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.

A lot of boat breakages and strong winds kept competitors on their toes and with regatta organisers doing well to catch up on the missed flights of yesterday racing is now on track.

Facing Frenchman Damien Iehl, MRT was unable to make any significant gains in the blustery 20knot breeze and took their first loss for the regatta.

Keen to avenge their result in race one, MRT then faced current world champion Ian Williams and his team, Bahrain Team Pindar. After dominating the prestart MRT made a judgement error and was called OSC. Sailing strongly MRT made big gains and at the last top mark trailed Team Pindar narrowly, unfortunately they could not pass on the downwind and Pindar took the win.

“We sailed well to catch back up, but with the strong winds the race committee put up the no spinnaker flag which meant it was very difficult to pass on the downwind” said Graeme Spence.

With one final race in the round robin, MRT must secure a win in order to proceed to the next stage of the competition and keep their hopes alive for the 2009 Gold Cup.

Results after Day Two:

Group 1
Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team 4/2
Ian Williams (GBR) Team Pindar by Argo Group 6/1
Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team 4/3
Keith Swinton (AUS) Black Swan Racing 2/3
Eric Monnin (SUI) Search.ch 4-1
Reuben Corbett (NZL) 3/3
Robbie Allam (GBR) 1/5
Ian Evans (USA)1/5

Group 2
Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing 3/1
Sebastien Col (FRA) French Team/K Challenge 3/1
Ben Ainslie (GBR) Team Origin 4/0
Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Alandia Sailing Team 3/1
Alvaro Marinho (POR) Seth Sailing Team 1/3
David Perry (USA) 2/2
Rasmus Viltoft (DEN) 0/4
Paula Lewin Crews (BDA) 0/4

Group 3
Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team 4/0
Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing 3/1
Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team 3/1
Mattias Rahm (SWE) Stena Bulk Sailing Team 2/2
Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing Team 2/2
Blythe Walker (BDA) 1/3
Donald Wilson (USA) 1/3
Charlie Enright (USA) 0/4

Torvar talking to the cameras after 4-0 day one…

Bermuda brought a light breeze in the morning which allowed group one to complete their scheduled 4 races, group two then managed only to get one race underway before the wind shut down and no more racing could be completed.

“This event is known to be a tough event, 24 teams means that 3 groups of 8 compete in a round robin where the top two placings will then proceed to the quarterfinal stage. There is often a few upsets with the lower seeded teams proving themselves here”

said MRT trimmer Kinley Fowler who will be coaching the team this week after sustaining a shoulder injury.

Coming off the starting line well meant MRT could sail comfortably in two races, but against Switzerlands Eric Monnin and Britains Robbie Allam made a few lead changes kept the racing tight and exciting, with MRT the ultimate winners.

“We had to stay patient out there today, when we were behind we slowly worked our way back into the races and waited for our time to strike. It was a good way to start the event but with other teams on 3 wins its still very tight”

said Torvar whilst watching group two on the water waiting for wind. Torvar said later to race press officials:

“We started well,” the young Aussie said. “It was tough sailing in the light and shifty conditions. We were able to roll some of our competitors downwind to get the wins. In the race against Monnin he couldn’t get far enough ahead of us to make up his penalty turn.”

Group two and three still need to complete their remaining stage one races before MRT can hit the water to fight for a place in the quarter finals. With strong winds forecast tomorrow promises to bring some exciting racing to the waters of Bermuda.

Results:

Group One

• Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team 4-0
• Ian Williams (GBR) Team Pindar 3-1
• Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team 2-2
• Keith Swinton (AUS) Black Swan Racing 2-2
• Eric Monnin (SUI) Search.ch 3-1
• Reuben Corbett (NZL) 1-3
• Robbie Allam (GBR) 1-3
• Ian Evans (USA) 0-4

Group Two

• Adam Minoprio (NZL) Emirates Team New Zealand/BlackMatch Racing 1-0
• Sebastien Col (FRA) French Match Racing Team/K Challenge 1-0
• Ben Ainslie (GBR) Team Origin 1-0
• Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Alandia Sailing Team 1-0
• Alvaro Marinho (POR) Seth Sailing Team 0-1
• David Perry (USA) 0-1
• Rasmus Viltoft (DEN) 0-1
• Paula Lewin Crews (BDA) 0-1

Group Three

• Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team
• Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing
• Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team
• Mattias Rahm (SWE) Stena Bulk Sailing Team
• Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing Team
• Blythe Walker (BDA)
• Donald Wilson (USA)
• Charlie Enright (USA)

MRT in the 2008 Bermuda Gold Cup

The stage 1, round robin groupings for the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club’s Argo Group Gold Cup have been published, listing the pairings that shows skippers the opponents they must face to reach stage 2, the quarter final round. Starting on Tuesday, the round robin is the first step on the path to the King Edward VII Gold Cup and $50,000… half of the total $100,000 prize purse.

Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Group 1, Adam Minoprio (NZL) Group 2, and Mathieu Richard (FRA) Group 3 are the top seeds. They rank as the top three in both the World Match Racing Tour and on the ISAF ranking list. Mirsky is ranked first on the WMRT while Minoprio is ranked first by ISAF. Richard is ranked third by both.

Joining Mirsky in Group 1 are Ian Williams (GBR), Damien Iehl (FRA), Keith Swinton (AUS), Eric Monin (SUI), Reuben Corbett (NZL), Robbie Allum (GBR) and Ian Evans (USA).

Paired with Minoprio in Group 2 are Sebastian Col (FRA), Ben Ainslie (GBR), Bjorn Hansen (SWE), Alvaro Marinho (POR), Dave Perry (USA), Rasmus Viltoft (DEN), and Paula Lewin (BER).

Matched in Group 3 with Mathieu Richard are Peter Gilmour (AUS), Johnie Berntsson (SWE), Mattias Rahm (SWE), Phil Robertson (NZL), Blythe Walker (BER), Don Wilson (USA), Charlie Enright (USA).

“We use a formula based on ISAF rankings and Tour experience to develop the parings.” said Argo Group Gold Cup Chairman Brian Billings. “We have the top eight skippers and last year’s champion divided among the three groups. Then we work from there to make the groups as equal as possible. It is a unique format on the World Match Racing Tour. Sixteen teams will be eliminated before the quarter finals begin. Even the top ranked skippers can be knocked out early.”

“In 2007, Billings continued, “local Bermuda favorite Blythe Walker showed that the ranking numbers aren’t proof of performance. He was unranked, not having sailed any Tour events, but he made it all the way to the semi-finals before losing to Bjorn Hansen. Some of the up-and-coming young sailors may just break into the big time here in Bermuda.”

From the round-robin stage, the top two from each of the original three groups automatically move into the quarter finals. The third and fourth finishers in each original group then meet in the ‘repecharge’ round-robin called Group 4. The top two will join the original six in the step up the ladder and advance into the quarter finals, with a chance to go to the semi-finals on Saturday and finals on Sunday.