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| HALF OF QUARTERS ON HOLD IN PORTUGAL |
Michael Dunstan’s crew works at an angle in preparation for a windward mark rounding. (©Swedish Match Tour/Stephanie Lamy)
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Bertrand Pacé’s crew works to sort out a jibe set gone wrong in their second quarterfinal match against Peter Gilmour. (©Swedish Match Tour/Stephanie Lamy)
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Bertrand Pacé crosses ahead of Peter Gilmour at the start of their first quarterfinal match. (©Swedish Match Tour/Stephanie Lamy)
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Peter Holmberg and the Alinghi crew lead Michael Dunstan downwind towards the finish of their second flight. (©Swedish Match Tour/Stephanie Lamy)
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CASCAIS, Portugal (July 22, 2005) — Two of the four quarterfinal matches were completed today at the PTPortugal Match Cup, Stage 1 of the 2005-’06 Swedish Match Tour.
Peter Holmberg (ISV), Alinghi, and Peter Gilmour (AUS), Pizza-La Sailing Team, will meet in the top half of the Semifinal Round. The bottom half will be determined after the remaining two quarterfinal matches are completed tomorrow.
The quarterfinals were postponed around 6:30 p.m. this evening when the race committee deemed the wind too shifty and fluky to conduct racing. Fifteen minutes later a solid 15-knot breeze filled in.
The two completed quarterfinal matches featured Holmberg beating Michael Dunstan (AUS) and Gilmour defeating Bertrand Pacé (FRA), BMW Oracle Racing. Both scores were 2-0.
The wind was a solid 15 knots with higher gusts for the first race and the competitors used the non-overlapping jibs. Holmberg and Gilmour both won handily to take 1-0 leads. Holmberg and Gilmour both held 3- to 5-boatlength leads throughout the race.
In the pre-start of their second match Dunstan cleaned out Holmberg at the start. The Aussie hooked him late, forced him outside the committee boat end and led onto the racecourse in a big right-hand wind shift.
The race committee promptly abandoned the race because the two were overstanding the windward mark on starboard tack by more than 20 degrees. That’s when the wind started getting fluky.
An hour postponement ensued as the race committee reset the racecourse. When they restarted the second flight it was Holmberg’s turn to hook Dunstan late. Dunstan tacked to port trying to escape but wound up three boatlengths low of the line when the start gun sounded after tacking back to starboard.
“I finally had a good start there,” said Holmberg. “I’ve been having some shockers this week.”
Holmberg held a lead of about 8 boatlengths at the windward mark, which Dunstan halved at the leeward mark. Dunstan continued to gain on the second beat and rounded the windward mark on Holmberg’s transom.
“That was scary,” Holmberg said. “He hooked a beauty on the right. I had limited options coming in slow on port tack. He had an opportunity to exploit it.”
Both crews did a bear away set to port jibe, which may have been Dunstan’s undoing.
“If we had jibe set we might’ve been able to roll him there,” said Dunstan. As it was Holmberg would roll onto the victory.
“We got beat by a team that gets paid to sail almost every day of the year,” said Dunstan. “We’re not disappointed.”
Gilmour also nailed Pace at the start of their second match. He got Pace so slow that he was able to tack to port off the line and cross the Frenchman. Pace, however, was right behind Gilmour at the windward mark. Both crews attempted to jibe-set, but the maneuvers went bad.
Gilmour recovered more quickly on starboard jibe and rode a puff to a big lead. He maintained that lead around the second lap and to the finish.
Three of Gilmour’s four crewmembers are new to him this week, including main trimmer Fred Guilman and headsail trimmer Thierry Fouchier. Fouchier crewed for Pace for five years, but he has no regrets about beating his old skipper.
“No,” he replied quickly when asked if he felt guilty about winning. “It’s strange to sail against a guy you were working with for so long.”
Fouchier and Guilman raced with Philippe Presti earlier this year when they placed 2nd at the ACI H1 Match Race Cup in Croatia. Although they’re new to Gilmour’s crew, the styles aren’t too different.
“He’s very open and makes us feel comfortable,” Guilman said of Gilmour in comparison to Presti. “It’s about 80 to 90 percent similar expectations.”
Swedish Match Tour partners include Swedish Match, BMW and the Match Race Association. Swedish Match Tour Official Sponsors include Musto, Sebago, Travel Places, Trident Studio and Wedgwood.
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Half of Quarters on Hold in Portugal
RELATED CONTENT
Portugal Match Cup Summary
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Portugal Match Cup 2005 Updates
Gram-Hansen Nabs Group B (July 21, 2005)
Holmberg Headlines Group A (July 20, 2005)
Seventh Season Begins in Portugal (July 14, 2005)
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE SWEDISH MATCH TOUR
Sean McNeill
Director of Public Relations
Phone: +1 401 846 8812
Mobile: +1 401 662 1501
E-mail: smcneill@f10marketing.com
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE PTPORTUGAL MATCH CUP
Ana Lima
Director of Public Relations
Mobile: +351 91 777 60 18
E-mail: alc@alcomunicacao.pt
PTPORTUGAL MATCH CUP QUARTERFINAL RESULTS
(A1) Peter Holmberg vs. (R2) Michael Dunstan
Holmberg wins, 2-0
(B2) Bertrand Pacé vs. (A3) Peter Gilmour
Gilmour wins, 2-0
(A2) Staffan Lindberg vs. (B3) Ben Ainslie
(B1) Jes Gram-Hansen vs. (R1) Chris Law
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Newsletter - September 2008
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