World Match Race Tour - Minoprio at top of game going into Monsoon Cup
by Tracey Johnstone on 20 Oct 2009
Gilmour versus Minoprio Sail-World.com /AUS
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The 2009 World Match Racing Tour climaxes at the fifth Monsoon Cup to held in Terengganu on the east coast of Malaysia from 1 to 6 December when 12 teams clash in the 2009 Tour deciding event.
World Match Racing Tour leader, New Zealander Adam Minoprio and his ETNZ/Black Match team are on top of their game as they head towards the final event on the circuit this year.
A first in the Marseille International Match Race at the start of the season and then another first at the St Moritz Match Race in September along with two seconds, one in the Portugal Match Race and the other in the Argo Gold Cup, has placed Minoprio, going into the ninth and deciding event, sitting solidly on 100 points ahead of Torvar Mirsky (AUS) on 88 with Ian Williams (UK) in third overall on 74 points.
He now has his sights on a first in the Monsoon Cup and the coveted ISAF Match Racing World Championship title to be decided in Malaysia.
'We’ve got a 12 point lead over Torvar (Mirsky) and a 30 point lead over everybody else, so it’s a nice lead to have. It’s quite comforting to know that we can go into the finals and we’ve got a bit of breathing room. At the end of the day everybody’s going to be gunning for us and the pressure is on them. The old hands don’t want to get bitten by the young guys so they’ll be more stressed out about it than we are,' Minoprio said.
Mirsky, also with only three years on the international circuit, recognises that while his Deloitte Touche Tohmatsuteam’s style has matured since last year and their results have improved, the young Minoprio team is definitely their main challenger. 'Adam’s team started the tour so well and they are always up there. They can beat anyone. When the get the right conditions and the right mood on their team, they can win regattas. He’s going to be up there at the end and I feel he’s our biggest hurdle.'
The ETNZ/Black Match team’s racing style has also matured since last year’s final circuit event. Careful management of the pressures that abound in Match Racing competition and some youthful exuberance, are what is keeping them on track. 'You can definitely put yourself out of it by getting too stressed out. You’ve just got to go out there and make sure you’re having a good time. If you are everything will fall into place and you’ll sail the way you need to. If you get too stressed out you’ll probably make the mistakes you’re stressing about making.
We take it very seriously when we’re out on the water. We don’t like any stuff ups and we like to be serious when we’re training. But when we’re sitting around waiting for races we’re probably the most immature team out there. Once we’ve run our lay lines and done the serious stuff it’s as relaxed as it can be. All the teams that are achieving consistently are the ones that are enjoying themselves and having fun.'
Complementing Minoprio’s approach to his racing is crew consistency. 'From the start we’ve had Nick Blackman on bow, Tom Powrie trimming, Dave Swete trimming in the pit doing the muscle work, and this year we’ve had Dan McClean come in and take in the main for all the five-man events. We’re all from the Royal New Zealand Youth Training Program.
Looking over his shoulder, Minoprio will keep an eye on triple Olympic gold medal skipper Ben Ainslie. With Ainslie’s outstanding sailing skills and his Team New Zealand experience in the last America’s Cup, Minoprio believes Ainslie knows all the match racing tricks. 'Because he hasn’t been doing it as solidly as us he’s a bit rusty in some little areas, but he’s still a world-class sailor. He showed us in the (Argo Gold Cup, Bermuda) finals in the first two races.
'He just got the side of the course which he wanted and we got what we wanted too. But what he wanted was the right side and he came out on top. There wasn’t really much match racing to it. It was just good sailing on their behalf which took them past us and further ahead of us in the first two races which was rather demoralising.'
Ainslie went on to win his first King Edward VII Gold Cup.
Minoprio’s first year in the Monsoon Cup in 2007 was their first tour event. Racing in very tricky conditions they placed a disappointing tenth. In 2008 they qualified second in the quarter finals. Peter Gilmour, the ultimate winner, decided to pick Minoprio 'because we were the young guys. We managed to take him to two-all which was rather cool. But he got us in the end so we ended up seventh.'
Racing again on the manoeuvrable Foundation 36ers in last year’s Monsoon Cup the young New Zealand team had clearly further developed their match racing skills beating out some highly experienced match racing skippers to reach the finals against Peter Gilmour. They lost three-one. 'We felt we were getting better and there’s one more place we can improve on in the cup.'
[Sorry, this content could not be displayed]The Monsoon Cup is just five weeks away. The ETNZ/Black Match team plan to spend this time 'hanging out in Sweden and having a good time' before they head to Perth for the Sunseeker Australia Cup and then onto Malaysia.
Focusing back on his main target of the year, the World Championship title, Minoprio said 'it would always be good to increase the level (at Terengganu) and put the pressure on everybody.'
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