carried a penalty and performed his 270-degree turn on the finish line, but came out on port tack while Williams bore down on starboard. Bank had to hold head-to-wind to avoid Williams, which allowed the Englishman to sail to victory.

Bank’s penalty was a rarity in the world of match-racing. Sailing port tack upwind, he was penalized for fouling Gilmour, who was on starboard jibe racing Pacé in a tight match downwind.

'Gilmour had to bear away to avoid Bank,' said John Standley, chief umpire. 'Bank was penalised for port-starboard.'

'We’ve been racing together for a lot of years now,' said Mike Mottl, headsail trimmer for Gilmour. 'I’ve never seen that one before.'

For the third consecutive day, Lake Constance showed its wide variety of weather. Day 1 was glorious with abundant sunshine and wind. Day 2 had little wind.

Today, there was wind in the morning that allowed two flights to be completed. Then the wind shut off during the third flight, which was abandoned with two matches in progress and the third counting down to its start.

A four-hour postponement ensued. Then, in the span of 10 minutes, the wind built from 0 to 20 knots, accompanied by rain. When it blew, the wind was mostly from the west.

'From my experience, this whole week has been unusual for the weather here,' said Baird, who last competed at Match Race Germany two years ago. 'I wonder what’s going to happen tomorrow.'

Five flights (13 matches) are scheduled to complete the quarter-finals.

For flight-by-flight results from Match Race Germany, more information about the Swedish Match Tour, and a link to the Tour’s broadband TV channel, please visit the official Tour Web site, www.SwedishMatchTour.com.

Quarter-final Round Standings

1. Peter Gilmour (AUS) Pizza-La Sailing Team, 5-0
Crew: Rod Dawson, Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku, Yasuhiro Yaji

2. Ed Baird (USA) Team Alinghi, 3-0
Crew: Nils Frei, Yann Gouniot, Piet Van Nieuwenhuyzen, Dean Phipps

3. Ben Ainslie (GBR) Emirates Team New Zealand, 1-1
Crew: Ray Davies, Andy Hemmings, Richard Meacham, Chris Salthouse

4. Bertrand Pacé (FRA) BMW Oracle Racing, 2-3
Crew: Dirk De Ridder, Eric Doyle, Zach Hurst, Brad Webb

5. Ian Williams (GBR), 2-3
Crew: Chris Gowers, Steve Mitchell, Mark Nichols, Mark Williams

6. Sten Mohr (DEN), 1-2
Crew: Jeppe Blak, Niels Gramkau, Thomas Hartwig, Henning Lambertsen

7. Staffan Lindberg (FIN), 1-4
Crew: Nils Bjerkås, Johan Karlsson, Carl-Johan Uckelstem, Robert Sharp

8. Jesper Bank (DEN) United Internet Team Germany, 0-2
Crew: Henrik Blakskjær, Michael Haestbeck, Thomas Jacobsen, Markus Wieser