Ben nearly nobbles Dean

Anne Hinton reports and shoots this weekend's climax to the New Zealand Match Racing championship

The best and most consistent breeze of the championships, 12-15 knots from the southwest (a chilly direction!) under mostly cloudy skies, greeted competitors for the last day of racing. The second round robin was curtailed after the second flight, which had been completed the previous day. This left Ben Ainslie on top with 10 wins (and a loss to Dean Barker). Ainslie chose to sail fourth-placed Chris Dickson in the semi-final, pitting Dean Barker against Bertrand Pace in the other semi - two Emirates Team New Zealand versus BMW Oracle Racing clashes.

It was to be an interesting and hard fought end to the event. Barker raised his game as necessary to secure victory, first over Pace and then, in the all-Emirates Team New Zealand final, over Ben Ainslie. Much went on the starts, with Barker proving the strongest in this area, as well as sailing the Farr MRX well around the course.

First up was Ainslie against Chris Dickson. Ainslie picked the left side for the start and controlled from there on. In their next race, Dickson won the start, but a split decision on which way to go up the beat saw Ainslie with a narrow lead at the top mark - never to be headed. Result: Ainslie through to finals 2-0.

In the first race between the former Team New Zealand team-mates, Barker controlled his opponent in the start box. In addition, Pace was given a penalty during the pre-start for gybing in Barker’s water. Barker was able to get clear ahead and easily secure the victory. The second race saw Barker relax his guard a bit too much. Coming in on port entry, he was then pushed left by Pace, who dominated the pre-start and was clear ahead by the first mark. Barker was unable to catch him and the score leveled at 1-1.

In the decider between Barker and Pace, Pace (on port entry) went into the dial-up well before Barker, enabling the latter to dive further behind Pace and end up in a controlling position, with his bow just overlapping Pace’s stern, giving Barker the ability to dip behind and get the hook whichever direction Pace took off in. Racing was very close, with a number of dummy tacks, but Barker remained in control throughout to secure the victory and a place against Ainslie in the finals, 2-1.

In the best-of-three sail-offs for the minor placings, Scott Dickson was able to take fifth place 2-0 over Simon Minoprio, although the latter remained in close contention throughout racing. Similarly, Cameron Dunn “had Dunstan’s number”, as he put it, for the seventh place. It was only for the wooden spoon that all three races were necessary.

Laurie Jury won the start in the first match with Adam Minoprio and the match, in spite of being a penalty down. Adam Minoprio asserted his dominance in the starts in the next two races and sailed well around the course to maintain his lead over Jury and finish in ninth spot.

It was noticeable that almost all of the competitors seemed very interested in the scores of the on-going rugby game between the All Blacks and France during the final day’s racing. Jury’s crew had the radio on in stereo for a while, whilst others paid numerous visits to the various support vessels to enquire the latest scores. It was not a good day for Bertrand Pace in this respect as the All Blacks gave France a right old thumping: 45-6.

In between giving out rugby scores from the Emirates Team New Zealand tender, Joey Allen (now a team coach) found time to say that he considered Ainslie’s progress in match racing “awesome” and that it would be great for the Team’s in-house training.

In the racing between Dickson and Pace, although Dickson was getting back to his former aggressive match racing ways, these did not pay off for him. Pace was basically in control throughout. Barging in the second start between Pace and the committee boat earned Dickson two penalties - one for the barge and the other for the subsequent collision. Forced to take one penalty immediately, he was never in the match, making ita relatively easy third place overall for Pace against his BMW Oracle Racing teammate, 2-0.

The first to three wins final, however, was another matter. Barker and Ainslie had practiced against each other on the day before the Nationals began. However, Barker did not seem to have got to grips with how fast Ainslie was improving at the game during the Championships. Although essentially in control in the start box, Barker split with Ainslie off the first start, only to see the latter ahead at the top mark, and well in control for the rest of the race. In the second start, they both started close together at the committee boat end of the line - too close for Barker’s comfort. Ainslie was able to pinch him off after only a short while, and take the lead by the top mark, to remain in control thereafter.

At 2-0 down, Barker got the bit between his teeth and upped his game, controlling from the start box onwards. Ainslie tried hard in the start box, but Barker was quick to counter and control all the moves. Although there were two further starts close together at the committee boat end, Barker ensured that the gap was always sufficient for him to ride over Ainslie, rather than being pinched off. Beyond that racing was close up the first beat, with the odd dummy tack being thrown in by Barker as a controlling measure. (Ainslie had applied the same tactic when leading in the first races.) Barker made sure that he covered Ainslie tack for tack after this and was able to extend in all three races to secure comfortable victories and the title, 3-2.

Barker’s first victory in the New Zealand National Match Racing Championships had been in his first entry in the event (which was almost his first serious match racing), back in 1997, when he beat Murray Jones in the final. He has not sailed in the event this century until this year.

“We’re really happy [to win]”, said Barker. “To find ourselves 2-nil down and have to come back from there was tough, no matter who you’re racing against, and Ben was sailing really well - they sailed really well all week. They haven’t actually lost a race since we beat him in the first round robin. He’s done really well. He sailed the first two races well and we just felt that we weren’t doing too much wrong ourselves, we just weren’t giving ourselves too many opportunities, so we worked hard on that after the second race.”

Asked about being pinched off the first time, but not on the subsequent occasions with a similar start, Barker said “We just didn’t have quite enough gauge the first time to live there. From then on we gave ourselves enough room and made sure we were right up on the line to give ourselves a chance.”

