Up to the petites

Britain's top ranked match racer describes nailing Staffan Lindberg

Peter Gilmour sewed up his third Match Race Germany title in a row and his third World Match Racing Tour (formerly Swedish Match Tour) title yesterday with a 2-1 finals win over Jesper Bank. The final was scheduled to be first to 3 points but at the cut-off time of 4.30 pm the light winds of Lake Constance had taken their toll on the format for the first time this week, allowing only three races to be sailed. Gilmour had taken an early 2-0 lead before Bank had clawed one back but time eventually ran out on Bank.

The Williams Sail Racing Team of Ian Williams, Bill Hardesty, Mark Nicholls, Simon Shaw and Mark Williams were sailing against Staffan Lindberg and his Alandia Sailing Team in the petite final which provided the closest racing of the finals day for the grandstands full of spectators. Leading off the start in race 1, we tacked to cover Lindberg out to the right hand side of the course and then led him back to the top mark, 4 lengths ahead. Seeing more pressure on the left hand side of the run, we gybed soon after the hoist while Lindberg carried on. Unfortunately, the extra pressure never materialised and when we gybed back on to port, we were unable to cross Lindberg. This allowed him to hold us past the layline to the bottom mark and lead back to the bottom mark, and from there he sailed smart and fast, never giving us an opportunity to overtake.

In race 2, we again won the start and came off the line on port tack to leeward but well ahead. Lindberg however picked up a bit of private pressure and was able to lift off us and position himself to be able to put in the lee-bow tack after we tacked. We traded a couple of tacks and Lindberg led round the top mark by about four lengths, a lead which he maintained down the run and up the next beat. Going down the run for the last time, this time it was Lindberg who rounded in the light spot and had to make the difficult decision of whether to carry on and keep his momentum going or to gybe in light airs towards the better pressure on the left. He chose the gybe and we carried on on port past his line before gybing as well. However, our gybe was in more pressure and we had now closed to within two lengths of Lindberg as we crossed to the left and he came back to the right.

Maintaining the momentum down the run allowed us to close so much that we next came together with us just ahead but on port and not quite able to cross. We chose the gybe to windward, planning to the roll over the top but, sailing very low angles down the run, we were somehow unable to affect his breeze enough to allow us to get ahead of him coming into the finish. In a last gasp attempt, we heated the boat up, accelerated, and the opportunity came to gybe and go behind Lindberg. We took the gybe and that moment knew it was going to work out well for us as we were now traveling much faster than Lindberg. All he could do was watch as we crossed behind him, slowing him even more and accelerating ourselves, and then soaked away towards the finish line, passing him half a length from the line.

The deciding race saw an even start with us heading out to the left and Lindberg the right. Coming back about four lengths below the layline on port, we initially looked strong but a bit of right hand pressure gave Lindberg a two-length lead as we came to the cross. Lindberg tacked to protect the right hand side and we tacked back to the left which we were still backing. This time it came in for us and when we tacked back we were crossing Lindberg. However, in the very light airs he was able to hunt us up and force us to tack away from the mark before tacking towards the mark himself. This left us two lengths behind again but close enough to really attack down the run. We finally rolled him on starboard before gybing back towards the mark simultaneously. An immediate luff by us resulted in a penalty on Lindberg and although he led round the bottom mark and at one stage had pulled out quite a distance on us, when he came to do the penalty at the finish we were able to pass him and win the race by about eight seconds.

This win gave us 3rd place overall - our highest finish in a World Tour event. We are now 5th on the World Tour with one event to go - two points behind Jesper Bank and Ben Ainslie in 3rd equal and 6 points behind Lindberg in 2nd.