News

28

October 2020

Williams, Mirsky, Canfield and Monnin advancing to quarter finals at 2020 Match Racing World Championship

The qualification series is over at the 70th Bermuda Gold Cup and 2020 Open Match Racing World Championship with spectacular conditions of the first two days of racing in Hamilton Harbour. The southwesterly wind between 10 and 16 knots propelled six crews into the Quarterfinal Round. Chris Poole’s Riptide Racing, Phil Robertson’s China One Ningbo and Eric Monnin’s Capvis Swiss Match Race Team advanced from Group A while in Group B Ian Williams’s Team GAC Pindar, Torvar Mirsky’s Mirsky Racing Team and Taylor Canfield’s Stars+Stripes moved on. Four of the top six teams are SSL Finalists.

In a coincidental stroke of symmetry, the group victors were both decided in come-from-behind victories. Poole defeated Robertson in Group A by gaining the lead around the second windward mark. In Group B, Williams snatched the win from Mirsky in a masterful bit of positioning in the final half of the run to the finish.

“I guess we had it but Ian kept the pressure on and we choked a bit,” said Mirsky, “so we’ll learn from it going forward.”

Williams has blended speed with positioning brilliantly through the first seven races, and did it again versus Mirsky. He trailed for three-quarters of the match, although never by more than two boatlengths, and then struck when he was able to get his bow inside Mirsky’s transom (left) when both were on starboard jibe heading down the run to the finish.

The next five minutes to the finish happened in a flash. First, Williams got a penalty for luffing too quickly after establishing the overlap. Then Williams luffed again and this time the on-water umpires penalized Mirsky for not keeping clear. With the penalties offset, Williams merely had to hold his position to keep Mirsky outside the pin end. Mirsky aided Williams’s effort by having a lapse in crew work.

 

“(Williams) did an amazing job as we were both on starboard to swing his bow behind our transom from above us and then hook us,” Mirsky said. “He got a penalty, but had us in a powerful position above the layline to the pin. Then we got a penalty after that in trying to drop our kite and do the big storm of manoeuvres to get to the finish.”

“We rounded top mark right behind (Mirsky) and managed to lengthen up the starboard jibe and get into a situation where we were jibing across his air and trying to get hooked into leeward on starboard,” Williams said. “That’s a great spot to be, and the game from there is to hold him hot and prevent him from getting to the pin end.”

Today the Repechage Round, which will feature Nicklas Dackhammar’s Essiq Racing Team, Johnie Berntsson’s Berntsson Sailing Team, Anna Östling’s Team WINGS, and Matthew Whitfield’s Dragon Racing Team from Group A and Jeppe Borch’s Borch Racing Team, Team Dutch Wave, Mati Sepp’s Gleam Energy Sailing Team and Lance Fraser’s Team RCYC from Group B. Tomorrow the quarter finals are on, and on Friday, October 30th, the semi finals and the Finals will follow, after which the trophy of the 70th edition of the Bermuda Gold Cup will be awarded. The King Edward VII Trophy is the oldest trophy in the world for competition involving one-design yachts. First presented in 1907 by King Edward VII at the Tri-Centenary Regatta at Jamestown, Va., honoring the 300th anniversary of the first permanent colony in America, the trophy is the only King’s Cup ever to be offered for competition in the United States which could be won outright.

70th BERMUDA GOLD CUP/2020 OPEN MATCH RACING WORLDS
CUMULATIVE STANDINGS THROUGH STAGE 1

1. Chris Poole (31, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA) – Riptide Racing, 6-1
Crew: Sam Barron-Fox, Matthew Cornwell, Chris Draper
2. Ian Williams (43, Lymington, England) – Team GAC Pindar, 6-1
Crew: Christian Kamp, Gerry Mitchell, Richard Sydenham
3. Phil Robertson (33, Auckland, New Zealand) – China One Ningbo, 6-1
Crew: Bradley Farrand, Peter Nicholas, Johanna Thiringer, James Williamson
4. Torvar Mirsky (34, Sydney, Australia) – Mirsky Racing Team, 6-1
Crew: Nick Blackman, Kinley Fowler, Mal Parker
5. Eric Monnin (45, Immensee, Switzerland) – Capvis Swiss Match Racing Team, 5-2
Crew: Simon Brügger, Hugo Feydit, Mathieu Renault, Ute Wagner
6. Taylor Canfield (31, Miami, USA) – Team Stars+Stripes, 4-3
Crew: Mike Buckley, Victor Diaz de Leon, Mike Menninger, Eric Shampain
7. Nicklas Dackhammar (30, Gothenburg, Sweden) – Essiq Racing Team, 4-3
Crew: Nils Bjekås, Björn Lundgren, Jakob Wilson
8. Johnie Berntsson (48, Stenungsund, Sweden) – Berntsson Sailing Team, 4-3
Crew: Herman Andersson, Anders Dahlsjö, Eric Malmberg
9. Jeppe Borch (23, Copenhagen, Denmark) – Borch Racing Team, 4-3
Crew: August de la Cour, Seabastian Pieters, Nikolai Rasmussen
10. Jelmer van Beek (25, The Hague, Netherlands) – Team Dutch Wave, 2-2
Crew: Robin Jacobs, Jorden van Rooijen, Rutger Vos
11. Mati Sepp (52, Tallinn, Estonia) – Gleam Energy Sailing Team, 2-5
Crew: Ago Rebane, Karl Tagu, Aleksei Zigadlo
12. Lance Fraser (27, Toronto, Canada) – Team RCYC, 2-5
Crew: Andrew McTavish, Rob Scrivenor, Katrina Williams
13. Anna Östling (36, Lerum, Sweden) – Team WINGS, 2-5
Crew: Julia Lines, Annie Wennergren, Linnea Wennergren, Janel Zarkowsky
14. Matthew Whitfield (23, Plymouth, England) – Dragon Racing Team, 1-6
Crew: Quentin Bes-Green, Max Brennan, Carson Crain
15. Kelsey Durham (26, Smiths, Bermuda) – Triangle Racing Team, 0-7
Crew: Alex Ellis, Charlie Lalumiere, Edward Lebens
16. Pauline Courtois (31, Brest, France) – Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team, 0-7
Crew: Cédric Chateau, Thierry Douillard, Sophie Faguet, Maelenn Lemaitre
(Note: The top six advance to the Quarterfinal Round. Places 7 through 14 advance to the Repechage Round. The final two crews are eliminated from further competition.)

Rachele Vitello

SSL Press Officer since 2015