Australian Mirsky, who turns 25 later this month, is recognised as one of the hottest talents in international sail racing, claiming a superb second spot on the prestigious Tour in 2009 before following that with an impressive third overall last year.

However, despite enjoying one of the most consistent records on the Tour, which attracts the best match racing talent on the planet, Mirsky and his teammates have not yet been able to convert their consistency into multiple event wins, and ultimately the championship.

The Wave, Muscat is the leading lifestyle development just north of Oman’s capital city, and Mirsky Racing Team is the second major international sailing partnership it has committed to, also supporting one of Oman Sail’s two Extreme 40s in the Extreme Sailing Series.

With The Wave, Muscat’s backing, Mirsky insists 2011 is the year his team can seal WMRT championship glory for the first time. He said:

“Traditionally our team has done everything off our own backs and as cheap as possible like staying in backpackers and relying on friends for support to live away from Australia. The support of The Wave, Muscat means that we can now put a campaign together that we allow us to take part at the level required to win the WMRT, for example we are hoping to have a coach at some events. We really appreciate the support and of The Wave Muscat and it will make such a big difference to our campaign this year.”

“This year we are out to win. We’ve done a lot of sailing this year already, but it has been six months since the last WMRT finished so we have had a big break from match racing and there are a few nerves and lot of excitement about starting up again. We need to get back in the rhythm as we want to be sailing at a high level. We know we will be a little bit rusty at the first event but we are excited about getting back into it.”

David Stafford Vice President of Sales and Marketing at The Wave, Muscat said:

“We are delighted to be supporting Torvar and the Mirsky Racing Team in this year’s World Match Racing Tour. With Torvar also skippering The Wave, Muscat in the Extreme Sailing Series this year we were eager to extend our support of someone we believe will be a sailing superstar for many years to come

“The Wave, Muscat’s premier 400-berth Marina ensures our country’s proud maritime heritage sits at the heart of the Muscat tourist experience. Through our support of world class sailing we hope to promote Oman as a new and exciting sailing destination. We wish the Mirsky Racing Team all the very best for the forthcoming season.”

As well as their WMRT commitments this year, Mirsky and two of his Mirsky Racing teammates, Kyle Langford and Kinley Fowler, are also racing in the Extreme Sailing Series. Mirsky is skippering the reigning champion boat, The Wave, Muscat, with Langford as tactician while Fowler is calling tactics aboard Oman Sail’s second entry, Oman Air.

By competing in both the Extreme Sailing Series and WMRT Mirsky is confident that it will be of benefit to both campaigns, and with no event clashes he is in no doubt that his team can successfully combine campaigns to be at full throttle for the WMRT, which gets underway with Match Race France in Marseille on 10 May. The Tour takes in nine venues with the final Monsoon Cup showdown taking place in Malaysia in November.

Mirsky Racing Team with 9 Wins at Match Race France. Image Subzero Images

The Mirsky Racing Team go trough to the quarterfinals on top of the leaderboard with just two losses in the round robin

After a long day on the water,, with seven races remaining in the round this morning, MRT stepped up to the plate and performed, dropping only two races against the two teams from Italy – Francesco Bruni’s Team Azzura and Team Italia skipperedby Paolo Cian.

With 7 of the best teams to choose from, MRT’s skipper selected to race Francesco Bruni in the first to three quarter finals.

“Obviously it was a very hard choice for us” Said Kinley Fowler who has stepped in as the coach for this week, “but after studying all of the teams throughout the week I think we are best suited to Francesco’s style in these boats. Don’t get me wrong, they are amazingly talented sailors and it will be very tough, but hopefully we have made the right choice.”

With Marseille playing host to all varieties of weather, tomorrow’s forecast is as easy to predict as the results of the quarter finals. Almost anything could happen.

Round Robin Results:

• 9 wins Mirsky Racing Team – Torvar Mirsky
• 8 wins Team Origin – Ben Ainslie
• 7 wins Blackmatch racing – Adam Minoprio
• 7 wins French Team – Philipe Presti
• 7 wins Team Italia – Paolo Cian
• 5 wins French Team – Mathieu Richard
• 5 wins Team Azzura – Francesco Bruni
• 5 wins All4One – Sebastien Col
• 4 wins – Pierre-Antoine Morvan
• 4 wins Team Aleph – Bertrand Pace
• 3 wins Peter Gilmour – Yanmar Racing
• 2 wins Gian Luca Perri

Follow the day’s action live at the Official World Match Racing Tour site.

