Gilmour v Coutts

Heading for the finals of the Swedish Match Tour's Monsoon Cup match racing

On a day that coincided with a visit from the boss of the most dominant F1 racing team, the Swedish Match Tour’s two most decorated skippers stamped their authority on the Monsoon Cup.

Australian Peter Gilmour (PST) is the career victories leader and two-time reigning champion of the Swedish Match Tour. New Zealander Russell Coutts (Coutts Racing) has six career victories in 11 starts, the most in the fewest starts.

Tomorrow they’ll meet for the 50th championship of the Tour. Head-to-head Coutts has beaten Gilmour in the last three championships they’ve raced, owning an 8-4 advantage in the matches.

“I’m cognisant of that fact and it’s something I need to overcome,” said Gilmour. “He’s been very smooth in those finals. Russell sails well and you can never give him an inch.”
“I was watching him today and he’s sailing real well, and starting to start real well,” said Coutts. “I’m going to have to have my ‘A’ game out to beat him, but for the first time this week I’m feeling comfortable.”

Their ascendancy to the championship coincided with a visit from Ferrari Team Principal Jean Todt, a personal friend of Monsoon Cup founder Patrick Lim. Todt visited the Pulau Duyong venue last March when it was a refuse dump, and is nothing short of amazed with the development.



“I thought it was nonsense to have something ready in time for the Monsoon Cup,” said Todt. “I’m impressed with what they’ve done. I must compliment everyone involved.”

The performances today of Coutts and Gilmour were nothing short of impressive. They closed out their semifinal matches against Björn Hansen (Team Apport.net) and Staffan Lindberg (Alandia Sailing Team), respectively, 3-0. When the money was on the line, each skipper left little doubt about who the world’s best match-racers are.

“We got crushed,” said Lindberg. “What I admire about them is their ability to find that extra gear when the semifinals come, which we definitely didn’t have today.”

Gilmour shut out Lindberg every opportunity he had. The Aussie won all three starts and sailed confidently on the racecourse. His only real scare came in the second race when Lindberg rounded the first windward mark in the lead, but only just. Gilmour’s bow was right on his transom.

The pair began the run on port gybe. When they gybed to starboard Gilmour was positioned to windward and rolled over the top to rob Lindberg of any hope.

“The real problem there was the first upwind leg,” said Lindberg. “The call was to go to the (starboard) layline, but I misjudged it. We tacked to windward to cover him near the top mark, but gave up distance and speed. Today was a totally different Gilmour.”

Coutts had a close series with Hansen, for the first two flights anyway. In each race Coutts started to the right to protect starboard-tack advantage, which he would use to round the windward mark in the lead. Hansen had good speed on the runs and was within striking distance at the leeward marks, but Coutts extended on the windward legs.

Hansen sailed tough on the first leg of the third race, but Coutts once again extended when needed.

“We are happy to get to the semifinals," said Hansen. “We had a bit of a slow start to the regatta and were last to the quarterfinals, but then sailed four good races against Chris (Dickson) and managed to get to the semifinals where we faced Russell. I think we got smacked on the chin and Russell showed us back to where we belong.”

In the quarterfinals Hansen smacked Dickson on the chin. He defeated the skipper of BMW Oracle Racing 3-1. All quarterfinal matches finished 3-1 with Coutts defeating Ian Williams (Williams Racing Team), Lindberg beating Magnus Holmberg (Victory Challenge) and Gilmour downing Dean Barker (Emirates Team New Zealand).

A key moment in the Gilmour-Barker match came at the windward mark in the third flight. Gilmour had led the match but Barker got to the right on the second beat and used starboard tack to cross Gilmour near the windward mark.

Gilmour, on port, went to duck and Barker dialed down at him, but they hit side-on-side. Barker’s crew believes the umpires didn’t see the contact because the incident was green-flagged.

Seconds later Barker tacked to port to round the mark and Gilmour tacked to starboard. Gilmour was aiming for their transom as he completed his tack. Barker kept going and again there was contact. The umpires penalized Barker for Rule 16, Changing Course.

“They told us our avenue of escape was to tack away,” said tactician Terry Hutchinson. “If we tack our stern hits his bow.”

The Petit Final between Hansen and Lindberg is scheduled for tomorrow morning and the final for 3:00 p.m. The final will be carried live on Eurosport, ESPN Asia and Sky New Zealand. It will also be shown on the Tour’s broadband player, www.SwedishMatchTour.tv.

Monsoon Cup semifinal Matches
(First to 3 points wins)
(4) Russell Coutts (NZL), 3
(Crew: Jes Gram-Hansen, Christian Kamp, Rasmus Kostner, Jann Neergaard)
(8) Bjorn Hansen (SWE), 0
(Crew: Mattias Bredin, Andus Jonsson, Pontus Meijer, Johan Templeman)

(6) Peter Gilmour (AUS), 3
(Crew: Rod Dawson, Kazuhiko Sofuku, Tatsuya Wakinaga, Yasuhiro Yaji)
(7) Staffan Lindberg (FIN), 0
(Crew: Martin Berntsson, Nils Bjerkås, Carl-Johan Uckelstam, Daniel Wallberg)

Monsoon Cup Quarterfinal Matches
(First to 3 points wins)
(8) Björn Hansen (SWE) Team Apport.net, 3
(1) Chris Dickson (NZL) BMW Oracle Racing, 1
(Crew: Jamie Gale, Robbie Naismith, Ed Smyth, Paul Westlake)
(4) Russell Coutts (NZL) Coutts Racing, 3

Swedish Match Tour partners include Swedish Match, BMW and the Match Race Association. Swedish Match Tour Official Sponsors include Musto, Sebago and Travel Places.