Monday 15 December 2008

Mirsky Racing Team report on Finals Day at the Monsoon Cup


Mirsky Racing Team on finals day in Malaysia. Image copyright Sander van der Borch.

by Kinley Fowler

Today was Peter Gilmour's time to shine once more, taking out the finals 3-1 to New Zealand's Adam Minoprio to become the champion of the Monsoon Cup for a second time. Despite being knocked out of a chance for making the top 2, we took down the current 2 time world champion Ian Williams 2-0 in the petit finals to seize 3rd place.

It was a semi finals series that wasn't meant to go our way, losing the first race within mere metres of the finishing line. After leading the entire race, Gilmour managed to squeeze into the lead at the finishing line, knocking us down to 2 losses. We then bounced back in the next prestart, forcing him onto the wrong side of the starting boat, but the tide sucked us up into the start boat and we were snagged. With 2 penalties on us and an easy minute's lead off the line, Gilmour went on to win the series 3-0.

It is never easy to come back from such a demoralising loss, but we regrouped and beat Williams in two closely fought matches to take the remaining podium spot. Although we lost the Tour Card into next year's World Match Racing Tour, this 3rd place will put us in a comfortable position to get one of the remaining two Cards from the ISAF rankings.

Our crew work and communication is starting to come together well, and we are performing at a very high level as a unit. Next year's Tour will have the toughest fields we have seen yet, but if we continue to build on what we have learnt throughout this season, we could cause some serious damage.

A special thanks to Line7, Harken and the Royal Perth Yacht Club for their support.

FINAL STANDINGS

1st Peter Gilmour
2nd Adam Minoprio
3rd Torvar Mirsky
4th Ian Williams
5th Paolo Cian
6th Sebastien Col
7th Magnus Holmberg
8th Mathieu Richard
9th Ben Ainslie
10th Johnnie Berntsson
11th Keith Swinton
12th Nural Ain

Mirsky Racing Team

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