There will be occasional updates on our Twitter Feed too: http://www.twitter.com/mirskyracing

Marseille, 9 April 2010

Over the last 3 days WMRT followers have enjoyed 18 flights to now secure 8 skippers into the Quarter Finals from the original 12 invited competitors. The sustainable multi event series over a massive 9 month period is propelling the World Match Racing Tour forwards into the ‘global sports brand’ category, which sailing deserves to occupy alongside the likes of the PGA Tour with a loyal global audience.

Kings of the 2009 World Match Racing Tour, Adam Minoprio (NZL) BlackMatch Racing, Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team and Ben Ainslie (GBR) TEAMORIGIN, are still on top of the scoreboard really reinforcing their excellence through consistent strategically considered build up training. Top of today’s game is the Tour’s youngest helm in the slick Mirsky Racing Team at 23 years old.

Torvar has a maturity beyond his years when talking us through commitment to his sporting profession,

“We feel we’ve prepared properly for the start of this year’s World Match Racing Tour and that’s paid off. We always knew we would be one of the tougher teams to beat, we are pleased with our consistent performance to date and the team is now looking forward to the rest of Match Race France”.

The sailing Gods distilled a different set of fortunes on Peter Gilmour (AUS), YANMAR Racing. Along with two other French nationals, he has been knocked out at this early stage.

Gilmour who has been racing this week with his 18 year old son, David, said, “We are obviously a little disappointed but we are taking the positives with us, it has been a good start to the 2010 World Match Racing Tour and we will be back in full force at Match Race Germany during May”.

The Quarter Finals competitor list has half of the skippers currently assigned to global America’s Cup syndicates; this will ensure aggressive style manoeuvres for tomorrow’s Round Robin matches off Escale Borely Beach. The new race course location shifts the Tour into a ‘weekend mode’ with a more intense atmosphere on the start line and a public orientated set up on the shore. This integrated mix of satisfying the competitors and spectators across each of WMRT’s 10 events will continue to develop the professional sailing series into a recognised global sporting brand that appeals to so many.

Waiting for Wind. Marseille 2009 - Photo David Fuller

Does Local Knowledge Eclipse Experience?

Marseille, 8 April 2010 – Day Two of the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) in Marseille has produced a range of results that has highlighted not only match racing experience but also local knowledge as top running variables that can make or break a professional sailing series. After a slow start to the morning with racing postponed, the sailors were let out onto the race course as the wind clocked in from the North West at 4 to 8 knots for the remainder of the day. Racing again in the Bay of Marseille was moved very close in-shore with excellent spectator appeal to the ‘Rade Sud’.

Ben Ainslie (GBR) TEAMORIGIN and Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team are still both on top of the WMRT leader board after today with 11 flights now completed overall. Ainslie has more wins than any other helm so far this week with a current score of 5-1. At a glance it could be said that international match racers with a raft of consistent accolades are steam rolling Match Race France, but the less glamorous placing currently being experienced by the likes of Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing and Francesco Bruni (ITA) Team Azzurra tells a different story.

Bruni who won the Congressional Cup only 12 days ago related, “it is tough out there, today has really reminded me about spending time training at particular sailing venues prior to events”, a luxury afforded by Olympic dinghy sailors who train months in advance at a set destination for their annual World Championships. “I think more time on the water with your coach really getting to grips with the region’s quirks is a definite advantage”. This is not an option for the WMRT competitors who only have a small window of 2 hours to train on the race course area at each of the 10 venues before racing starts the subsequent day.

This leads us into the scenario of ‘local knowledge’ being a serious variable to win races at this venue. Local knowledge is a phenomenon respected the world over by the sailing fraternity. The indigenous racers revel in understanding that they have decades of tales fed in at an early age on which way to go up the all important first beat or if the rain clouds suddenly disperse and the islands appear, as happened today, then the trend is for the wind to always swing to a particular angle.

However, the Bay of Marseille has no clear answers, even French national sailors have been experiencing the woes of highly testing conditions. Pacé, a previous ISAF Match Racing World Champion who has returned to the WMRT action, after a 5 year absence, is not shining in these Mediterranean style winds. Perris our newest match racing star from yesterday has also unfortunately awoken from his ‘dream’ with no victorious matches today.

