RTI 2009: Images of the JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race

The fleet power away at this year's JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race. Image copyright onEdition.


Team Origin Extreme 40 at this year's JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race. Image copyright onEdition.


Russell Coutts at the helm of Team Aqua at this year's JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race. Image copyright onEdition.


Russell Coutts at the helm of Team Aqua at this year's JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race. Image copyright onEdition.


Team Origin Extreme 40 ahead of the start of this year's JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race. Image copyright onEdition.


BT IMOCA 60, Open 60. Image copyright Paul Wyeth.


JP Morgan Asset Management/TEAMORIGIN Extreme 40. Image copyright Paul Wyeth.


Team Aqua Extreme 40. Image copyright Paul Wyeth.


TEAMORIGIN Extreme 40. Image copyright Paul Wyeth.


Team Aqua Extreme 40, with Russell Coutts (left) and Cameron Appleton also looking at the camera. Image copyright Paul Wyeth.

JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race

Kieler Woche Olympic Classes Under Way in Germany

Star boats in action in Kieler Woche. Supplied copyright image.

by Jodie Bakewell-White

Kieler Woche Olympic Classes Regatta is underway in Germany with the first day of racing just completed. Eleven New Zealanders sailing in seven boats are in Germany for the ISAF Sailing World Cup event which runs over five days.

“First we scheduled three races for today, but in not very easy conditions we are happy to have two races in most of the classes on the score”, said Jobst Richter, Chairman of the Kieler Woche Race Committee.

Coming home first in race one for the 153 strong Laser fleet, Mike Bullot (Murrays Bay Sailing Club) made an excellent start to the regatta. He followed the win with a 4th place in race two which puts him in 4th place overall after day one.

On form in 2009, reigning Olympic champ, Paul Goodison of Great Britain made an enviable start, recording two wins on day one giving him the early lead in the Lasers. Matt Coutts (Murrays Bay Sailing Club) suffered in the standings due to a black flag in race one but came back in race two with a 5th place on the water.

New Zealand’s new Star duo of Hamish Pepper and Craig Monk (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron) has also made a solid start on the first day of Kieler Woche. The Stars only managed one race on day one and the kiwis were 5th amongst the 43 boat fleet which means they have 5th place overall. The locals have the early edge with two German crews sitting at the top of the leader board after race one for the class.

The fast paced 49er class has gone without consistent New Zealand representation at international events over recent years, so it’s exciting to see three kiwi entries in the 50 boat fleet at Kieler Woche 2009.

David McDiarmid and Andrew Archibald (Mangonui Cruising Club) have made the best start of the kiwi crews with a 6th, 4th and 5th in racing on day one - they sit in 5th place overall. Peter Burling (Tauranga Yacht & Powerboat Club) and Blair Tuke (Kerikeri Cruising Club) are in 10th overall after a 7th, 12th and 3rd in racing overnight. The only South Island crew at Kieler Woche, Peter Graham and Iain Begg (Ravensbourne Boating Club) are in 32nd place.

Veteran Olympic campaigner Dan Slater (Murrays Bay Sailing Club) is back in action in the Finn class and is in 10th place. Up against 62 other sailors Slater and his competitors only sailed one race on the first day of the regatta.

Racing resumes in Germany overnight tonight and concludes on Wednesday 24th June. Visit the regatta website for full results and more information.

New Zealand's Results after Day One

Laser (153 boats)
5th Mike Bullot (Murrays Bay Sailing Club)
89th Matt Coutts (Murrays Bay Sailing Club)

Star (43 boats)
Hamish Pepper and Craig Monk (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron)

49er (50 boats)
5th David McDiarmid and Andrew Archibald (Mangonui Cruising Club)
10th Peter Burling (Tauranga Yacht & Powerboat Club) and Blair Tuke (Kerikeri Cruising Club)
32nd Peter Graham and Iain Begg (Ravensbourne Boating Club)

Finn (63 boats)
10th Dan Slater (Murrays Bay Sailing Club)

Kieler Woche
Yachting New Zealand

WMRT: Four on Top at Troia Portugal Match Cup

Minoprio, Richard, Williams and Mirsky to compete in Semi-Finals


BlackMatch Racing (Adam Minoprio) cross tacks ahead of YANMAR Racing (Peter Gilmour) during their quarter-final. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.

by Dobbs Davis

After a long first-to-three point Quarter-Final series, four teams have emerged on top to compete in tomorrow’s Semi-Final stage of the Troia Portugal Match Cup, the fourth stage in this year’s World Match Racing Tour. Out of the four pairings of Quarter-Finalists, only one went to five matches before being decided, whilst the others were all completed after four.


