Kiwi Cup Team Pass Test in Perth

Perth, Australia (January 25, 2017) – Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Peter Burling needed to win the final of the WMRT Swan River Match Cup in two straight races if his team was going to catch their flight back to work – such is the life of an America’s Cup sailor. They caught the flight.

Through an event curtailed due to light winds in the early part of the day, the Kiwi team were under pressure throughout but rose to the occasion defeating first Sweden’s Måns Holmberg 2-0 in the semifinals before doing the same to local skipper Matt Jerwood in the final.

It is probably fair to say that Matt Jerwood and his Redline Racing team had two races in the final that they would probably rather forget, though as is typical of these young sailors they were gracious in defeat. The first encounter in the best of three final saw Jerwood looking strong in the pre-start, but in the final seconds got his boat in irons and was left flat footed as his rival sprinted off to the first mark.

The local team were sharper off the start in the second race, and well in contention until the downwind gennaker failed to furl properly at the leeward mark, leaving them with a messy bit of flogging sail that slowed them dramatically on the upwind leg.

This was the first regatta in the M32 for Burling and his America’s Cup crew of Blair Tuke, Josh Junior and Glenn Ashby, though it was not as easy for them as the scoreboard would suggest. The true mark of sailors that are used to sailing at Olympic and America’s Cup level is their ability to not only figure out an unfamiliar boat quickly, but also to come out on the right side of tight situations, and that is what they did.

“This has been a great opportunity to do a bit of match racing and that’s what we’ve got to do, it’s not too far away now,” said Burling, referring to his America’s Cup campaign. It is now less than six months until this team will find themselves in the hottest sailing competition of their lives, it is great that they chose this event as a training ground.

The boats also impressed him, “They are really cool boats. I think they’re really light, so that makes them pretty good in the lighter air, then you can just keep reefing them so that you can keep sailing them through a massive wind range.”

Second placed Matt Jerwood of South of Perth Yacht Club and his Redline Racing Team have performed really well throughout the regatta and should be serious contenders for places at regattas throughout the season.

The Redline Racing Team of Matt Jerwood, Patrick Voss, Alex Landwehr, and Nial Morrow sailed with maturity and great purpose, for the most part showing better crew work and stronger tactics that most of the other teams.

Third placed Steven Thomas and his crew from the host club, Royal Perth Yacht Club, are the quiet achievers of the event after sailing consistently and showing flashes of brilliance. They are definitely a team to watch for the future.

The WMRT Swan River Match Cup was sailed on the river in Perth on January 23-25, qualifying the top two teams into WMRT Match Cup Northern Europe to be held June 6-11.

The next event on the WMRT is the second qualifier from Western Australia on February 11-13, the Geographe Bay Cup, in Busselton.

Event details – Scoreboard – Facebook

Background: In 2013, Swedish company Aston Harald AB acquired the design and production rights to the one-design M32 catamarans. In July 2015, Aston Harald AB acquired the World Match Racing Tour, which then began the use of the M32 during the 2016 Tour. Launched in 2000, the World Match Racing Tour is the leading professional match racing series sanctioned by World Sailing.

For further information; www.wmrt.com

Source: WMRT, Scuttlebutt