7:08 AM Thu 8 Apr 2010 GMT
The first event of the 2010 World Match Racing Tour; Match Race France, started yesterday in Marseille and while Australia's Torvar Mirsky, from MRT Racing, last years World Match Racing Tour Runner up, started with a perfect day, with wins from four races, it was not an easy day on the water.
Mirsky commented dockside last night, "We were just glad to actually start racing on the tour again. To have four wins on the first day also feels good. We want to keep improving our team from last year, keep our momentum up. This year we are confident we can mix it with anyone. This is a tricky event - I think these boats and conditions are different from our typical world tour regattas. They are smaller boats, with a powerful spinnaker, and in the sea. Marseille can deliver some rough waves and strong winds, where most of our match racing is generally in larger boats with fewer breezes."
And so it was on the water that Australian Peter Gilmour had already labeled this event as 'challenging' for his YANMAR Racing team and he was certainly right about day one. They finished with a disappointing 0-3 score line.
With only late matches scheduled for YANMAR Racing, they were held ashore and just before the 5pm cut off - the breeze came in 18-20 knots and the racing recommenced.
First up, was their match was against the very in form Mirsky. Yasuhiro Yaji, the YANMAR Racing trimmer explained; "I think Peter was looking to see if we had a bucket tied to the back of the boat, we just did not have boat speed. Turned out we needed to have more outhaul eased, we are still learning the boat and we discovered that too late to make an impression on Torvar. In the second race, against Ben Ainslie's Team Origin we were much more competitive; we caught up on every tack, we were on port nearing the top mark and they forced a penalty on us.
At the end of this race, Thierry Douillard (FRA), the bowman was hit by the bowsprit as he was pulling in the spinnaker and needed a quick medical check but was pronounced OK to continue racing. The tough as nails Frenchman explained with a wry smile, "100 kg Yaji and the bow pole were always going to win against little me."
Yaji again; "funnily enough the third loss was probably the most encouraging today."
"Against Mathieu Richard we had a bad start, three-four lengths behind, at top mark we had caught them, but were penalized again, but we certainly have boat speed. We just need time in the boat and our crew work will improve. I am quite confident we can make the quarter final and tomorrow will be a better day."
Young David Gilmour shared the same thoughts; "We started slowly and made some critical mistakes, but the really good thing was that our boat speed improved, both upwind and down-wind and so that is a good sign for tomorrow."
Having seen the combined effort that Gilmour and his crew put in, in the deciding round of the 2005 World Match Racing Tour when they just scraped into the quarter finals, but went on to a stunning victory in the Monsoon Cup, it would be a brave call to right off the veteran triple ISAF World Match Racing Champion just yet.
For more news and information on YANMAR Racing, please visit:
www.yanmar.co.jp/en/racing/
To discover more about the World Match Racing Tour see:
www.worldmatchracingtour.com
And to discover more about YANMAR Marine go to:
www.yanmarinemarine.com
by YANMAR Racing Media
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