Spinnaker take-down for BlackMatch Racing against Peter Gilmour's YANMAR Racing Team. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.

The four Semi-Finalists are Adam Minoprio (NZL) and his Emirates Team New Zealand/BlackMatch Racing team, Ian Williams (GBR) and his Bahrain Team Pindar, Mathieu Richard (FRA) and his French Match Racing Team, and Torvar Mirsky (AUS) and his Mirsky Racing Team. All four are currently lying in the top eight of the World Championship standings, holding, respectively, the first, third, fourth, and eight positions on the leaderboard.


Ian Williams lufss Seb Col during the quarterfinals. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.

There may be some metaphorical value in the fact that the one pair that went to five had the oldest and youngest skippers doing battle against each other, with both also being from the Southern hemisphere. In his matches against Tour veteran Peter Gilmour (AUS) and the YANMAR Racing Team, Minoprio had some highly spirited encounters to keep Chief Umpire Shane Borrell and his International umpire team busy with numerous whistles and penalty flags in nearly all their matches.


Ian Williams' Bahrain Team Pindar competing in Portugal. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.

One of the reasons for this high level of aggressiveness was not just the usual incentive to win Tour points and a piece of the 50,000 Euro prize money purse, but that the 8-10 knot wind conditions were perfect for tight manoeuvring in the Swedish Match 40s used in this event. Also, in the Rio Sado course area just north of the Troia Resort venue a strong flood current early followed by a strong ebb later in the day made the pre-start fight for the favoured end all the more intense in each match.


Seb Col (FRA) leads Ian Williams (GBR) downwind during the quarterfinals in Portugal. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.

Another particularly aggressive pair was the match-up between Ian Williams and Sebastian Col (FRA) and his French Match Racing Team/K-Challenge. Col had a good start to the series, winning their first match, but this ignited Williams determination, taking three straight by showing an aggressive style and smooth teamwork appropriate for the reigning two-time World Match Race Champion. Col won this event last year, and finished last year’s Tour overall as runner-up to Williams, but has been having problems finding his stride as yet this year.


Ian Williams is all concentration during the quarterfinals. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.

So, Sunday will be the final day of match race action on the Rio Sado at Troia Resort.

Semi-Final Pairings
Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing v Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team
Ian Williams (GBR) Bahrain Team Pindar v Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch

Round Robin Results
1st Philippe Presti (FRA) French Match Racing Team
2nd Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team
3rd Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing
4th Ian Williams (GBR) Bahrain Team Pindar
5th Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing
6th Sebastien Col (FRA) French Match Racing Team/K-Challenge
7th Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing
8th Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Team Onboard
9th Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing
10th Alvaro Mourinho (POR) Seth Sailing Team
11th Ian Ainslie (RSA) Team Proximo
12th Andrew Arbuzov (RUS)

Tour Standings
(After 3 of 10 events)
1. Adam Minoprio (NZL), ETNZ/BlackMatch 41 points
2. Ben Ainslie, (GBR), Team Origin 40 points
3. Mathieu Richard (FRA), French Team 35 points
4. Ian Williams (GBR), Bahrain Team Pindar 34 points
5. Damien Iehl (FRA), French Team 32 points
6. Paolo Cian (ITA), Shosholoza 32 points
7. Peter Gilmour (AUS), YANMAR Racing 23 points
8. Torvar Mirsky (AUS), Mirsky Racing Team 21 points

World Match Racing Tour

WMRT: Third Time Lucky for BlackMatch over Peter Gilmour

BlackMatch Racing chase YANMAR Racing in a pre-start in their quarterfinals. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.


Nick Blackman doing a great job of calling 'swing' for Adam in a prestart against Gilmour. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.

by David Swete

Having lost to Gilmour twice previously in the quarterfinal of the 2007 Monsoon Cup and the Final last year, it was a case of 3rd time lucky as we secured our first win against the three time World Match Racing Champion, in a knockout stage of an event. Our quarter final match up with Gilmour was an extremely close affair and went right down to the wire. We took the first match with a text book start and sailed cleanly to victory while the next race saw Gilmour do a similar thing to us, however the third race was an absolute nail biter and saw plenty of action.

