Mirsky on fire going into Monsoon Cup

by Rob Kothe & Al Constable on 29 Nov 2009
On the Swan River in Perth West Australia this afternoon 23 year old Perth sailor Torvar Mirsky and his MRT team outsailed triple Olympic Gold Medallist Ben Ainslie, double Gold medallist Ian Percy and the Team Origin crew in the Australia Cup, the pre-cursor to the 2009 Monsoon Cup.

The final was the best of three races with Mirsky powering past the British America’s Cup crew. Mirsky was on fire in the first match and sailed away from the ISAF sailor of the year keeping control on the right and sailing to a clean win.

The final race was nearly over for Ainslie and his TeamOrigin before it began.

As the two Bakewell-White 36’s spun around the Media-Broadcast boat at anchor, abeam of the start boat, Ainslie came too close to the bow, hooked on the chain and spun the big powerboat; as the angle widened the chain slid free of the keel and they were free. A rare grin from the focused British skipper.

Mirsky lead across the start line but Ainslie was on the right and controlled the beat, but Mirsky was bow to stern at the top mark. Then the race cracked open as Ainslie was penalised for failing to keep clear. Game, Set and Match!

Dockside Torvar Mirsky said ‘There are some really famous guys here today that we’ve knocked off and we are really pinching ourselves. We will go into the Monsoon Cup with a lot of confidence.’

‘Kinley (Fowler) is an integral part of our team and to lose him for the finals, with a forearm strain, was a challenge. But we sailed in a very disciplined way, with roles very well defined. We had a short training session with Pierluigi De Felice (PJ) from the Azzurra team and he is such a great sailor he slotted in perfectly.

‘If we have the same result in the Monsoon Cup that we had here with us winning and Adam and his BlackMatch team coming fourth, we will win the 2009 World Championship. So we will be working very hard to do just that.'

More information at www.monsooncup.com.my