WMRT Monsoon Cup - Yanmar hits turbos, makes semi-finals

by Mark Chisnell on 8 Dec 2012 At the 2012 Monsoon Cup in Malaysia Yanmar Racing hit the turbos and moved into the semi-finals on the fourth day of racing. They had previously topped the qualifying round at this final event on the 2012 Alpari World Match Racing Tour. It was a ruthless display from the legendary Yanmar Racing skipper, Peter Gilmour. First, he put Jeremy Koo to the sword to qualify in pole; then he used his first pick to select his son, David Gilmour as his quarter final opponent, before bouncing Gilmour Jr. out of his first major competition with a three-one victory.




Welcome to the big, bad world of international match racing, David!

Peter Gilmour had previously announced that he would retire at the end of this competition. He wants to go out on a high note, and now has permanent bragging rights over his son, who – while he has no chance to get even with Dad retiring – clearly has a glittering career to look forward to.

Afterwards Peter Gilmour said, ‘I picked him for a couple of reasons, mainly, Bjorn (Hansen, SWE) would have taken him if I hadn’t, and that would have been just as tough for David. And I thought that along with the other potential pairings, it gave us an opportunity to move up the overall Tour leaderboard and get onto the podium.’

David Gilmour wasn’t going down without a fight, though. ‘He won the first race,’ said Gilmour, ‘he started to the right and got some better wind out that side, and stayed in it to extend and win by about 40 seconds. Then in the second race, although we managed to give him a penalty in the pre-start, he got us stuck head to wind and sailed away from us, leaving us over a minute behind off the line.’

At this point, all the journalists were Googling patricide for the relevant myths and metaphors, but Gilmour senior wasn’t quite done. ‘David took the penalty on the first leg,’ continued Gilmour, ‘but it got him out to one side of the race course, and Fred (Guilmin, tactician, FRA) and Yaji (Yasuhiro Yaji, JPN) saw a big shift coming down the other side. We got into that shift and went round the top mark ahead.’

It was relatively straight-forward for Yanmar Racing after that, leading that one to the finish, and then winning the next two starts and leading all the way round to take the quarter final 3-1.

‘It was another tough day,’ concluded Gilmour, ‘a very light six to eight knots, with a big hole in the wind in the middle of the course. Fortunately, we were allowed on-the-water coaching assistance for the quarter finals, and I grabbed Sam, my other son, before David could get to him. So we had Sam involved as well, calling the wind for us from the coaching box.’ Truly, a family affair.

The Alpari World Match Racing Tour was also settled today, as the reigning World Champion, Ian Williams beat the only remaining contender, Bjorn Hansen (SWE) in the quarter finals. Hansen had got the better of Williams in qualifying, and then selected him as his quarter final opponent – ensuring that the world title would be settled at this stage of the competition. But after a shaky start it was Ian Williams that was the stronger over the four races to take a place in the semi-finals, and his fourth world title. In doing so, he has matched Peter Gilmour’s record.

‘I do want to congratulate Ian Williams,’ said Gilmour, ‘and his team for their fourth World Championship. It’s an amazing achievement, especially for Ian, still in his mid-thirties. I was 45 when I got the fourth title, and I’m sure he will go on to extend that record some distance, and congratulations to him.’

The selection of semi-final opponents is still to take place, and will get underway at 9am local time tomorrow. Both the semi-finals and the finals must be completed on the last day – and the final place on the Tour podium is still to be settled, with Yanmar Racing the leading contenders for that third place overall.

The Monsoon Cup is the eighth and final event on this year’s Alpari World Match Racing Tour and is held in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia from the third-8th December, 2012. The Yanmar Racing team are currently in fourth overall on the Tour standings.

Quarter Final Results:

Peter Gilmour 3-1 David Gilmour
Björn Hansen 1-3 Ian Williams
Keith Swinton 1-3 Taylor Canfield
Pierre-Antoine Morvan 2-3 Phil Robertson

Overall Tour Championship Standings – After seven stages:

Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Mekonomen Sailing Team – 104.25pts
Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar – 102pts
Keith Swinton (AUS) Black Swan Racing – 83pts
Peter Gilmour (AUS) Yanmar Racing – 76.25pts
Pierre-Antoine Morvan (FRA) Vannes Agglo Sailing Team – 71pts
Laurie Jury (NZ) Kiwi Match – 70.25pts
Phil Robertson (NZ) Waka Racing – 70pts
Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team – Monsoon Cup website