After trailing off the start line we fought back to stay in touch up the first beat and after an excellent spinnaker hoist we started to roll over the Australian skipper and his Yanmar Sailing Team. We then thought we could complete a gybe so in an attacking move we gybed at him on starboard, but a cool Gilmour held his nerve and his course, which resulted in a collision and a penalty to us. They then gybed off and we followed going straight into an aggressive luff, while they failed to keep clear and they themselves were then handed a penalty. There was a lot of yelling in a heated situation which saw our boat become entangled with Gilmour's spinnaker sheet around our bow as his spinnaker ‘flogged’. The gybe back toward the bottom mark was interesting as our boats were locked together with their sheet and by the time they cleared it they had not given us enough room at the bottom mark and were given a red flag penalty to be taken immediately. All of this action made for some adrenalin pumping sailing but by the time Gilmour had completed his penalty we knew defensive sailing would seal a win for us.

Sequence of images of the luffing and spinnaker sheet entanglement:


(1) Image copyright Jenny Warner.


(2) Image copyright Jenny Warner.


(3) Image copyright Jenny Warner.


(4) Image copyright Jenny Warner.

The fourth match was an absolute shocker for us as we received a penalty in the pre-start for gybing too close to them and then received a second penalty in a port/starboard incident near the top mark which was the nail in the coffin to set up a fifth decisive match. We got a great start in the final match and sailed well tactically around the course to seal our semi final berth against the current world champion Ian Williams.

It is fantastic to have qualified for the semi-finals here in Portugal, especially after the disappointment of Korea a fortnight ago and to do it against such a great competitor was even more satisfying. We are looking forward to the challenge of racing Ian Williams tomorrow in the semi finals while fellow Line 7 sponsored Torvar Mirsky will take on Mathieu Richard in the other semi-final.

BlackMatch would like to again thank their sponsors FedEx Express and Line 7 New Zealand. We would also like to thank our yacht club the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Emirates Team New Zealand.

BlackMatch Racing
World Match Racing Tour

WMRT: MRT take on France

Mirsky Racing Team in action in the Troia Portugal Match Cup quarter-finals against the French Match Racing Team (Philippe Presti). Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.

MRT qualify for the semi-finals of the Portugal Match Cup

by Kinley Fowler

Mirsky Racing Team went into the day knowing they were one win away from a guaranteed top 4 placing and a semi final berth.

Facing the French Match Racing Team (Philippe Presti) in the moderate Portuguese sea breeze, MRT dominated the prestart and rounded the first top mark with a 5 boat length lead.

MRT displayed strong crew work to defend and even extend their lead to sail to victory over the French veteran.

"Although on paper, our last 2 regattas results have not been so great, we did learn a lot and we are now putting those lessons into practice. We are sailing quite well and are happy with our progress and really look forward to the semis" said MRT helmsman Torvar Mirsky after their morning quarterfinal victory.

The victory early in the day allowed MRT to sit back and watch the other quarterfinals battle it out a much sought after semi-final place.

Once the quarterfinals were completed MRT were paired up to race the other French Match Racing Team skipper Mathieu Richard in the semi-finals.

The breeze shut down and the competitors were not able to start the semis.

The semi-final races will be held tomorrow morning followed immediately by the finals to decide the 2009 Troia Match Cup champion.

Results:

Semi-finalists
Mirsky Racing Team (Torvar Mirsky) vs French Match Racing Team (Mathieu Richard)
ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing (Adam Minoprio) vs Bahrain Team Pindar (Ian Williams)

5th – 8th Sail off held tomorrow:
Yanmar Racing (Peter Gilmour) AUS
K-Challenge (Seb Col) FRA
French Match Racing Team (Philippe Presti) FRA
Team Onboard (Bjorn Hansen) SWE

9th Waka Racing (Phil Robertson) NZL
10th Seth Sailing (Alvaro Marinho) POR
11th Team Proximo (Ian Ainslie) RSA
12th Andrew Arbuzov RUS

Mirsky Racing Team
World Match Racing Tour

WMRT: Waka Racing - Portugal Match Cup

Waka Racing (Phil Robertson) competing on day one of the Troia Portugal Match Cup. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.

by Garth Ellingham

Gaining a late entry and with less than a weeks notice the team had to shimmy their way from Russia to Portugal to compete in this years 4th World Match Racing Tour event. We were stoked with the entry and had to jump at the opportunity and experience of racing at a world tour event. We flew in the morning of practice day and then had 2 hours to get used to the Swedish Match 40 boats and also a new bowman from Portugal, Rubrio Basilio, who very quickly gained the name 'Rangi' as we struggled to pronounce his real name.

