Minoprio (left) and Wibroe (centre) eye each other up in the pre-start in their quarterfinal. Image copyright Loris von Siebenthal/www.myimage.ch
by Kirsten Bollinger
The sunshine returned to the shores of Lake St Moritz Saturday, bringing with it the breeze, albeit a shifty one. Racing got underway as scheduled and as the quarterfinals were completed more teams saw their chance of taking the prestigious ‘King of the Mountain’ title slip away. Racing continued right into the evening, with the first match of the semi-finals being completed.
Adam Minoprio (NZL) began the day on match point against Peter Wibroe (DEN), in their first to two point quarter final. However Wibroe managed to take the first win. After starting in better pressure at the committee boat end of the start line and maintaining their lead, Wibroe sailing team took a convincing victory. Minoprio commented “It was a tricky course this morning and beating Wibroe is always a very difficult challenge”.
Eric Monnin and Ian Williams in the pre-start. Image copyright Loris von Siebenthal/www.myimage.ch
In the other quarterfinal, Ian Williams’ (GBR) Team Pindar took an essential win after starting the day one nil down against local favourite Eric Monnin (SUI) and the search.ch team. “We really felt the pressure this morning, and that’s probably the most pumped up we have been for a quarterfinal for a long time”, said skipper Ian Williams.
With both matches going to one all, whoever won the next race would be through to the semi finals. The first match of Minoprio versus Wibroe saw the Danes once again win the start and lead around the first top mark. However an excellent gybe set into pressure from the ETNZ/BlackMatch team saw them gain the lead by the bottom mark. On the next beat Minoprio defended well to maintain the lead at the top and they managed to hold on for victory and to claim their spot in the semi-finals. “In both races we shared the lead, luckily the last lead change went our way,” said Minoprio after the race.
Eric Monnin and Ian Williams in their quarterfinal. Image copyright Loris von Siebenthal/www.myimage.ch
Ian Williams took another win over local Eric Monnin securing his semi-final spot and relegating Monnin to the 5-8th place sail-offs.
After the first two semi-finalists were decided the next four quarterfinalists hit the water to begin their matches. Sebastian Col (FRA) taking on Philippe Presti (FRA) in an all French Match Racing Team affair, and Mathieu Richard (FRA) racing against Jes Gram Hansen (DEN) and his Mascalzone Latino/Trifork Team.
Mathieu Richard pushes Jes Gram Hansen in the pre-start. Image copyright Loris von Siebenthal/www.myimage.com
It was a French benefit day with Mathieu Richard winning his quarterfinal 2-0.
Mathieu Richard defends his lead at the St Moritz Match Race. Image copyright Loris von Siebenthal/www.myimage.com
Col won his first race after Presti narrowly failed to take a penalty at the finishing line, and while many expected Col to win the second, this was not to be the case. Philippe Presti came back fighting and sailed an exciting race to draw even.
Philippe Presti leads Sebastien Col in their quarterfinal. Image copyright Loris von Siebenthal/www.myimage.com
In the deciding race between Col and Presti, Presti managed to get a penalty on Col in the pre-start in a windward leeward situation, where Col as the windward boat failed to keep clear. However the teams remained very close around the course and approaching the top mark for the final time Presti created an overlap with Col meaning Presti had to give room at the mark.
A collision between the two resulted in a penalty to Presti. This offset Col’s penalty but Presti managed to maintain a small lead after the incident, which he held to take the victory and proceed to the semi-finals.
After the sail-offs for 5th to 8th, the semi-finals got underway and in diminishing breeze only one match between Mathieu Richard and Philippe Presti was completed.
Presti got a penalty in the pre-start for attempting to gybe on to starboard in front of Richard, who was on port, as he didn’t complete his gybe before Richard had to avoid him. This penalty was then changed to a red flag penalty when umpires determined that Presti had gained control from the manoeuvre.
“Obviously getting a red flag penalty wasn’t in the plan, but apart from that we were happy with how we sailed the rest of the race”, commented Philippe after the race. Richard went on to win the race, saying “Today was perfect for us, we won every race and hopefully we can do the same tomorrow.”
Mathieu Richard leads Philippe Presti in match one of the semifinals. Image copyright Loris von Siebenthal/www.myimage.com
In the final day of racing tomorrow, the semi-finals are still to be completed with the finals scheduled for the afternoon. Spectators and sailors alike are looking forward to another day of exciting match racing.
Results
SEMIFINALS - first race (winner in bold)
M1 Philippe Presti v Mathieu Richard
5-8 SAIL-OFF (Winners in bold)
M1 Jes Gram Hansen v Sebastien Col
M2 Peter Wibroe v Eric Monnin
M3 Peter Wibroe v Sebastien Col
M4 Eric Monnin v Jes Gram Hansen
5th Sebastien Col (FRA) French Match Racing Team/K Challenge
6th Peter Wibroe (DEN) Wibroe Sailing Team
7th Jes Gram Hansen (DEN) Mascalzone Latino/Trifork Racing
8th Eric Monnin (SUI) search.ch
St Moritz Match Race
World Match Racing Tour
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