Swedish Match Tour - Gilmour Clinches Swedish Match Tour: The Australian Skipper Of The Pizza-La Sailing Team Is Fifth Different Champion

ROWAYTON, Conn. — Australian Peter Gilmour, skipper of the multi-national Pizza-La Sailing Team, clinched the championship of the Swedish Match Tour 2003-’04 by finishing second last weekend at the ACI HTmobile Cup.

With 117 points after six of eight regattas, Gilmour, 44, of Perth, Western Australia, is certain to become the Tour’s fifth different champion in its five years of competition.

The Pizza-La Sailing Team, which Gilmour refers to as the “United Nations,” features crewmembers Rod Dawson (Auckland, New Zealand), Mike Mottl (Sydney, Australia), Kazuhiko Sofuku (Niigata, Japan) and Yasuhiro Yaji (Tokyo, Japan).

“It’s impressive that we’ve had different winners every year of the Tour,” said Swedish Match Tour President Pierre Tinnerholm. “In a year when the Tour has never been more competitive, Peter and crew have been outstanding. You have to be a regular competitor to ensure a top placing.”

Thirty-four different teams have participated on the 03-04 Tour, and there have been five different winners of the six events. Gilmour’s crew is the only one that has competed at every event.

They led off the season with a third at the Danish Open (Copenhagen, Denmark) last August, after gaining entry via the qualification regatta, and followed that up with back-to-back victories at the Bermuda Gold Cup (Hamilton, Bermuda) and Nippon Cup (Hayama, Japan) last October and November, respectively.

In the past month and a half, the crew placed fourth at the Congressional Cup (Long Beach, Calif.), and second at both the Toscana Elba Cup (Porto Azzurro, Italy) and the ACI HTmobile Cup (Split, Croatia).

With two events still to sail, they’ve got a 3-1-1-4-2-2 scoreline, which would be outstanding in any world class regatta. (At the end of the Tour, they’ll drop their two worst finishes.)

“I’m pleased with the scoreline,” Gilmour said. “If you look at it like a fleet-racing regatta, it’s very impressive.”

Their mastery of the tour is evident in the statistics. They’ve posted an 85-32 record for a .726 winning percentage. They’ve totaled 117 of a possible 150 points, earning 19.5 points per regatta. (By comparison, Jesper Radich scored 18.5 points per regatta last year in winning the championship with 111 points.)

They’ve won approximately $85,000 and could surpass $100,000 in event prize money after upcoming regattas in Germany and Sweden. Additionally, they are assured of winning $60,000 of the $200,000 bonus purse offered by Tour sponsor Swedish Match for the top eight on the final leaderboard.

Gilmour is a strong proponent of the Swedish Match Tour, and sees a bright future for sailing’s only professional series.

“There are several new events this year on the Swedish Match Tour, a new one that we’re going to in Portugal, for example, which I think will be really exciting,” Gilmour said. “To see new events like that come on can only expand the sport of match-race sailing.

“I do believe right now we’re in an enormous growth phase,” Gilmour continued. “There’s tremendous support from Swedish Match, and their interest in the Tour, together with some great managers, some great sailors, is a positive ingredient. I can see bigger and better things coming for it in the years ahead.”

Although Gilmour has clinched the championship, the standings below him are far from settled. Match Race Germany (June 8-13) and Swedish Match Cup (July 7-11) offer skippers two more chances to move around in the standings.

The tightest battle is for second place. Sweden’s Magnus Holmberg holds second with 64 points, and New Zealander Gavin Brady, helmsman for the BMW Oracle Racing America’s Cup syndicate, is third, 9 points behind.

Holmberg won’t compete in Germany, but Brady will and just has to finish in the top five to overtake Holmberg before the concluding event.

Denmark’s Jesper Radich is fourth with 43 points. New Zealander Russell Coutts, the three-time winner of the America’s Cup, and Bertrand Pacé of France, who won the ACI HTmobile Cup, are tied for fifth with 35 points.

American Ed Baird holds seventh, with 31 points, while Denmark’s Jes Gram-Hansen is eighth with 26 points.

Pacé, the winner in Croatia, and Gram-Hansen, who finished fourth, hope strong showings in Germany will move them up rankings.

Wins on the Swedish Match Tour are worth 25 points. Second earns 20 points, third 15 points, fourth 12 points, fifth 10 points, sixth 8 points, seventh 6 points and eighth 4 points.

For more information on the Swedish Match Tour, its skippers and events please visit www.SwedishMatchTour.com.