The weather here was a nice change from Russia. Sailing with strong tides again and up to 35 degrees we had no problem adapting. With the breeze generally light in the morning, dying by midday for a couple of hours and a sea breeze building in the afternoon. We had this most days making the racing days very long with early starts and late finishes.

Race 1 was a tough one. Coming off the line on his tail we tacked off and he followed. He then lifted inside and seemed to have a tad more speed than us, extending to a big lead by the top mark. We couldn't recover from there and took our first loss to Hansen (SWE).

With around 7 knots race two started against Richard (FRA). We won the leeward position off the line but he managed to hold his guage to the layline and he lee bow tacked to take a 1 boat length lead at the top mark. He then sailed away a little downwind and held his lead for the rest of the race. We were happy with our speed in this race and knew we could build from it.

Race 3 was against Presti in the afternoon. We gained a penalty in the dial up but managed to win the start. We tacked on some good shifts up the beat gaining a nice lead. We then lost a little on the downwind and again some more on the next upwind. Presti set up well to stop us completing a turn upwind and we tried to sail away and do it on the finish line but failed as we didn't have a big enough lead. A disappointment for the team but a big boost also!

Race 4 against current World Champion Ian Williams. We were fired up for this one after the close loss to Presti. We won the start again and had a good upwind to hold a 2 boatlegnth lead. He gybed first and caught up but we managed to overlap him above and hold him out past the bottom mark. A big scramble by the team to get the kite down and jib up resulted in us coming out alot better having a 3 length lead at the bottom mark. We then sailed the beat superbly to extend our lead and win the race comfortably. The team was stoked with this win and a big boost for the confidence.

We then raced local Alvaro Marino who knocked us out of the Open de Espana in April. We really wanted this win on the board. We controlled well in the pre start and managed to push him over the line and give him a penalty on the gun. We held a confortable lead during the race to take our second point.

A great day for the team as these boats are known to be hard to get used to and get going fast but we seemed to adjust well and were happy with our speed.


Waka Racing (Phil Robertson) competing in Portugal. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.

Day two and again not much wind in the morning but with the see breeze building to 20knots in the late afternoon, it made racing exciting. This turned out to be a long day as we were 1st up at 10am and then last flight around 8.30pm. We sailed well again, winning only 1 race. It was a tad dissapointiong as we pushed alot of the top guys. Our races against world number 1 Sebastion Col and Peter Gilmour we managed to win the start and get the first cross. Against Col we lead at the top and had another big scramble at the bottom to come out ahead but gaining a red flag penalty for a port starboard insident during the drop. We couldn't then get back into the race from there. Aginst Gilmore he lead by a small margin at the top and held his small lead throughout.

We won our match aginst Ian Ainslie (RSA) in about 20kts of breeze. We lead upwind and then he passed us at the bottom mark. A penalty on him for taking too much room at the bottom mark helped and during the drop his jib sheets got tangled and we passed. Extending our lead up wind, we held on in the very puffy conditions. Our last race of the day was against Russian Abuzov. The breeze died to less than 10kts and with this came shifty conditions. We lost the start due to the other match rounding a temporary bottom mark on the start line at the same time as our start gun. We were affected greatly but caught right back up. We had at least two chances to take the lead but failed to capitalise both times losing by a small margin in the end. We were dissapointed with this loss as it was one we should've, would've and could've won.