There is no clear winner today between racing experience or local knowledge; it will remain a question as to which has the greater influence until the penultimate race on Sunday. Perhaps Marseille with its legendary world famous tale of ‘a man in an iron mask’ will remain shrouded in its charming cloak of mystery both on and off the water.

Day 2 at Marseille - Subzero Images

Slow day at Match Race France for MRT, still sitting with a scorecard of 4-0 after no racing.

A long day in Southern France saw only 5 flights completed on day two of Match Race France.

MRT spent the day watching the fleet slowly drift around the racetrack, waiting for their turn to get out on the water.

The race committee took every opportunity to race the boats in a very fickle breeze.

“It was a long day, not knowing whether we were racing or not, we were on standby for 10 hours today. It is mentally draining keeping yourself prepared to go out at any second and race. Despite doing no physical work today, it was very tiring”.

“We have 7 races remaining and the result sheet is tightening and with light winds forecast for tomorrow anything can happen” commented Mirsky.

Tomorrow, weather permitting will see the remaining races of the round robin completed, before going into the quarterfinal stage of the competition.

Results:

• Torvar Mirsky (AUS) 4-0
• Adam Minoprio (NZL) 3-2
• Ben Ainslie (GBR) 5-1
• Peter Gilmour (AUS) 2-6
• Mathieu Richard (FRA) 3-3
• Sebastien Col (FRA) 4-2
• Paolo Cian (ITA) 5-3
• Pierre-Antoine Morvan (FRA) 4-5
• Philippe Presti (FRA) 4-3
• Francesco Bruni (ITA) 3-5
• Gian Luca Perris (MON) 2-5
• Bertrand Pace (FRA) 1-5

Article By Kyle Langford

Mirsky Racing Team hit the ground running in the opening event for the 2010 World Match Racing Tour, cementing 4 wins from 4 races in adverse conditions at Match Race France.

Match Race France, being held from Marseille, is known to be a tough regatta, with predominately strong Mediterranean winds, which keeps the worlds best match racers on edge.

The Mirsky Racing Team consists of the same members who finished runner up in the 2009 World Match Racing Tour, Torvar Mirsky of Australia (Helm), Kyle Langford of Australia (Main), Kinley Fowler of New Zealand (Trim), Tudur Owen of Wales (Pit) and Graeme Spence of Australia (Bow), whom all have the determination to go one better in 2010.

“Its great to start the 2010 WMRT, we have had a 4 month break since the finale in Malaysia and all we have been thinking about is getting back out on the water”

“Marseille is a tough venue, we are happy to come up with 4 wins today, in all of those races we came from behind to take victory, which is a boost in confidence. We still have to iron out some of the creases but it’s a solid start so far,” said Torvar Mirsky.

Racing continues tomorrow commencing at 10am local time, up to date results and race information can be found at www.wmrt.com

Day one (Round Robin 1)

• Torvar Mirsky (AUS) 4-0
• Ben Ainslie (GBR) 4-1
• Gian Luca Perris (MON) 2-0
• Mathieu Richard (FRA) 3-3
• Adam Minoprio (NZL) 2-2
• Sebastien Col (FRA) 1-1
• Bertrand Pace (FRA) 1-1
• Philippe Presti (FRA) 1-1
• Paolo Cian (ITA) 1-2
• Francesco Bruni (ITA) 1-2
• Peter Gilmour (AUS) 0-3
• Pierre-Antoine Morvan (FRA) 0-4

Article by Kyle Langford

Follow the team’s progress with live updates at : http://www.wmrt.com/live-from-marseille.html

See all the video action at the official World Match Racing Tour YouTube Channel.

Marseille, France, 7 April 2010 – Torvar Mirsky leads on day 0ne of Match Race France

Match Race France, the first event of the 2010 World Match Racing Tour (WMRT), has launched in style at Marseille today. The Opening Ceremony was attended by all of the 12 skippers and crew, WMRT team, Tour umpires, Yacht Club Pointe Rogue organisers and media.

