ISAF World Match Racing Tour 2010 - YANMAR Racing aims for the top

by YANMAR Racing Media on 4 Apr 2010 The first event of the 2010 World Match Racing Tour is Match Race France and will be sailed in Marseille from April 6th to 11th.

The first win of the season is important for any crew and the YANMAR Racing Team is no exception.

Hailing from Perth, Western Australia YANMAR Racing’s skipper Peter Gilmour is the only multiple season winner on the World Match Racing Tour.

In 2009, his first year campaigning as team YANMAR Racing, he finished fourth overall just two points behind Ben Ainslie’s TeamOrigin and four points behind Torvar Mirsky and the Mirsky Racing Team crew. Ahead of them all was Adam Minoprio and his BlackMatch Emirates Team New Zealand crew, who skipped away to win the 2009 Tour after their 2009 Monsoon Cup double points victory.

YANMAR Racing is now looking forward to the start of the new season and aiming to better their 2009 result. Skipper Peter Gilmour explained ‘Last year we did seven events, while Adam Minoprio and Torvar Mirsky sailed all eight and this year we too are hoping to compete in eight events.

‘The first event of the season, Match Race France, is going to be challenging. I’ve never raced in the Marseille event, but I am looking forward to it. The boat is the small J80 - an asymmetric, four person 24 footer. ‘For us to make the semi finals against the younger guys competing would certainly be an achievement as this size of boat will suit their style.’

Preparation for a very competitive season is important and most of the skippers and crews competing on the 2010 World Match Racing Tour have managed to fit some match racing into their last few months of sailing.

But that has not been the case for everyone. By far the most spectacular preparation for the Marseille Match Racing is that of YANMAR Racing crewmember Thierry Douillard (FRA).

Douillard, the 37 year old America’s Cup sailor with K Challenge in AC32, first sailed with Gilmour in 2005 and over the last two seasons has regularly sailed as his crew. Douillard

has been ocean sailing for the last two months as one of the watch leaders onboard Oman Sail’s ‘Majan’, the new A100 trimaran which left Muscat (Oman) in early February 2010 for Cape Town via the Maldives. Majan left Cape Town on the 10th March and sailed the 4,600 miles to Fremantle, Western Australia in less than 12 days.

The YANMAR Racing crewmember has been on a tight schedule to make the first event of the season. After a few days in Perth, Douillard then rushed to the airport for a trip back to France and a short break with his family before heading to Marseille for some much needed match racing practice.

‘Yes, timing was an issue,’ Thierry said ‘but the passage from Cape Town was very fast. We had some strong winds in the high 60’s, gusting above 70 knots! Marseille is going to seem very calm after that’ he added. ‘It is a fascinating contrast - a 30metre (100 foot) offshore trimaran and the next event on a seven and a half metre (24 foot) J80. I have been managing to juggle the offshore and inshore sailing for the past decade and I am enjoying both. I enjoy the intricacy of match racing and the very precise tuning required, but I’ve also learnt how to shake out the cobwebs offshore.

‘There is very strong competition in this first event; it’s a tricky one. The rest of the YANMAR Racing Team have not sailed the Marseille event before but I have local knowledge and I know these boats. This is going to be a very big season for YANMAR Racing and we are all looking forward to it!’ concluded Douillard.

Gilmour agrees. ‘‘It will be a big season but we seem to thrive on challenges. It’s the crew’s experience that has delivered us good results over the years.’

Long time experienced campaigner and America’s Cup sailor, Yasuhiro Yaji, has been a core member of Peter Gilmour’s match racing team since 1994.

‘Yaji and I have been together since ’94. Yaji is big like me but his power, size and ability are quite legendary’ explained Gilmour.

‘For Match Race France YANMAR Racing will again have Yaji onboard - he is our rock. We also have Thierry and David Gilmour, one of my sons, sailing with us.‘

Yasuhiro Yaji, the big 43 year old Japanese rolled his eyes and laughed at being called ‘a rock’. ‘A lump maybe - both Peter and I are around 100kg. I was a grinder in the 1992 Japanese America’s Cup campaign. I was tall and thin back then, before I started in the gym. ‘Peter and I met in 1994 when he became coach for the Japanese challenge for the America’s Cup. I became part of his match racing team and I have only missed one or two regattas in all the years since.

‘Last year we were just beginning YANMAR Racing. I think last year we were so-so, but this year I know we will see more improvement.’

With the veteran pairing of Gilmour and Yasuhiro and the broad experience of Douillard, the latest addition to the YANMAR Racing roster is a ‘chip off the old block’, an aggressive young match racer named David Gilmour.

The 19 year old elder son of Peter Gilmour, started sailing as a seven year old and began racing Optimists at age 10. By age 12 David had won his first regatta and he is currently dual 420 Australian champion and the World Under 21 Team Racing Champion.

When sailing dinghies David is coached by Australian 470 Gold medallist Belinda Stowell, but when he’s match racing, the coach is his Dad.

David won the Western Australian Match Racing title in 2009. The 2010 Colin Mullins Regatta, the selection series for the Warren Jones International Youth Regatta, was his first international match racing event, so finishing in fourth place was a good start. In the Warren Jones regatta, David placed third behind William Tiller and Phil Roberston.

David has crewed twice before on the World Match Racing Tour for his father, in 2005 and 2006 in St.Moritz, but as the young sailor is expected to ‘have a serious crack at the big time’ once his studies are completed, this Match Race France experience will be invaluable.

He said today ‘I’ve been working away at my match racing and I’m really excited to be sailing with YANMAR Racing. I am in my second year studying Commerce at the University of WA; the timing of this event happens to be good, it’s in a mid-semester break but I still have assignments to hand in so I will have a little on.’

2010 is a big Year for the World Match Racing Tour with the change of ownership and an expansion of the Tour, already started with the addition of Nha Trang, the Vietnam event.

Peter Gilmour can see that his duties as Acting President of the World Match Racing Tour are easing and he is keen to turn his attention to match racing and his YANMAR Racing crew are just as keen to start the season with a strong placing on the WMRT leader board.

And this season’s aim for the YANMAR Racing Team? A better result in every event - simple enough really.

For more news and information on YANMAR Racing http://www.yanmar.co.jp/en/racing/

To discover more about the World Match Racing Tour www.worldmatchracingtour.com

And to discover more about YANMAR Marine www.yanmarinemarine.com