Koo steals show Monsoon Cup Day One

by Sean McNeill on 1 Dec 2006 After a trying day beset by light winds and intermittent downpours, Peter Gilmour took the early lead in defense of his title at the Monsoon Cup, Stage 6 of the 2006-’07 World Match Racing Tour.

Gilmour, skipper of PST, finished the day with a 3-0 record to claim the top spot. Behind him is a group of four skippers – including Jesper Bank, Paolo Cian, Sébastien Col and Ian Williams – at 3-1.

'It was a very hard day. The wind was shifting everywhere,' said Cian, a helmsman for Team Shosholoza. 'The starts were important and boat speed is always important. The difference between crossing and not was a half metre.'

While the names at the top of the leader board are familiar, it was a 22-year-old Malaysian woman who stole the show. Tiffany Koo, Malaysia’s rising female match-racer, made a splash in her World Tour debut when she won her first match against Asian rival Wearn Haw Tan from Singapore.

'I can’t really describe how I feel,' Koo said. 'We’re very happy. We won our first race in the Monsoon Cup.'

Koo gained entry to the Monsoon Cup by winning the Malaysian nationals in September. A dinghy sailor by training, she won the 2001 Byte World Championship and a Gold medal in the Laser Radial class at the 2001 Southeast Asian Games, Koo has recently abandoned the small boats to take up match racing and do more big boat sailing. She trims headsails on the 75-footer Jelik.

Koo, however, looked like an experienced hand in her first race. She came off the start line in a split-tack start against Tan, taking port onto the racecourse near the committee boat end. Tan, meanwhile, took starboard up the left side of the racecourse.

About two-thirds of the way up the leg Koo, on starboard, easily crossed Tan with about two boat lengths to spare. She rounded the first windward mark more than 30 seconds in the lead, and never looked back.

The second time around the windward mark she was more than a minute and a half in the lead, and easily on her way to victory. 'I was nervous and excited,' Koo said of her emotions heading into the pre-start. 'It was a good learning experience. After a few races I pushed to work harder.' Koo finished the day with a 1-3 record.

The wind conditions made the day difficult for all involved. The Race Committee was on the water for more than nine hours, taking a break only for lunch during a monsoon squall.

The wind this time of year is typically from a northerly quadrant, but today it blew from a southerly quadrant and was light, topping out around 6 knots in puffs. There were other factors that compounded the mental strain on the sailors, such as the ripping current and short racecourses.

The Pulau Duyong Basin sits at the confluence of two rivers. The tide rips through before flowing to the South China Sea. On a racecourse barely 300 meters long, the racing was tight and placed a huge emphasis on starting.

Then, the winning move seemed to be heading to the right side of the first beat, where there was current relief.

'It was a right-hand day, which was also the right-of-way tack,' said Gilmour. 'It was a nice place to be.'

Gilmour scored wins over Bjorn Hansen, Peter Holmberg and Col for his 3-0 mark.

The vagaries of the conditions caught several experienced hands out on a few occasions. James Spithill, of Luna Rossa Challenge, lost to Tan after leading comfortably around the second windward mark. Spithill jibed to starboard after the rounding, which should’ve put him in better current. Tan held port towards the shoreline. When they converged again two-thirds down the run Tan crossed ahead of Spithill and hung on for his only win of the day in five starts.

Spithill, however, came back against Williams in Flight 6. He led around the first lap; let Williams back in the race at the bottom of the second upwind leg, only to overtake the Briton again at the second windward mark.
Williams also scored a come-from-behind win, versus Bank.

'It was a difficult course to call today,' said Williams. 'The left looked better for pressure but the right was better for tide.'

'The wind was all over the compass,' said Bank, who has excelled in light and shifty winds at the Danish Open. 'I can’t compare this at all to Copenhagen.'

Racing is scheduled to resume this morning around 9:45 a.m., weather permitting.

Racing in the semifinal and final rounds, Dec. 2 and 3, is scheduled to be broadcast live on the Internet on www.sail-world.com, via www.sail.tv. It will also be broadcast live on ESPN/Star Sports, Eurosport, The Sailing Channel, Fox Australia, Sky New Zealand and Showtime Middle East (check local listings for times).

The events of the World Tour serve to determine the ISAF Match Racing World Champion. Next year the Monsoon Cup will be the final event of the 2006-’07 season, and will crown the 2007 World Champion.