Christian Tommasini, President of Yacht Club Pointe Rouge at the opening ceremony said,

“we are very happy to have such an exceptional sporting platform here in Marseille with Match Race France. I would like to thank the City of Marseille for their financial support in making this event happen and the confidence that the World Match Racing Tour has in our team to organise a successful event”.

Mediterranean style conditions during the morning favoured the local hero Gian Luca Perris (MON) and the late afternoon allowed Mirsky (AUS), ranked number 2 in the WMRT standings, to show is consistent ability to build a racing series in all conditions. Mirsky won his 2 matches this morning and also 2 matches this afternoon in totally different racing conditions which is a vital ingredient for those helms aiming to win this World Sailing Series and be crowned ISAF Sailing World Champion.

The race committee worked through the majority of the day in variable winds of only 7 – 10 knots in the Bay of Marseille completing a commendable 2 flights in shifting wind patterns. This was to the advantage of wild card entry, Perris from the Principality of Monaco, who surprised not only himself today but also the high profile Tour Card Holders. Perris, a new face to WMRT, was off to a strong start 2 nil up against Adam Minoprio (NZL) and Torvar Mirsky (AUS) ranked number 1 and 2 in the world rankings. The wind then moderated to conditions unable to hold a fair race and the racing was postponed until further notice with all competitors returning to the shore.

The newest European match racing star and also owner of a successful cosmetics and perfumery company talked through his excellent start to Match Race France,

“I started sailing J24’s for leisure and my friendship with pro crews who are regulars on the international match racing circuit motivated me into trying to secure a spot to race within the World Match Racing Tour”. This move from amateur sailing into professional racing was only 3 years ago and by today’s results was a good decision. “Today has been the highlight of my sailing career it has been our dream to compete at a World Match Racing Tour event”.

The forecast then took an unpredicted change, keeping all the sailors on their toes, as the temperature suddenly dropped the rain clouds rolled in, winds increased to 15 knots from the North West and racing was started quickly to make the most of the favourable conditions.

Luckily for Mirsky, the conditions were also within his abilities to secure top results throughout the afternoon.

“I have really dedicated my training over the last year to hone my boat handling skills with my Mirsky Racing Team so we are both effective in light and strong winds. This is our strength at the moment as normally sailors from the Southern hemisphere struggle in the Mediterranean style variable conditions. I feel confident for tomorrow as we are not worried about the forecast which can be a huge psychological barrier for a lot of helms to overcome”.

Tomorrow the weather conditions are meant to be 11 knots from the North for early morning, veering round to the North West by late afternoon as the wind again moderates to 6 knots, but as today demonstrated the regional variables could produce anything. Thursday will be day 2 of Match Race France for the skippers, both sailors and fans will wait to see if our new star from Monaco can keep up with the likes of Mirsky, who is ‘sailor of the day’ today with his consistent results.

Get Live Updates from the World Match Racing Tour online blog at: http://www.wmrt.com/live-from-marseille.html

The standard of sailing is comparable to the Farr40 or even TP52, with teams such as Joe Fly and Blu Moon bringing in the likes of Francesco Bruni and Sebastien Col to call the shots.

My team didn’t lack talent either, with two of GBR’s Olympic hopefuls – John Gimson, a top Star sailor and John Pink who is first in line for the 2012 Olympics in the 49er. With Pink coming off a 2nd in the 49er Worlds on tactics, we knew that the only problem we were going to have would be keeping up with the rapid Italians who were setting the pace. However, after one day on the race course, it became apparent that we were going to have to fight harder than we thought to get into the top 20.

When a pack of 90 boats come together at a mark, crashes start to happen. I thought that match racing was a contact sport, but when you get stuck in a pack in this fleet, you are lucky to come out still floating. Finding a lane to sail in is a whole other story. However we began to find our feet after a rough start, and the packs slowly got smaller and smaller and the lanes got bigger and bigger.

Coming into the last day, we were sitting in 22nd. We had a lot of points to gain on the teams in front of us if we wanted to reach our goal of a top 20 result.

We finished 5th in the final race, and managed to put enough boats between our nearest competitors to pull up to 18th.

With the St Moritz Match Race starting this week in Switzerland, the Melges provided a great opportunity to race against some of the top match racers on the tour, and test my skills in a different area of sailing, hopefully giving us the edge needed to become “King of the Mountain”.

All photos courtesy of Pierrick Contin