Coutts defeats Gilmour for second Swedish Match Cup

by Sean McNeill on 12 Jul 2004 Russell Coutts, the all-time America’s Cup-winning skipper from New Zealand, doesn’t race the Swedish Match Tour on a regular basis, but he’s a force to be reckoned with when he shows up.

Coutts won his second Tour event of the year when he claimed the Swedish Match Cup championship with a 3-1 victory over Australian Peter Gilmour and the Pizza-La Sailing Team.

It was Coutts’ second victory at the Swedish Match Cup (having previously won in 2001), and his fourth in eight events on the Tour over the past five years.

‘It’s always hard to win a championship,’ Coutts said afterward. ‘I didn’t start well early in the week, but did today. I think we sailed well.’

Two months ago Coutts won the Tour championship in Porto Azzurro, Italy, where he also defeated Gilmour and the Pizza-La crew, 2-1.

Coutts, sailing with Tour regular Jes Gram-Hansen of Denmark and his countrymen Michael Arnhild, Christian Kamp and Rasmus Kostner, split the first two races of the final against the Pizza-La team, and then won two straight to claim the championship.

‘These guys sail together a lot,’ Coutts said of the Danes. ‘It was a matter of getting them used to my Kiwi terminology.’

Gilmour gave credit to Coutts for pulling together a crew that he never sailed with before and winning.

‘Russell sailed superbly well,’ said Gilmour. ‘To come here with a new crew and win is outstanding.’

Gilmour and his Pizza-La crew including Rod Dawson, Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku and Yasuhiro Yaji clinched the 2003-’04 Tour championship a month ago after the Tour stop in Croatia.

Today, they added to their record setting performance. Their second place finish gives them all firsts and seconds on the championship leader board and their 150 net points is also a record.

‘I’m a little disappointed,’ said Gilmour. ‘The boys sailed really well all year. I can’t fault their work at all.’

In the Petit Final Magnus Holmberg defeated Chris Law, 2-0, to finish third while Law placed fourth in his defence of the title.

Holmberg won the first match outright, then used a penalty against Law to win the second match, which was not without drama.

Law became the second skipper to fall overboard at the Swedish Match Cup when he went for a swim after entering the pre-start box.

‘I pushed the tiller down hard in the dial up then pulled it back and the tiller extension broke off,’ said Law. ‘I grabbed the toe rail as I fell backward, but couldn’t stop myself from going over. When I came up the crew was saying, ‘Swim, Chris, swim, but I was laughing so hard.’

For more comprehensive report on the final, information on the Swedish Match Tour including flight results, skippers biographies and event summaries, please visit www.SwedishMatchTour.com.

For more information on the Swedish Match Tour including flight results, skippers biographies and event summaries, please visit www.SwedishMatchTour.com.

SWEDISH MATCH TOUR FINAL 2003-’04 STANDINGS

(Six best finishes count to final standings)

1. Peter Gilmour/AUS, Pizza-La Sailing Team, 150 points, $60,000

2. Magnus Holmberg/SWE, SeaLife Rangers, 79, $40,000

3. Gavin Brady/NZL, BMW Oracle Racing, 70, $25,000

4. Russell Coutts/NZL, 60, $20,000

5. Bertrand Pacé/FRA, BMW Oracle Racing, 55, $18,000

6. Jesper Radich/DEN, Team Radich, 43, $15,000

7. Ed Baird/USA, Team Musto, 41, $12,000

8. Jes Gram-Hansen/DEN, Team Denmark, 38, $10,000

SWEDISH MATCH CUP FINAL STANDINGS

1. Russell Coutts/NZL, 16-3, $37,834.00
Crew: Michael Arnhild, Jes Gram-Hansen, Christian Kamp, Rasmus Kostner

2. Peter Gilmour/AUS, Pizza-La Sailing Team, 11-8, $19,187.00
Crew: Rod Dawson, Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku, Yasuhiro Yaji

3. Magnus Holmberg/SWE, SeaLife Rangers, 11-7, $11,755.00
Crew: Martin Krite, Lars Linger, Oskar Ljung, Stefan Rahm

4. Chris Law/GBR, The Outlaws, 9-7, $9,323.00
Crew: Oscar Angervall, Daniel Björndahl, Anders Dahlsjö, Henrik Valderyd

5. Ed Baird/USA, SKF Racing, 10-2, $7,700.00
Crew: Andy Horton, Pete van Nieuwenhyzen, Peter Poulsen, Jon Ziskind

6. Lars Nordbjerg/DEN 5-9, $6,756.00
Crew: Jeppe Blak, Niels Gramkov, Thomas Hartvig, Henning Lambertsen

7. Karol Jablonski/POL, Toscana Challenge 5-6, $6,080.00
Crew: Tom Baranowski, Piotr Przybylski, Markus Wieser, Jacek Wysocki

8. Jesper Bank/DEN 5-9, $4,729.00
Crew: Thomas Jacobsen, Time Nielsen, Morten Halkier, Henrik Blakskjaer

9. Mattias Rahm/SWE, Team Stena Bulk 6-4, $1,891.00
Crew: Johan Barne, Nikas Carlzon, Claes Dahlberg, Pontus Meijer

= Gavin Brady/NZL, BMW Oracle Racing 5-5, $1,891.00
Crew: Dirk de Ridder, Ross Halcrow, John Kostecki, Brad Webb

= Peter Holmberg/ISV, Team Alinghi 5-5, $1,891.00
Crew: Richard Bouzaid, Lorenzo Mazza, Will McCarthy (AUS), Dean Phipps

= Bjorn Hansen/SWE 4-5, $1,891.00
Crew: Mattias Bredin, Fredrik Ekman, Gustav Kampolm, Anders Jönsson

= Luc Pillot/FRA 2-7, $1,891.00
Crew: Gilles Andre, Fabrice Blondel, Erik Ferran, Frédéric Guilmin

= Johnie Berntsson/SWE 2-7, $1,891.00
Crew: Henrik Hansson, Nils Bjerleas, Martin Berntsson, Robert Skarp

15. Staffan Lindberg/FIN 1-6
Crew: Johan Karlsson, Daniel Mattsson, Johan Mossberg, Daniel Wallberg

= Michael Dunstan/AUS, OzBoyz Challenge 0-7
Crew: Glen Atrill, Wade Morgan, Ben Morrison, Nick Partridge