BlackMatch Through to Semi-Finals at Monsoon Cup

BlackMatch Racing in Malaysia. Image copyright Sander van der Borch.

by David Swete

With the final race of the round robin completed, the top 8 teams were decided for the quarter finals which saw Ben Ainslie's Team Origin on the wrong side of a tie break and narrowly missed out. Sebastian Col, Magnus Holmberg and Peter Gilmour were the benefactors of a tie breaks, while Ainslie missed out after he lost in an epic must win battle with Richard. In a repeat of last year Ian Williams just scraped through after narrowly winning his match against Johnie Berntsson on the last gybe to the finish.

So the scene was set for an awesome quarter final, and it really did deliver with the last semi finalist decided under extreme controversy. Top qualifier Paolo Cian decided to race us, with Mirsky choosing to race Holmberg while Richard decided to settle the World Title there and then and in a bold move chose to race Williams. The other pair to race were Gilmour and Col in what would be a very tough competition with a very interesting climax.

We took it to the Italian's and although we were defeated in the first match, we showed our experience in the Bakewell White 36's and managed 3 straight wins to earn our spot in our fourth World Tour semi final this year. Mirsky won 3-0 over Holmberg with Ian William's stepping up a massive gear and taking out his quarter final out 3-0 over ISAF world #1 Mathieu Richard.

Col and Gilmour were locked at 2 all in their show down and crossed the line side by side in the deciding match. The win was given to Col by the finish boat but the wily Gilmour thought his spinnaker had crossed the line before Col and lodged a red flag protest. Video evidence was used in the hearing and although Col's bow clearly crosses the line in front of the Australian's, it was deemed that the spinnaker of Gilmour's boat crossed ahead of the unlucky French Team. With the two French team's ousted from the competition the World Title was handed to Ian William's in somewhat anti-climatic circumstances and the big show down was not to be. Instead we were left with the unenviable proposition of racing the Brits in the semi-finals while Mirsky was to take on Gilmour in an all Perth affair.

Currently we are trailing Williams 2-0 and have the huge task of winning 3 straight races tomorrow if we are to proceed, while Mirsky is 1-0 down against Gilmour. We know we will need to sail out of our skins tomorrow if we are to make our second final on the World Tour, but we remain confident. We would like to congratulate Ian and his Bahrain Pindar Racing Team on their World Title crown and we are looking forward to giving them a run for their money in the remaining races of the semi-final tomorrow.

BlackMatch would like to thank their sponsors Fedex Express and Line 7 New Zealand. We would also like to thank the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and our friends and family.

BlackMatch Racing