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| PIZZA-LA SAILING TEAM COMPLETES 11-0 RUN |
| Friday, 19 November 2004 |
Peter Gilmour begins a tack to starboard between the committee boat and Jes Gram-Hansen at the start of their Flight 21 match. (Swedish Match Tour/Kaoru Soehata)
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Gavin Brady and BMW Oracle Racing watch Michele Ivaldi cross with a comfortable lead in Flight 19. (Swedish Match Tour/Kaoru Soehata)
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Jes Gram-Hansen leads Peter Gilmour by a quarter-length across the finish line, but would be penalized by the umpires after his spinnaker hit Gilmour`s. (Swedish Match Tour/Kaoru Soehata)
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Gavin Brady and Peter Gilmour are all tangled up at the windward mark of their Flight 20 match. Brady received two penalties at the mark rounding. (Swedish Match Tour/Kaoru Soehata)
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HAYAMA, Japan (Nov. 19, 2004) — Led by skipper Peter Gilmour, the Pizza-La Sailing Team stormed through the round robin at Pizza-La Red Lobster Nippon Cup with a perfect record and claimed the top spot in the semifinals of Stage 4 of the 2004-’05 Swedish Match Tour.
Gilmour and crew Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku and Yasuhiro Yaji finished the round robin with an 11-0 record in their defense of the Nippon Cup. The crew is searching for its ninth victory at the 15th anniversary regatta, but hasn’t announced who they’ll pick as their opponent in the semis.
“In a single round robin you have to keep focusing on each race,” Gilmour said. “It’s so easy to drop one and then lose a few. It can unwind so quickly it’s unpredictable. I have an idea of who I want to sail in the semis, but I want to talk with the boys before announcing it.”
The Pizza-La crew was assured of winning the round robin when they defeated American Ed Baird and Team Musto in Flight 22. Despite the loss, Baird and crew Andy Horton, Piet Van Nieuwenhuyzen and Jon Ziskind finished second with a 9-2 record and advanced to the semis.
Jes Gram-Hansen and Dean Barker each finished with 8-3 records and also qualified for the semifinal round. Gram-Hansen finished the round robin third on the basis of beating Barker in Flight 2.
“It doesn’t matter who we face in the semis, all the teams are very good,” said Gram-Hansen, who’s racing with Morten Helkier, Christian Kamp and Rasmus Kostner.
Barker said yesterday that he and crewmembers James Dagg, Ray Davies and Jared Henderson would require help advancing to the semis, and they got it today when the BMW Oracle Racing crew, led by helmsman Gavin Brady, unraveled.
After winning five of their first seven races, Brady and crew fell out of contention for the semis when they proceeded to lose three in a row to Michele Ivaldi, Gilmour and Philippe Presti.
“Looking at the schedule this morning you wouldn’t have expected that from Gavin,” said Gilmour.
Ivaldi, a member of Italy’s Luna Rossa Challenge for the America’s Cup, and Presti, helmsman of France’s le Defi syndicate, will sail a best-of-three series tomorrow for fifth and sixth places.
Day 3 of the Nippon Cup produced more cold and rainy weather. The wind blew again from the north around 15 knots, and had wild shifts in as it blew offshore from the 1,000-foot Osaki headland at the top of the racecourse.
Aside from winning the round robin, Gilmour and crew were at the center of some of the closest racing today. Their three final matches against Brady, Gram-Hansen and Baird were packed with action and excitement.
In Flight 20, Brady received three penalties for incidents at the windward and leeward marks. The umpires’ calls left Brady screaming, “What was that for!” at the leeward mark. When told it was for contact, he reportedly accepted the verdict.
Against Gram-Hansen, Gilmour nearly took out the committee boat and then Gram-Hansen before starting slightly early. He then nearly hooked the committee boat’s anchor line as he rounded the boat end to start properly.
“I was all roped up there,” said Gilmour. “I had jumped up in the cockpit and one of my shoes fell off. Yaji couldn’t stop laughing at me.”
