BlackMatch make strong start at Sunseeker Australia Cup

BlackMatch lead TeamOrigin towards the Perth CBD. Image copyright Sail-World.com/AUS.

by David Swete

After a 7 year hiatus, the prestigious Australia Cup is back and BlackMatch Racing have the privilege to be here competing in an event with an awesome history. Past winners include Peter Gilmour, Rod Davis, Dean Barker and John Betrand, the latter who then went on to win the America’s Cup for Australia the following year. Skip Lissiman, also a member of the 1983 America’s Cup winning Australia II team, has been the driving force behind getting this event back to Perth and with a field of competitors that boasts the likes of Ben Ainslie, Ian Williams and local World number 2 ranked skipper Torvar Mirsky, he has done an amazing job.

In its first year back the Australia Cup is the perfect build up for the World Tour finale in Malaysia next week and in another first the action is happening right in front of Perth’s CBD. Rigs are dropped to clear a low bridge as the Foundation 36 Yachts are delivered up the Swan River for racing and once the reliable ‘Perth Doctor’ sea breeze kicks in, the area in front of the CBD provides a perfect race course with an amazing backdrop, a great concept that is working well.


Adam Minoprio leading fellow Kiwi, Phil Robertson. Image copyright Jenny Warner.

After two days of racing a full round robin has been completed that sees us, Torvar Mirsky and Ian Williams at the top of the table finishing with a scorecard of 7 wins and 2 losses. With 8 of the 10 teams qualifying for the quarterfinals it was the two East Australian teams skippered by Evan Walker and Seve Jarvin who missed out, however it was tight and a count back was needed to decide the last remaining berth in the quarterfinal with 4 teams all locked on only 3 wins. It was perhaps a surprise to see the recent Louis Vuitton Trophy winner Francesco Bruni just scrape through with 3 wins, however he was in good company with former world number 1 Mathieu Richard and local talent Keith Swinton also only able to manage 3 wins.

Tomorrow we are set to take on Mathieu Richard in the quarterfinal stage and are looking forward to the prospect of progressing further in this impressive field of competitors.

BlackMatch is Adam Minoprio, Dan Mclean, Tom Powrie, Nick Blackman and David Swete and we would like to thank our sponsor FedEx Express for their incredible support. We would also like to make a special mention to the support we receive from Emirates Team New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

BlackMatch Racing
Sunseeker Australia Cup