WMRT: Strong day for YANMAR Racing in Korea

by Rob Kothe

Going into the third day of the Round Robin series Peter Gilmour (AUS) and his YANMAR Racing crew of Martin Berntsson, Cameron Dunn, Yasuhiro Yaji and Thierry Douillard had two wins and three losses.

The first match of the day for YANMAR Racing was against Bertrand Pace (FRA) Aleph Sailing Team.

Cameron Dunn, tactician explained 'We started on the left, had a split up the first beat and then held the right, which was favoured. We made nice gains, rounded the top mark ahead and sailed away from there for a good win.

'Against Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Gill Global Team, it was close and near the top mark we were bow to bow but he dipped behind us when we were already on lay line, so we rounded three-four lengths ahead and we won comfortably from there.

'Then came the match against Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing Team. Robinson won the start at the pin end and led us around the top mark by two lengths, but we closed back in on him. We came into the bottom mark on starboard with an overlap, and the umpires gave him the penalty for taking too much room.

'We were still behind but we just kept it as close as we could. At the top mark for the second time, we were only a length an a half behind him and then down the run he tried to slow down and work off his penalty but he got too slow and we ended up just sailing around him and went on to win.

'With three wins the mood is up; we definitely sailed better today as a team, we did what we had talked about last night. The team talked a lot more, we kept the communication going really well throughout the boat and that paid off for us.'

Skipper Peter Gilmour summed up. 'We are sailing a bit more confidently now. Cameron did a great job of calling the shifts when we could see them, and that helped us out. We had a couple of bow to bow situations. I think we were behind in all of our races in fact. We really sailed well to get ourselves into a powerful position.

'Even losing starts, we managed to stay close and to me that is always a test of if you are match racing well .... if you can race extremely close from behind and obviously convert that into a lead.

'The important thing is it requires you to sail fairly loose and heads up and doing the smaller things at the perfect time.

'Apart from a 3-0 day, the highlight for us today was that Tomoko Murata came from YANMAR Japan (head office) to join us and cheer us on, and she has brought good luck for us today.'

Day 3: Current Round Robin Standings

Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing 6-2
Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar 6-2
Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing 5-3
Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team 5-3
Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team 5-3
Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team 5-5
Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Gill Global Team 5-5
Francesco Bruni (ITA) Azzurra 4-4
Bertrand Pace (FRA) Aleph Sailing Team 4-6
Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing Team 4-6
Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Italia 3-7
Park GunWoo (KOR) Busan Match 2-8

YANMAR Racing
World Match Racing Tour