Torvar Mirsky won a sudden death final against Johnie Berntsson at the Argo Group Gold Cup in Bermuda to claim his second consecutive victory on the 2011 World Match Racing Tour. A win in the petit final for Francesco Bruni over Phil Robertson means just over six points now separate the trio of Ian Williams, Bruni and Mirsky with only the Monsoon Cup to go.

Going into the final day, Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team was already assured of an automatic qualifying spot for the Monsoon Cup while Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing would retain tenth place overall regardless of his petit final result. They were fired up though, as were their opponents who were both seeking to close the gap on Tour leader Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar sponsored by Argo Group Gold Cup.

At the start of the Gold Cup, Mirsky (AUS) The Wave Muscat and Berntsson were even on head to head wins this season. The final proved no different. In the first match, as they approached the first mark Berntsson careened into Mirsky’s stern and picked up a penalty, the umpires ruling that the Swede altered his course towards Mirsky and didn’t give him room to keep clear. A further penalty downwind forced the 2008 Gold Cup winner into an immediate penalty turn which he had to repeat after the umpires ruled he hadn’t completed the first properly. That spelt disaster for Berntsson but first blood to Mirsky who went on to take the win.

A pause for the Junior Gold Cup allowed Berntsson to re-focus and the Swede fought back brilliantly in the next match. His team were smooth through their manoeuvres and with no penalties this time, Berntsson went on to win with time to spare.

If Berntsson could avoid the penalties, it looked like he had the superior boat speed to win, but he was flagged in the pre-start of the next match. Again, he read the shifts well and his boat speed allowed him to take the lead however Mirsky continued to shake things up and kept it tight round the course. It proved critical. When Berntsson took his penalty turn on the line, he needed to get out the way of Mirsky who was on starboard with all the rights. Mirsky lined him up from 100 yards out and Berntsson didn’t keep clear, forcing the penalty back onto Berntsson and take the match. 2-1.

A comprehensive win for Berntsson in the next match, the Swede leading from start to finish with no penalty complications, took the final into sudden death. No team on port entry had won a match in this final so on paper it was Mirsky’s. A poor start from Berntsson gave the advantage to Mirsky who put in a series of classic match racing defence moves to deny Berntsson the lead. Mirsky continued to pick the shifts perfectly and built an unassailable lead to take the match and the 2011 Argo Group Gold Cup.

Mirsky was knocked out of the 2010 Gold Cup in the quarter-finals by Berntsson and more than avenged for that defeat this year. He said: “We are over the moon with winning two titles in a row. We’ve never done that well in Bermuda and we’ve never had many Tour wins so this is fantastic, we’re really on a roll. I’m so proud of the way the team sailed this week, everyone just knew what they were doing on board and we felt comfortable and confident. Johnie really tested us in the final which made for some great sailing.

“We are now close to Ian in the points and we have a big chance for the world title so we’ll be fighting for it! Hopefully we can keep on this roll and win in Malaysia too.”

Berntsson, who picked up 22 points for his win here to give his season a huge fillip, commented: “We’re disappointed but it was a great performance overall. The finals were really tight and we felt like it could have gone either way. We collected too many penalties though and lost the last pre-start and that really cost us. Torvar did a great job and was tough to beat so congratulations to him.

“Maybe in an hour we’ll be happy but right now we’re really disappointed because we came so close to winning. We’ve got a 3 year aim to finish on the podium so we’re progressing well towards that.

“We’re happy to get an automatic invite to Malaysia. That was our goal.”

Mirsky’s other arch rival for the Championship is Bruni who was involved in the petit final earlier in the day. The first match was really all over in the pre-start, Robertson picking up two penalties which forced him to take an immediate penalty turn and hand Bruni a sizeable lead that he maintained to cruise to a 1-0 lead.

Robertson made a cleaner start in the next match and managed to stay within touching distance as they approached the first mark. Despite not having raced the IOD class before, Bruni’s boat speed had been strong all week and he managed to open a gap on the first downwind leg which he extended on the final lap through to the finish for a deserved win.

Bruni, who now sits in 2nd place in the Championship, just six points adrift of Williams, said: “It was a really intense regatta for us. We came here knowing it was going to be tough – we didn’t know the boats but I think we adapted really well to them.

“The most important thing is that Ian didn’t go through to the semi-finals and we gained valuable points on him. Everything will now be played out at the Monsoon Cup and that was our aim heading into this regatta. We truly believe we can win in Malaysia.”