Sailing Pace, Barker described as: “Always good fun. He’s super-aggressive and we had some really good racing.”

Asked about sailing against his old teammate (Pace) versus his new one (Ainslie), Barker said “Everyone’s different. You’ve got different challenges. Bertrand’s certainly an aggressive guy to race against, so you’ve definitely got your work cut out, but Ben and his guys were sailing really well as well, so there were no easy races, that’s for sure.”



Above: Bertrand Pace

Ainslie was disappointed to have lost, but considered the racing a good learning process. Reflecting on the event, he said “It’s been good to have so many good sailors here.

“Dean and his team were definitely the smoothest and quickest at sailing the boat. That showed in the last two starts especially where we were both in a reasonable position and it just came down to who had the better acceleration off the line. It’s going to take a while to pick up how to do that! We’re just happy to have been improving all the time.

“Rod’s been great at helping with the manoeuvres. In the pre-start Rod was doing a lot more at the beginning of the week (talking about laylines and so on) and it changed and at the end I was doing a lot more and that’s the way it should be going. Upwind it was between Rod and Dick calling which side they liked the pressure and we were just trying to stay in phase and between the opposition and the mark.

Rod Davis, Ainslie’s coach and mainsheet hand, said “We had a better regatta than most people expected - probably better than we expected too. We’re happy to be in the finals and I think we accounted for ourselves fairly well in the finals. The first couple of races it was shifty and that’s what we like; we like to be able to pick shifts. The other races got to be match racing slug-fests. We’re obviously going to be on the back foot against Dean and his team in that at this stage. It didn’t surprise me much that we were going to struggle when it turned into a slug-fest.

“I think we sailed pretty well through the regatta. Ben’s closing the gap, but we still have a ways to go. We did some practicing against Dean prior to this so we knew Dean was pretty sharp around the starting line. We were only tipped off that we were in the deep end of this deal. We knew he had his act together.”

Comparing Ainslie’s progress with that of his Prada pupil, Torben Grael, Davis said “It’s too early to call. Ask me in eight months! Torben has a different style. He’s from Brazil. He has a slightly different outlook on life, but who’s going to be a better match racer, it’s probably too early to call. We’re happy. We’re still a couple of clicks off of Dean and his boys.”

Asked against that 100% top of the world rating (that he had mentioned at the end of the qualification event) where he now ranked Ainslie [starting at 10%, Davis had reckoned that Ainslie was at 30% by the end of the qualification event, in which he finished third, a week earlier], Davis said “Right now probably 60%.” A very swift rise! However, Davis cautioned, “It’s the last 40% that’s the hard part! The big gains come early and then it’s really hard to make that last little bit.”

Further down the results list, Scott Dickson was pleased with his sailing against his brother. He felt that “both pre-starts were very even” and was happy to have gone “toe to toe right to the finish line. We had two very close races." Brother Chris was proud of his sibling. "He started well and sailed very, very well.”

Scott Dickson was delighted, overall, to have finished as top amateur team in the championships, behind four America’s Cup teams. In terms of his own result, Chris Dickson said “It’s the first match race event I’ve done [as helmsman] in over a year. I’m very happy to have made the semis. It’s good to be up there.”

“The competition was phenomenal”, said Cameron Dunn. “Last year we said it was phenomenal, but it’s just stepped up a notch. The likes of Simon Minoprio and Laurie Jury have been in Europe [on the match racing circuit] this year.” Dunn had a very up-and-down regatta. Being the first to beat Barker and his crew, he didn’t manage to beat too many others. Dunn felt that he was just getting into his stride at the end of the regatta, having done so little sailing in his own right this year. However, he commented, “I’m pretty impressed to see how Dean came through and won today, especially coming back from 2-nil down. It shows his experience.”

A special presentation was made to youth skipper, Adam Minoprio (aged 19), at the prizegiving. Being driven to the event each day by his brother and fellow competitor, Simon, while most people were turning up in BMWs, he was presented with a [toy] Porsche by Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Race Director Sara Roberts.


Results

Finals
Dean Barker (Emirates Team New Zealand) 3 - Ben Ainslie (Emirates Team New Zealand) 2

Petit-final
Bertrand Pace (BMW Oracle Racing) 2 - Chris Dickson (BMW Oracle Racing) 0

Semi-finals
Ben Ainslie 2 - Chris Dickson 0
Dean Barker 2 - Bertrand Pace 1

Overall results

1st Dean Barker/Tony Rae/James Dagg/Ray Davies/Jared Henderson
2nd Ben Ainslie/Rod Davis/Grant Loretz/Andrew McLean/Richard Meacham
3rd Bertrand Pace/Dirk de Ridder/Zach Hurst/Eric Doyle/Brad Webb
4th Chris Dickson/Paul Westlake/Brett Elliott/Carl Whiting/Phil Jameson
5th Scott Dickson/Dave Ridley/Tim Lidgard/Jim Turner/Jamie Logan
6th Simon Minoprio/Matty Stuart/Stu Molloy/Hayden Goodrick/Sam Tucker
7th Cameron Dunn/Rod Dawson/Stu Bettany/Stu Clarke/Jeremy Lomas
8th Michael Dunstan/Ryan Houston/Ben Morrison-Jack/Pat Langley/Mark Dorling
9th Adam Minoprio/Tom Powrie/Alex Hinton/Scott Francis/Andrew Burgess
10th Laurie Jury/Daniel McLean/Damon Jolliffe/Rob Hielkema/Brad Marsh