Gram-Hansen immediately opened a five boatlength lead, an advantage he held around the leeward mark. But a knot in the Dane’s spinnaker halyard led to a poor rounding and gave Gilmour an opportunity to split on the second windward leg. He closed to within one length at the windward mark.
On the run to the finish, Gilmour jibed to starboard and got to the right (looking downwind) of Gram-Hansen. He rode a puff down the course to cross the finish line overlapped with Gram-Hansen.
The Dane was awarded the win, but moments later received a penalty from the umpires which gave the race to Gilmour.
“We had to give him room at the pin end and as we both turned down to cross the line the leech of our spinnaker touched his spinnaker,” said Gram-Hansen. “It was a bad mistake that could’ve been avoided.”
Against Baird, Gilmour did a good job of pushing the American away from the start line in a port-starboard with less than one minute to the start. That forced Baird to the right of Gilmour.
When Gilmour hardened up to approach the line, Baird was about three lengths to windward and outside the boat end. A right-hand shift helped Gilmour lay the boat end perfectly, and Baird was forced to follow behind.
Baird tried a series of 10 tacks within the first 2 minutes of the race hoping to break free of the cover, but Gilmour’s crew was up to the task and opened a four-boatlength lead. Baird’s trimmer Ziskind chided himself for not having one good tack in the group, and for losing a third winch handle this week.
Despite finishing with an admirable 9-2 record, Baird was completely drained at the end of the day. He suffered from a case of food poisoning after a dinner of bad sushi.
“I didn’t have an option whether to race or not, if you can stand up you have to do it,” said Baird. “My crew really pulled me through today.”
Swedish Match Tour sponsors include Swedish Match (Official Sponsor), BMW (Partner and Official Car), Colorcraft, Wedgwood, Musto, Trident Studio and Travel Places (Official Sponsors).
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FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Sean McNeill
Swedish Match Tour
+81 46 877 5535
RELATED COVERAGE
Event Summary
Photo Gallery
Race Schedule, Results, Crew List
Pizza-La Sailing Team Undefeated (Nov. 18, 2004)
Leaderboard Jumbled at Nippon Cup (Nov. 17, 2004)
Practice Day at Nippon Cup (Nov. 16, 2004)
Nippon Cup Set to Conclude Year (Nov. 9, 2004)
FINAL ROUND ROBIN STANDINGS
(After 22 scheduled flights)
1. Peter Gilmour (AUS) 11-0
Crew Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku, Yasuhiro Yaji
2. Ed Baird (USA) 9-2
Crew Andy Horton, Piet van Nieuwenhuyzen, Jon Ziskind
3. Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN) 8-3
Crew Morten Halkier, Christian Kamp, Rasmus Kostner
4. Dean Barker (NZL) 8-3
Crew James Dagg, Ray Davies, Jared Henderson
5. Philippe Presti (FRA) 6-5
Crew Antoine Breger, Gilles Andre, Fred Guilmin
6. Michele Ivaldi (ITA) 6-5
Crew Tom Burnham, Manuel Modena, Tatsuya Wakinaga
7. Gavin Brady (NZL) 6-5
Crew Sean Clarkson, Chris Dickson, Dirk de Ridder
8. Geoff Meek (RSA) 4-7
Crew Mark Lagesse, Gui Verhoevert, Alex Runseman
9. Yasutaka Funazawa (JPN) 4-7
Crew Masaki Kobayashi, Masahiro Nagao, Kiyotoshi Tanaka
10. Takumi Nakamura (JPN) 2-9
Crew Yasuhiro Okamoto, Kunio Suzuki, Daichi Wada
11. Sven-Erik Horsch (GER) 1-10
Crew Mirko Masek, Alexander Nibbe, Felix Simmendinger
12. Kazuto Seki (JPN) 1-10
Crew Toshiro Honda, Masahiro Ogawa, Shigenobu Sago
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