Robertson, who remains in tenth place overall, reflected: “It was a good result for us overall, the team have done a great job and if anything I let them down in the pre-starts today. It’s disappointing to lose the semi-final and then the petit final but it is what it is.

“It’s been an interesting year for us, very much up and down but we’ve learnt a lot and we are hoping to just keep learning and take it all away and use it to improve next year.”

Last year’s Tour leader going into the Monsoon Cup Mathieu Richard drops down to ninth in the overall Tour standings and will not get an automatic invite to the Monsoon Cup. The 2011 ISAF Match Racing World Championship will be decided at the Monsoon Cup which takes place from 22-27 November in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.

Argo Group Gold Cup Final result:

• Torvar Mirsky (AUS) The Wave Muscat beat Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team 3-2

Argo group Gold Cup Petit Final result:

• Francesco Bruni (ITA) Bruni Racing beat Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing 2-0

Argo Group Gold Cup standings:

1. Torvar Mirsky (AUS) The Wave Muscat
2. Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team
3. Francesco Bruni (ITA) Bruni Racing
4. Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing
5. Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team
6. Jesper Radich (DEN) Adrian Lee & Partners
7. Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar sponsored by Argo Group
8. Staffan Lindberg (FIN) Alandia Sailing Team
9. Bjorn Hansen (DEN) Mekonomen Sailing Team
10. Eric Monnin (SUI) Oklays Corum Sailing Team

Overall Championship Standings – after 7 stages:

1. Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar – 106pts
2. Francesco Bruni (ITA) Bruni Racing – 100pts
3. Torvar Mirsky (AUS) The Wave Muscat – 99.8pts
4. Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing – 78.8pts
5. Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Mekonomen Sailing Team – 75pts
6. Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team – 74pts
7. Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team – 73.2pts
8. Jesper Radich (DEN) Adrian Lee & Partners – 71.2pts
9. Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team – 69.6pts
10. Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing – 64.4pts

After The Wave Muscat breezed through the Quarter Final stage of the Argo Group Gold Cup yesterday, they managed to keep their momentum to roll over Phil Robertson’s Waka Racing Team in a decisive 3-0 victory.

Johnnie Berntsson from Sweden took the scalp of the Tour’s second place team lead by Italy’s heavyweight team, skippered by Francesco Bruni. This puts Berntsson through to his third finals here in Bermuda, but with The Wave Muscat continuing their winning form on from St Moritz last month, the Swede will have a lot on his plate if he wants to take home this Gold Cup.

The 24 teams are split into 3 groups, the top two from each group then move straight through to the Quarter Finals, while the 3rd and 4th seeds are left to fight for the remaining two Quarter Final spots in an all or nothing repacharge round.

With so many teams and such an unusual format, the Gold Cup claims a lot of Tour regular’s scalps, and having finished the first two days with two losses to the lower seeded Canfield and Fraser.

“Things weren’t looking too good for us” said tactician Kyle Langford after the full day came to a conclusion. “Kinley and I had to arrive late coming straight from the extreme 40′s, so we didn’t get much of a chance to train. Yesterday was a pretty big learning curve, it was just unfortunate that some of our mistakes cost us the race. We knew we had to keep the heat in the oven today to make it through, and everyone stepped up to the plate, so we are going into the next round with a bit more confidence.”

Day Two in Bermuda saw the Mirsky Racing Team continue their hot streak, winning all three races putting them on top of their group on a solid 5-0 score line.

Fiery matches were the flavour of the day, with one race seeing 6 penalties altogether. The victim of the onslaught was America’s rules expert Dave Perry who conceded four penalties for a number of infringements around the track in Group 3’s first race of the day.

“We got a bit of a scare down the first run when Perry’s team got two penalties on us for not keeping clear, but then he tried to go for the kill and carted us too far, so we got a penalty back on him” recalled Graeme Spence.

“When we both gybed back for the mark though it was our turn to attack and we managed to put two more penalties on him the same way he got us, and from there on out it was a pretty straightforward race, but it’s always good to have a few races like that to keep the spectators happy!”

MRT have one race left of the first round, but no matter what the result is they are through to the quarterfinals.

“We don’t have a great track record here” said Tudur Owen who is trimming this week “so it is nice to get through this first stage unscathed. We are really going to have to turn up the heat though if we are going to fend off the other top teams in groups 1 and 2.”

