Investors
Guaranty™ Presents The King Edward VII Gold
Cup - Final: Gilmour Wins King Edward VII Gold
Cup
Hamilton Harbour, Bermuda (October 26, 2003) –
In a thrilling five race series, Peter Gilmour/Pizza-La
Sailing Team won the Investors Guaranty Presentation
of the King Edward VII Gold Cup by defeating Chris
Dickson/Team Oracle BMW Racing (USA). Gilmour
and his team of Yasuhiro Yaji, Mike Mottl and
Kazuhiko Sofuku sailed to victory and received
a $30,000 check and the King Edward VII Gold Cup.
With the win, Gilmour surged to the top of the
Swedish Match Tour rankings.
"Congratulations
to my team," said Gilmour, who is a two-time
Gold Cup champion. "They were very smooth
all week, but this was a real test for all of
us. The King Edward VII Gold Cup is one of the
grand prix events on the Swedish Match Tour and
we’re delighted to have won and look forward
to defending next year."
The
premium for today’s teams was on strong
starts and flawless crew work. Each match was
a scene of déjà vu with penalties,
breakdowns and lead changes throughout the five-race
series. Contributing to the drama were wind gusts
measured at a maximum speed of 24 knots by the
Royal Bermuda Yacht Club race committee on the
Hamilton Harbour racecourse.
In
the first race Dickson started over early, giving
Gilmour the advantage to sail into fresh breeze
and take the lead all the way to the finish.
"The
way to lose a match is to be over early,"
summarized Gilmour. "In the IODs, once you
commit to a start and get the main and jib trimmed,
the boat just takes off and there is no chance
to recover."
Roles
were reversed in the second match when the fitting
for the boom failed and Gilmour watched Dickson
and team sail away with the fate of the match.
A strong start in the third match for Gilmour
gave him the advantage and the win.
By
the fourth match, it was a ‘hang on’
situation for Dickson who has won this event twice
before. During the pre-start, the umpires determined
that Gilmour had not given Dickson enough room
to tack and flagged him on the penalty. With that
deficit, it was difficult for Gilmour to recover.
"It
was blowing harder out there than it looked,"
said Dickson, who sailed with Gavin Brady, Roscoe
Halcrow and Dirk de Ridder. "The boats were
a real handful for us. Both crews did a fabulous
job of controlling the boats."
The
fifth and final match would now decide the winner
of the Gold Cup. An exciting pre-start sequence
saw Gilmour incur a penalty and a red flag, which
meant that he had to immediately take a penalty
turn. Working their way up the first beat, the
two boats came at each other for the first crossing.
Dickson tacked too close to Gilmour and was given
a penalty.
By
the second crossing, Dickson was still ahead and
led to the last windward mark rounding. Down the
last downwind leg Dickson tried to engage Gilmour
into a ‘no spinnaker’ duel to offset
his penalty. It was soon apparent that Dickson
might be able to gain an advantage by setting
his spinnaker and trying later. Both boats went
to the spinnaker hoist, but an error onboard Dickson’s
boat caused the spinnaker to get wrapped around
the jib and headstay, giving Gilmour the time
he needed to sail around Dickson and to victory.
In
the Petit-Final for third and fourth places, Jesper
Radich/Team Radich (DEN) defeated Dean Barker/Team
New Zealand’s Omega Match Racing Team (NZL)
2-1. After both teams split the scoreline with
one win apiece. Barker looked to have the ‘first
to two points’ series locked up in the third
and deciding race. Although Barker incurred a
penalty and was unable to exonerate himself, he
did have a strong enough lead on Radich to undertake
a penalty turn sailing downwind, moments before
crossing the finish line. As the boat neared its
turn, it became obvious that the spinnaker had
not fully dipped below the ruling ‘line’
or the point at which the spinnaker pole meets
the mast. With this error, the umpires ruled that
the turn was invalid and Barker slipped over the
line with Radich getting the win and third place
overall.
"To
be honest, we were looking at how the spinnaker
had come down and not reached below the pole,"
said Radich, the 2002 Gold Cup champion. "When
we crossed the finish line first and won, we weren’t
sure whether to cheer when someone makes a mistake."
