Bjorn Hansen luffs hard at Ian Williams during their semi-final match. Korea Match Cup 2009, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, 6th June 2009. Image copyright Gareth Cooke/Subzero Images.
by James Boyd
Yet more costly turnarounds and huge drama marked the penultimate day of the Korea Match Cup. Unbeatable on Friday, ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing Adam Minoprio suffered three straight defeats in his quarter final races today against Team Shosholoza’s Paolo Cian, putting him out of the competition.
With the wind starting light and getting lighter until the sea breeze pumped up mid-afternoon, Minoprio found himself forced over the line early in the first race and infuriatingly repeated this in the second. 2-2 and for the decider it was gloves off. Minoprio picked up a penalty in the pre-start, but crossed the line with a four boatlength lead. But the wily Italian closed in and finally overhauled Minoprio on the second beat. Minoprio recounts: “We did a nice little manoeuvre at the top mark to get on the inside and ahead, but we held him up at the top mark to try and get rid of our penalty. We went for the luff and we thought we could swing behind the stern to get rid of our penalty and we just connected with his stern - there is an I-bolt on the back of the boat to hold the backstay on and we just got that. So we got another penalty and it was game over.”
A dejected Minoprio concluded: “We are hugely disappointed. Things today fully did not go our way.”
For TEAMORIGIN’s Ben Ainslie the day was very black and white. The quarter finals against France’s Mathieu Richard, Ainslie won two-one. However when he came up against Paolo Cian in the semis, Ainslie was dispatched three-zero, including a sorry first race when he had the race sewn up in the start, leading and a penalty up on Cian, only to suffer a wrap on his genniker on the second run, followed by a short trawl of it allowing Cian enough margin to overtake and successfully complete his penalty to take the point.
Cian was firing on all cylinders today during his rapid dispatching of both Minoprio and the British triple Olympic Gold medallist. “Sometimes you have better control of the boat with the acceleration, all the team is working just much better, because it is probably the fourth day that you are using that boat, you are more used to the course, the puffs and everything works much smoother,” he said.
Chief umpire Shane Borell and Gary Manuel encounter engine and steering trouble while providing wing service. Korea Match Cup 2009, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, 6th June 2009. Image copyright Gareth Cooke/Subzero Images.
Today’s drama magnet was Ian Williams and his Bahrain Team Pindar. They started the day in the quarter finals level pegging, 1-1, with Torvar Mirsky and their series went to the full five races…and beyond.
In the second race there was a dramatic prang at the weather mark when Williams careered into the back of Mirsky’s boat. Tactician Simon Shaw recounted: “We were on the starboard layline and Ian went to duck Torvar so he got the bow down and Torvar’s stern swung up towards us and we clipped his transom and dented the bow slightly - there was a bit of gelcoat damage.” This resulted in a $500 fine and half a point being docked, but not without a protest first, in which the half point penalty was upheld.
In the third race Williams’ boat looked a little lethargic in the pre-start and after Mirsky won the start they sailed a little way up the course before dropping their sails and hoisting their red flag. “We went for a gybe and as soon as we turned in it felt like we’d sailed over a line and the boat went into a big stop,” recounted Shaw. “We carried on turning, but he was able to tack up, tack and tack back before we’d even come round, because the boat was so much slower and then we were really slow.” Just after the start it seemed that the rope had fallen off but they were still off the pace. They asked a diver over, who, embarrassingly, was unable to find anything.
Finally Williams and his crew made it through to the semis where they were pitched against Bjorn Hansen, who had seen off Peter Gilmour in the quarter finals despite Hansen sailing with a mostly amateur crew.
Ian Williams' crew hiking hard in their semi final. Korea Match Cup 2009, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, 6th June 2009. Image copyright Gareth Cooke/Subzero Images.
The first race saw a luffing match at the first top mark rounding from which Hansen copped a penalty. However matters turned terminal for the Swede when on the first run he lost his bowman overboard.
“I was on the bow preparing for the gybe and all of a sudden Bjorn changed course and I wasn’t prepared for that and I slipped overboard for the first time in six years sailing with Bjorn,” admitted the swimmer Mattias Bredi. “It is pretty slippery on the bow but I should be used to it after almost one week. It was a little bit of bad luck, because we were in the lead, but the water was quite warm!”
In their second semi-final race, and at the top mark Hansen pounded into the Bahrain Team Pindar transom when Williams, as the windward boat, was unable to keep clear. Williams picked up a red flag penalty, forcing him to complete a penalty turn immediately. Hansen overtook but the impact had been great enough to destroy the bottom of the sacrificial bow on his boat which was shovelling water for the remainder of the race. Matters were further complicated when the Swede picked up a penalty on the final run for gybing too close, ultimately losing to Williams. However the damage to bow from the collision resulted in the race being subject to another protest hearing as the skippers came ashore at the end of the day. The result was ultimately upheld.
The wind had picked up unusually for the third race and after a long dive down into the start box Hansen led off the line. The second beat resulted in a tacking duel between the two aggressive match racers and after several millimetre close encounters, Hansen was penalised for not keeping clear. He tried to shed this penalty at the top mark but ended up being penalised again for encroaching on to the exclusion zone and on the final run Hansen was ultimately black flagged for not having carried out either of his penalties soon enough.
Shaw concluded: “We tend to have a habit of having really close bang, ding-dong, full on matches and today was more of that. We have been on the water since 9am, solid quarter finals all the way through, five races, a couple of re-sails, two protests a couple of jury hearings, a quick bite for lunch and then went back out – we were sailing faster and I think in a breeze our boat handling was a little stronger and Ian was pretty much on the money starting and that was enough.”
And so after a monumental day on the water we have two finalists who will go head to head tomorrow – Paolo Cian who arrived there in the smoothest possible way and Ian Williams – who didn’t!
Semi-Final Results
Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Shosholoza 3-0
Ian Williams (GBR) Bahrain Team Pindar 3.5-2
Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing 2-3.5
Ben Ainslie (GBR) TeamOrigin 0-3
World Match Racing Tour
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