The Official Line…

Hamilton, Bermuda – 6 October 2010 –Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team showed just why he is earmarked for future glory in world match racing by storming to an unbeaten run of five match races after Qualifying Session 2 at the Argo Group Gold Cup in Bermuda. If reigning World Champion Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing and Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing stole the lion’s share of the early headlines, it’s the calm and collected young Australian who is now stamping his authority all over the penultimate event of the 2010 World Match Racing Tour.

Dave Perry (USA), Alvaro Mininho (POR) Seth Sailing Team and Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team all succumbed to Mirsky’s tactical nous today. However, it was far from plain sailing for the Australian team with their match against Perry notably tight, forcing the umpires to work overtime to deal with a deluge of protests.This was toe-to-toe action with Perry collecting the first penalty in the pre-start and then Mirsky taking one back during a series of rapid gybes on the first run. A further penalty for Mirsky seemed to shake the Australian team into focus as they then stuck three penalties on Perry in quick succession as they approached the leeward mark. It was textbook match racing which Perry simply had no answer to.

Looking ahead, Mirsky is far from complacent:

“We haven’t won the competition yet, so our results so far don’t count for anything. Like everyone else we’re still getting used to these –boats, our starts aren’t great and our decisions are too rushed. That said, we’re confident that we will continue to sail well.”

Day one of the Bermuda Gold Cup brought shifty conditions to Hamilton Harbour, where MRT managed to make the most of the tricky conditions to secure two come from behind wins.

Coming out focused and fired up in the morning, MRT took the first race off Team Origin whilst inflicting a double penalty and comfortably sailing to victory. With momentum on MRT’s side, they went out to push Ainslie in the second race of the day and secure another win to even up the scores at 2-2.

The fifth and final race was a showstopper with MRT pushing the Brits the whole way round, but they didn’t slip up and went on to take the Australians out of the competition.

With World Tour points at stake, MRT still needed to finish as high as possible, but in the 5th-8th sail off they were out sailed by last years winner Johnnie Berntsson and local star Blythe Walker to finish in 8th position.

MRT has been relegated to 2nd place on the World Match Racing Tour standings and going into the final in Malaysia they will still have a shot at the World Championship title.

“A lot of things didn’t go our way this week, but we sailed well and only just missed out on the semi’s to Team Origin. We have a lot of work to do in Malaysia, but we are still well in touch with BlackMatch and with a good result we will be able to take out this year’s championship” said Mirsky who is now making his way back to Perth to begin training up for the finals in December.

Article by Kyle Langford

Two races of the quarter final series were completed this afternoon, and despite going through the repacharge undefeated, MRT went down in both races against three time Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie.

The first race saw MRT leading Team Origin throughout the race, but the umpires made a controversial decision and penalised MRT because they thought they had infringed with a boat from another match. This meant that they had to slow the game down and try to wipe their penalty on the final run, but Ainslie worked into a strong position and took the win.

With MRT up against the ropes, the racing was postponed until tomorrow which gives the team a chance to regroup and regain focus.

“It’s a tough position to be in” said tactician Kyle Langford “but we still have to do the same thing as we did this morning. We are sailing really well, but the long day out on the water brought out some small mistakes and the Origin guys didn’t let us get away with anything.”

With tomorrow’s forecast predicting much of the same as today, MRT will be looking to turn up the heat and take down the sailing giants from Origin, and continue taking steps towards holding the Argo Group Bermuda Gold Cup above their heads.

MRT scrape through to the repechage round of the Bermuda Gold Cup.

After a disappointing second half of the round robin, MRT failed to qualify immediately for the quarter finals after losing three straight races.

The final race of the round, a derby match against Black Swan Racing, Keith Swinton from South of Perth Yacht Club saw MRT receive a penalty in the prestart, Black Swan Racing had the advantage off the line but MRT fought back to take the lead.

Unable to extend and clear their penalty, Swinton narrowly sneaked in on a mark trap laid by MRT to end their chances of fasttracking to the next stage.

Nevertheless, MRT managed to have enough points to go into the ‘second chance’ repechage round where the top two teams will make up the deciding two spots in the quarter finals.

“The repechage round allows us to have an extra five races, so if we can make it through this round it will put us in a good position going into the quarter finals” commented Spence.

Keen to find some form, MRT came out in the first two races of the repechage with victories, comfortably defeating America Dave Perry then inflicting a black flag on France’s Damien Iehl.

With three races remaining in the repechage, MRT need to secure at least two more wins in order to stay in the fight for the Gold Cup title.