Day 3 we had two races to go. One againt felow kiwi Minoprio and the other against Mirsky (AUS). Against Minoprio we won the start and had guage to windward. We held our lead up wind but made a mistake in a big dial down at the top mark and fell behind but rounded on his tail. We were then taken past the bottom mark to put pressure on our drop yet again and came out ok. We rounded behind and started to attack with a tacking duel. We fell a little behind but when he put his jib through his spreader it gave us the split we were after. We caught up and he lee bowed us at the top. He then luffed for a good amount of time so we didn't get buoy room and unfortunatly we lost our bow onto port and he sailed away to take the victory.

Our last race was against Mirsky of Austrlia. We won the start yet again in about 15kts of breeze and held him off upwind. He tried to roll us downwind but we held him out till the bottom mark. We then made the mistake of gybing too early as we thought he had broken the overlap and he snuck inside us to gain bouy room at the bottom mark. He then extended to win the race.


Phil Robertson is all concentration at the helm on Waka Racing. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.

Dobbs Davis summed it all up in their report on the World Tour website: "While finishing in 9th place and therefore not advancing to the next stage, its noteworthy to mention the extraordinary efforts put in by Phil Robertson (NZL) and his WAKA Racing team. In his matches against two other young Down Under talents, fellow Kiwi Minoprio and Aussie Mirsky, Robertson was extremely tough, taking both to their limits amidst heated pre-start and mark-rounding action. He and his team got beaten for not having quite that extra polish the others have in having spent the last two years in Tour competition, but his performance today certainly makes him one to watch for the future".

We are very happy with our perfomance in our first Tour event and feel we have earned some respect, which was our goal for the event. It is just having the experience and knowledge of what to do in pressure situations that we lacked and know this will all come with more events and practice. We are now looking forward to our next event in Slovenia, a grade 2 in brand new fully carbon 'One Design Match' boats. We are definately hoping we can perform well and put all the experience of the last two weeks together to gain a great result. Competion here will be tough but we know we can down the top guys.


Some members of the Waka Racing team at the Troia Portugal Match Cup dinner. Image copyright Wander Roberto/World Match Racing Tour.

We would like to thank Stefan of Widex, Pacific Sports Community Trust, Ian of Tax Management NZ, Line 7, RNZYS, Simon from Frontend Design and the WAKA racing supporters club for all their help and generosity.

Waka Racing
World Match Racing Tour

RTI 2009: JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race - the Gold Roman Bowl

The fleet round The Needles at this year's JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race. Image copyright onEdition.

by Flavia Bateson

Conditions in today’s JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race gave everyone a challenge. The breeze at the start was light, with some boats swept over the line early and having to make their way back slowly. At the Needles the most popular description competitors had of the race was “champagne sailing”. Then the wind played tricks. Off Bembridge everyone was on a spinnaker reach when the breeze suddenly went through a 180 degree turn and then dropped. From 80-footers down to Laser SB3s, crews were kept busy fending off other boats. Once into the eastern Solent most of the fleet had to cheat the tide and creep close into Ryde Sands. Then it was short tacking to the line. The ‘rush hour’ was between 1900 and 2000 when a close to a thousand boats were finishing.

The top prize Gold Roman Bowl is provisionally shown as one of the smaller and older designs. Tattarat is a 25 foot Nordic Folkboat built in 1978. Her skipper is Philip Williams, a director of Williams Shipping in Southampton who very kindly supplied one of their tugs as a committee boat. Tattarat completed the course in 10 hours and 46 minutes. Philip said:

“Our race was quite eventful. We touched on Ryde Sands and my 62 year old father jumped over the side to push us off!

We started in a very light breeze and had a difficult beat to The Needles. Later in the eastern Solent it went light again. Basically we hugged the Island shore all the way round to get out of the tide. We were close in at The Needles, St Cat’s and Bembridge. It was a difficult, testing time but a good race.”


A boat runs aground at this year's JPMorgan Asset Management Round the Island Race.
Image copyright onEdition.

Philip’s father Eric is joint managing director of Williams Shipping and a keen Dragon sailor. Philip is hoping his father will sail with him again, despite his swim!

Two years ago sistership Madelaine won the Gold Roman Bowl with Tattarat the runner up. This year it is the Folkboat Nordic Bear second.

The Silver Gilt Roman Bowl for the top yacht in the ISC Rating System Division is provisionally the little 20-foot Hunter Medina Tudor Rose, built in 1982. Jointly owned by Richard and Ian Cooke from Hill Head, the boat is a regular competitor in the race over many years.

JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race 2009