Clash of the ol' timers

Gilmour and Dickson fight to the death in the final of the Investors Guaranty-sponsored Bermuda Gold Cup

After dispatching so many heroes of the sport to get this far, this afternoon's final of the Investors Guaranty-sponsored Bermuda Gold Cup between two match race legends, Peter Gilmour and Chris Dickson, looked set to be a battle royal.

Racing on Hamilton Harbour took place this afternoon under an overcast sky and a shifty breeze that varied mainly between 10 and 20 knots, peaking at 24 knots.

In fact despite the brisk breeze and the showdown between two titans of our sport, the first two races of the final this afternoon were decidedly dull.

The pre-start of race one saw Gilmour at the favoured committee boat end but going slowly while Dickson had broken away and was half way down the line, heading for the pin at speed. Unfortunately come the gun, Dickson was over and had to recross, allowing Gilmour to gain a lead he was to hold until the finish - at one point was almost a minute ahead of his old foe.

The second race saw the tables turned. After a dial-up and then chasing each other around the Lady Tamara motor yacht - offering a bird's eye view of the racing to the guests of Investors Guarantee who had chartered it - it was Gilmour who was deemed to be OCS at the start gun. For Gilmour this was followed by technical problems with his boat as he bore away to recross - the gooseneck pin broke causing the boom to part company from the mast. Dickson went on to win by a healthy margin to even the score.

"It was a tough one because the start line was very biased towards the committee boat," commented Dickson afterwards as to why experienced hands such as his and Gilmour should both go OCS. "Today you were going to win the start or lose the start and you had to fight pretty hard to gain that inside berth at the committee boat to win. As one of the guys on our boat put it 'sometimes you get the elevator and sometimes you get the shaft'..."

Peter Gilmour attributed their OCS to his misjudging the handling of the boat. "You just don't need to do it in these boats, because once you commit them to a course, the rudder really does nothing - you are off on a course and when the main and jib are trimmed in the boat is balanced up and the rudder is just there for technical assistance really..."

In the third match, Gilmour shut out Dickson at the start, then luffed him up at the first windward mark rounding, forcing him into a penalty. Gilmour wasn’t done there however, as he continued to push Dickson well past the mark before peeling away to set the spinnaker and ultimately to go 2-1 up.

30 seconds before the start of race four Peter Gilmour picked up a penalty. "Chris Dickson was ahead of Peter Gilmour and Chris Dickson was right on the limit of the exclusion zone and Peter Gilmour went and established a windward overlap but there was no safe distance between Chris and the obstruction [a line of buoys to keep competitors away from the rocks], but by just going into that position he [Gilmour] ended up with a penalty," explained Head Umpire John Doerr.

Both boats then headed across the line on starboard and proceeded to the port layline with Gilmour ahead, but not ahead enough to shed his penalty. Should he continue trying to extend or should he hold back to engage Dickson? Gilmour chose the latter and half way down the final run dropped the kite and chose to lock horns. He drove Dickson across to the extreme left of the course but was penalised for luffing without an overlap (see read more about this on page two). With two penalties it was all over for Gilmour.

With the teams 2-2 up race five saw further disaster on Gilmour, picking up another penalty in the pre-start. After another game of cat and mouse around the Lady Tamara Dickson was ahead and Gilmour passed close to his stern spinning up fast. Dickson immediately started to alter course to keep clear, but was unable to keep clear resulting in contact between the boats. Because Dickson had been forced the wrong side of the committee boat and had to circle back again Gilmour was given a red flag penalty resulting in him having to carry out an immediate turn. This turn left Gilmour marginally behind but on the second cross going up the beat Gilmour was able to put a penality on Dickson. Dickson was on starboard and tacked away but not soon enough before Gilmour had to alter course, so his penalty was for failing to keep clear while tacking.

This put Dickson into the position of Gilmour from race four - of being ahead but not enough to expend his penalty. The outcome was decided on the final run. Expecting another gybing duel neither boat had hoisted kites on rounding and when they did finally get aroud to this both crews hoisted in unison. However on Dickson's boat the kite was wrapped and refused to unwrap itself for almost a minute. This was enough for Gilmour to roll Dickson, securing the race and the Gold Cup.

For their efforts Gilmour and his crew won $30,000 (and were all given Omega watches) while Dickson and his team won $18,000.

Petit-finals

In the morning’s Petit Finals, defending champion Jesper Radich acquitted himself by defeating Team New Zealand’s Dean Barker of the Omega Match Racing Team, 2-1. With the scoreline tied at 1-1, Barker copped a penalty in the pre-start of the third match, but sailed well ahead of Radich around the course to put plenty of position between himself and the Dane prior to the finish line.

However, as bowman Ben Ainslie attempted to pull down the spinnaker to exonerate the penalty he was unable to get the chute below the gooseneck, a requirement to have the umpires drop the flag. As a result, Barker had to attempt the penalty turn again, but the extra time allowed Radich to close the distance and cross the line to grab the decisive win.

“It’s pretty disappointing for us today,” said Barker. “We were in front in all three races and it was a case of either we did it to ourselves or we had issues with the umpires. Jesper and his guys were sailing really well, and had been all week, congratulations to them.”


Swedish Match Tour leaderboard after two events

1.Peter Gilmour, AUS/Pizza La Sailing Team 40
2.Jesper Radich, DEN/Team Radich 27
3.Magnus Holmberg, SWE/Team Continental Airlines 25
4.Jesper Bank, Denmark 20
=Chris Dickson, Oracle BMW Racing Team 20
6.Dean Barker, NZ/Omega Match Racing Team 12
7.Russell Coutts, Alinghi Team 10
=Kelvin Harrap, New Zealand 10