Peter Gilmour leads the Monsoon Cup

by Rob Kothe on 29 Nov 2007
After two years of soft breezes today we had 'lambs in the paddock' or in other parlance, white caps on the water, as the Terengganu River race course provided challenges for the 12 match racing crews contesting the Monsoon Cup today.

The overcast skies from this morning continued into the afternoon, with gusts of 12 to 17 knots whipping across the water.

The aggression from this morning continued, with 2005 Monsoon Cup champion Dato’ Peter Gilmour on a roll. And at times it seemed there were lambs going to slaughter.

While Gilmour has spent less time on the Match Racing circuit this year, the West Australian has been four times the Match Racing World Champion and is the current defending World Match Racing Tour Champion.

In 2005 Peter Gilmour had been sailing from memory, exhausted from the effort of organising the first Monsoon Cup, but he regrouped and went on to win. In 2006 he was more relaxed, in the early part of the regatta he was amongst the slower starters but he strung together some good wins, finishing behind Peter Holmberg, Mathieu Richard and Ian Williams.

2007 has been a big year for Gilmour. He was honoured with the title of Dato' awarded by His Majesty Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin, the King of Malaysia in August for the key role he played in developing the Monsoon Cup in Terengganu, Malaysia and for inspiring international relations in the sport of sailing and for the promotion of tourism.

Who knows what will happen in the remaining flights of this year’s Monsoon Cup, but the look in his eyes and his aggression out on the water would suggest Gilmour is hunting for silverware to add to his already impressive trophy cabinet.

Yesterday Gilmour had beaten Ian Williams (GBR); today Gilmour and his PST team were taking no prisoners. He harassed his opponents, bullying them around the starting box and giving them no quarter on the racecourse.

In flight three this morning he cleared out from Jesper Radich (DEN). In his next match he gave Tiffany Koo (MAL) a prestart sailing lesson and he drove Adam Minoprio (NZL) off the course in his seventh match.

Then in his next match with world ranking number three Paolo Cian, the two combatants sailed up the river behind the marina, and then along the floating marina pontoon, before the two boats swung into a drag race to the start line. Cian was windward and controlled, Gilmour crossed behind but once again he took the lead down the run and crossed ahead of his rival.

It was then time for the two Western Australians to do battle; Master Peter Gilmour and Apprentice Torvar Mirsky. The pre-start was physical, in the dial up Mirsky fell away to port and touched Gilmour's boat, and after Mirsky landed a second penalty during the race, it was all over.

But no one is infallible.

Gilmour led Swede Bjorn Hansen but things did not go to plan for the Master and he attracted two penalties, thereby giving the match to Hansen. He won against Staffan Lindberg is his last match to finish the day with an impressive 7-1 record.

World Number One, Mathieu Richard continued on his winning way, finishing at 5-2 after the day’s racing.

Richard has lost matches to Bjorn Hansen and Adam Minoprio, but he sailed an impressive last race of the day to beat fellow title challenger Sebastien Col. Richard is sailing aggressively and looking very determined, but was smiling after the end of the day’s racing.

The ISAF World Match Racing Champion will be crowned at the end of the Monsoon Cup, with the winner receiving the impressive World Tour Trophy.

Dockside today Dato’ Gilmour was both a happy skipper and event organiser.

‘The weather was exactly what’s in the brochure; we had some variable wind early, but conditions stabilised and we had beautiful sailing conditions.

‘If we had Monsoon winds it would be 25-35 knots, but for the last few weeks and again today, we had a good sea breeze with some gradient.’

‘The PST team is happy about the racing today. We lost just one of our races, we were behind in quite a few others and to be able to come back is a good indication of how well you are sailing. We are sailing quite well; we don't want to look to far ahead.

‘From an organisational viewpoint we are happy too. We have a fabulous organisation, I still lead them and guide them but they all shoulder their responsibilities. Its been a great event so far and with the positive feed back we've been getting at all levels, we are pleased with our progress.’

Racing results after 11 flights – not all teams have sailed the same number of matches.

Peter Gilmour (AUS) 7-1
Torvar Mirsky (AUS) 5-3
Mathieu Richard (FRA) 5-2
Ian Williams (GBR) 5-2
Jesper Radich (DEN) 5-2
Paolo Cian (FRA) 4-3
Bjorn Hansen (SWE) 4-3
Adam Minoprio (NZL) 4-3
Staffan Lindberg (FIN) 3-5
Sebastien Col (FRA) 2-5
Tiffany Koo (MAS) 0-7
Katie Spithill (AUS) 0-8
Tiffany Koo (MAS) 0-7