Third Tour victory for Gilmour

Aussie match race veteran clinches 2005-6 World Match Racing Tour at Match Race Germany

Peter Gilmour today clinched his third consecutive World Match Racing Tour Championship and fourth ISAF Match Racing World Championship by advancing to the Final Round of Match Race Germany, Stage 7 of 8 in the 2005-’06 season.

In winning the world championship Gilmour, the 46-year-old from Perth, Western Australia, won a BMW X3 3.0i, from Tour partner BMW AG, and a $30,000 bonus from the World Tour.

The World Tour and ISAF recently joined forces to award the match-racing world championship together with the Tour championship. Besides winning the past two Tour championships, Gilmour previously won the ISAF Worlds in 1990, ’97 and ’98.

“The thing that’s significant about this year is the merger between the World Tour and ISAF,” said Gilmour. “The fact that not only does this represent the Tour championship but also an ISAF Worlds is exciting.”

“Many congratulations on claiming the inaugural World Championship title and your continued dominance of the World Match Racing Tour,” said ISAF President Göran Petersson. “The skill and teamwork of the PST are demonstrated yet again by your supremacy throughout the World Tour events.”

Gilmour won the 2003-’04 World Tour championship (then the Swedish Match Tour) going away. He set records for most cumulative points, most total points and margin of victory, among others. He followed it up last year with a thrilling, come-from-behind victory. Down 23 points halfway through the season, Gilmour won three of the last four stages and sealed the championship in the Quarterfinal Round of the final stage.

“They’ve been three very different championships,” said Gilmour. “This one is unusual for winning with the least amount of points possible.”

Gilmour leads the Tour standings with 63 points, which could increase to 88 or 83 points depending on whether he finishes first or second in tomorrow’s championship. There’s one stage still remaining on the Tour, the Toscana Elba Cup (July 11-19), so he has the chance to surpass 100 points for the third straight year.

Gilmour won his semifinal match against Ian Williams 3.5-(-.5) to advance to the final. As with many of Gilmour’s matches, it wasn’t without incident. Gilmour, up 2-0 in the match, led Williams at the first mark of Flight 3 by about a boatlength. The crews split sides of the run with Williams crossing to Gilmour’s left (looking upwind).

Gilmour held the right-of-way starboard-tack advantage approaching the leeward mark, but Williams had better pressure on his side of the course approaching on port. Neither skipper gave way and there was a nasty collision with Gilmour hitting Williams on the port side just aft of amidships. Williams received a penalty for the incident, his second of the race. “We thought we were inside two lengths and thought he had to give us room at the mark,” said Williams.

“I was impressed with his determination,” said Gilmour. “He threw it in there and didn’t bat an eyelid.”

Gilmour won the race to go up 3-0, which should’ve ended the match. But a post-race jury hearing penalised both skippers a half point, which annoyed Gilmour. “In so far as Rule 14 (Avoiding Contact) is concerned, it’s probably the right decision,” Gilmour said. “But I was annoyed because we’d won the race and you want those things to end when you can.”

Gilmour and Jesper Bank will race for the championship in a rematch of last year’s final, won by Gilmour 3-2. Bank advanced to the final by beating Staffan Lindberg 3-1. Lindberg was the only skipper with a shot at derailing Gilmour’s march to the championship, but he would’ve had to win or place second with Gilmour third or fourth.

Lindberg, placed third for the Tour championship, put up a good fight against Bank. The Finnish skipper won all pre-starts and led in most of the matches, but Bank had speed to burn and simply sailed around Lindberg. “We ere leading in three matches by quite a bit, we should’ve just held our lead,” said Lindberg.

“Our speed is very good, our handling is very good,” said Bank. “I think we have to get better organized with the pre-starts. I have to work on my timing.”

If Gilmour wins Match Race Germany it would be his 10th career World Tour victory and his third consecutive MRG championship.


Match Race Germany 2006 Semifinal Results
Match 1
(1) Jesper Bank (DEN) United Internet Team Germany, 3
(Crew: Henrik Blakskjer, Thomas Jacobsen, Mike Mottl, Jan Schoepe)
(4) Staffan Lindberg (FIN) Alandia Sailing Team, 1
(Crew: Niklas Carlzon, Robert Skarp, Karl-Johan Uckelstam, Magnus Hansson)
Match 2
(2) Peter Gilmour (AUS) PST, 3.5
(Crew: Rod Dawson, Jan Reblin, Christian Scherrer, Yasuhiro Yaji)
(3) Ian Williams (GBR) Williams Sail Racing, (-.5)
(Crew: William Hardesty, Mark Nicholls, Simon Shaw, Bill Williams)

5th-6th Sail-off
Mathieu Richard (FRA) Saba Sailing Team, 2
(Crew: Greg Evrard, Olivier Herledent, Xavier Leroy, Yannick Simon)
Sten Mohr (DEN) BMW Oracle Racing, 1
(Crew: Mark Bradford, Jamie Gale, Phil Jameson, Jon Ziskind)

7th-8th Sail-off
Ian Ainslie (RSA) Team Shosholoza, 2
(Crew: Erwan Auburtin, Lucas Chabert, Mael Le Garrec, Alex Runciman)
Evgeniy Neugodnikov (RUS) Lord of Sail, 1
(Crew: Alexander Ekimov, Andrew Kochnev, Nicolay Kornev, Oleg Krivov)

The World Tour Partner and Official Car is BMW AG (Munich, Germany). World Tour sponsors include Sebago (Rockford, Mich.), the Official Footwear Supplier, Travel Places (West Sussex, England), the Official Travel Partner, and Musto (Essex, England), the Official Clothing Supplier.