In
the Renaissance Reinsurance Junior Gold Cup, sailed
on the Gold Cup course following the first Petit-Final
race, local Bermuda superstar Oliver Riihilouma
won the 10-race series featuring 30 sailors from
nine nations competing in Optimist dinghies. Lukasz
Przybytek (Poland) was second and Paul Snow-Hansen
(New Zealand) third.
In
the traditional Bermuda Fitted Dinghy exhibition
match, held before the start of Final Round racing,
Royal Bermuda Yacht Club's "Contest III"
won the race by default when its opponent, the
Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club's "Elizabeth"
struggled on the first beat and swamped with water.
The situation was more than the struggling six-man
team could manage.
The
Bermuda Fitted Dinghy, a 14-foot dish of a hull
with an overwhelming 1500 square feet of sail
area utilize more cloth than the Gold Cup's International
One-Designs, which at 33 feet are over 2 1/2 times
the length.
Results:
Sunday, October 26, 2003
Investors
Guaranty Presentation of the King Edward VII Gold
Cup
Final
Round, ‘first to three points’
Final
results: P. Gilmour def. C. Dickson 3-2
Match
1 P. Gilmour def. C. Dickson
Match
2 C. Dickson def. P. Gilmour
Match
3 P. Gilmour def. C. Dickson
Match
4 C. Dickson def. P. Gilmour
Match
5 P. Gilmour def. C. Dickson
Petit
Final Round ‘first to two points’
Match
1 D. Barker def. J. Radich
Match
2 D. Barker def. J. Radich
Match
3 J. Radich def. D. Barker
Overall
Results: Listed with Skipper/Team and crew (prize
money)
1.
Peter Gilmour/Pizza-La Sailing Team (AUS), Yasuhiro
Yaji, Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku ($30,000)
2.
Chris Dickson/Team ORACLE BMW Racing (USA), Gavin
Brady, Ross Halcrow, Dirk de Ridder ($18,000)
3.
Jesper Radich/Team Radich (DEN), Chresten Plinius,
Peter Poulsen, Anders Kristensen ($11,500)
4.
Dean Barker/Team New Zealand’s Omega Match
Racing Team (NZL), Ben Ainslie, James Dagg, Tony
Rae ($9,000)
5.
Russell Coutts/Team Alinghi (SWI), Dean Phipps,
Simon Daubney, Warwick Fleury ($7,500)
6.
Bill Hardesty (USA), Matt Reynolds, Jeff Reynolds,
Darris Witham ($6,500)
7.
Jes Gram-Hansen/Team Colorcraft (DEN), Rasmus
Køstner, Michael Arnhild, Christian Kamp
($6,000)
8. Paula Lewin/Team ACE (BER), Carola Cooper,
Peta Lewin, Lisa Neasham, Christine Patton ($5,500)
For
more information about Investors Guaranty’s
presentation of The King Edward VII Gold Cup,
contact the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club race office
at +1-441-295-2214 or visit www.KingEdwardVIIGoldCup.com.
About
Investors Guaranty™ www.investorsguaranty.com
The Investors Guaranty Global Alliance™
is comprised of over 60 companies in Europe, North
America and Australasia dedicated to optimizing,
integrating a nd marketing their core competencies.
Alliance members outsource their non-strategic
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technologies, asset management and fund administration,
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About
the Swedish Match Tour www.swedishmatchtour.com
The Swedish Match Tour is comprised of nine of
the world's leading professional sailing events
and is proving to be the ultimate battleground
of sailing. In addition to more than US$800,000
in individual event prize money, the Swedish Match
Tour awards US$200,000 to the top eight sailors
on the Swedish Match Tour, with the first-place
skipper netting US$60,000.
In addition to a US$60,000 first prize, the winner
of the Swedish Match Tour receives the official
Swedish Match Tour Championship Trophy, 15"
(30 cm) high with 22 carat gold gilding, produced
by Swedish Match Tour sponsor Wedgwood. Additionally,
Wedgwood supplies runner-up prizes for second
and third places as well as commemorative plaques
to each event organizer.
The Swedish Match Tour produces 155 hours of television
coverage reaching more than 427 million households
worldwide. Swedish Match Tour partners include
Swedish Match, Octagon and the Match Race Association.
Swedish Match Tour sponsors include Colorcraft,
Champagne Mumm, Musto Selden Group and Wedgwood.
