The other Dickson dispatches Gilmour

Semi-finallists decided at King Edward VII Gold Cup

Unseeded skipper Scott Dickson of the Long Beach Yacht Club continued his winning ways at the King Edward VII Gold Cup and knocked out the event's defending champion, Australian Peter Gilmour, in the quarterfinals of the event on the Swedish Match Tour.

Dickson, sailing with crewmembers Sonny Gibson, Alan Lindsay, Dave Ridley, scored a 3-2 victory over the Pizza-La Sailing Team, including Gilmour, Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku and Yasuhiro Yaji at the Investors Guaranty Presentation of the King Edward VII Gold Cup.

Last year, Gilmour defeated Dickson's brother, Chris, in the final, 3-2, but this year he succumbed by the same score.

With the score knotted at two-all, Gilmour was penalised in the fifth race pre-start. A second penalty on the first windward leg meant he had to perform one of his two 270-degree penalty turns immediately. Although Gilmour closed up to an overlapped position with Dickson at the finish, he still carried the pre-start penalty.

"We had good positioning in the final race pre-start," Gilmour said. "But I made a mistake that allowed him to catch up and get an overlap in the last minute. I felt I had to create the foul to get any sort of start. I really mucked it up."

"To get a penalty on Gilmour is great," said Dickson, "but he's got the smarts, speed and muscle to sail away. We're delighted to beat Peter, our round's got a bit further to go."

Mathieu Richard of France almost pulled off an upset of New Zealander Russell Coutts, a six-time winner of the King Edward VII Gold Cup, but ultimately fell to the three-time America's Cup champion.

Richard opened a 2-0 advantage due to what Coutts called "poor sailing on our part." Then Coutts rallied for three straight to move into the semifinals.

"Of course I'm a little upset," said 28-year-old Richard. "We sailed very well and would've been happy to beat the king. But I wasn't good in the last two pre-starts." Richard's crew included Olivier Herledant, Philippe Mourniac and Yannick Simon.

Coutts, sailing with Danes Jes Gram-Hansen, Christian Kamp and Rasmus Kostner, felt they sailed poorly in the first two races before regrouping. "We're not sailing well," Coutts said. "Tactically we're not making the right decisions. We're not talking things through."

Coutts's Team Colorcraft squares off against the Dickson Racing Team in one half of tomorrow's semifinal ladder. The other half pits Ed Baird's Team XL Capital against James Spithill and the Luna Rossa Challenge. Both Baird and Spithill, the No. 1 and 4 seeds, scored 3-0 wins over their opponents, Klaartje Zuiderbaan and Staffan Lindberg, respectively.

Baird, sailing with crewmembers Andy Horton, Piet van Nieuwenhuyzen and Jon Ziskind, said the win was hardly easy, despite the 3-0 score. "When you sail against someone new and unorthodox in their maneuvers, you don't know what to expect," said Baird, the co-leader of the Swedish Match Tour. "They started fine, their boathandling was good and they had good speed. They'd get behind but not farther, and that's the sign of a good team. They sailed very maturely."

Zuiderbaan, who won the Cicada Women's International Match Racing Championship last Monday with crewmembers Carrie Howe, Nanda Nengerman, Jetske Roodvoets and Tryntje Zuiderbaan, entered the match having won nine of her previous 10 races. With Lee Icyda replacing Nengerman, who had to return home for work, the streak was promptly erased. "I felt I didn't take the chances that were there," said Zuiderbaan, 32, of Holland. "We felt quite even off the start line, but he was always ahead when we met. His experience showed, but I didn't think he was unbeatable."

James Spithill made his match against Lindberg look easy. Sailing with fellow Luna Rossa crewmembers Magnus Augustsson, Charlie McKee and Joe Newton, Spithill started to the right of Lindberg every time and won all three races wire-to-wire. "We felt in control. We felt we had good speed and boathandling," said Spithill, 26, and in this third Cup campaign. "We liked the right all day. It's a powerful position to have because it's such a long way around to try and pass."

"It was our intention to start where he started each time," said Lindberg, the 33-year-old from Finland. "We wanted the right because the puffs were coming from the right. There were some from the left, but they were shorter. And the committee boat end was favoured."

While the winners move on to tomorrow's semifinals, the losers of the quarterfinal matches squared off this afternoon in consolation racing for fifth through eighth. Gilmour beat Zuiderbaan and Lindberg beat Richard in the first flight. Then Gilmour beat Lindberg for fifth, and Richard beat Zuiderbaaan for seventh.

Semifinal Pairings (Saturday, Oct. 23)
No. 1 Ed Baird (USA) vs. No. 4 James Spithill (AUS)
No. 7 Russell Coutts (NZL) vs. Scott Dickson (NZL)