Bracket buster at Match Cup Australia

Perth, Australia (March 24, 2017) – Local skipper Matt Jerwood certainly overplayed the anxiety card on his way to becoming the third Western Australian skipper to make it through to the semifinals of Match Cup Australia, the first event on the 2017 World Match Racing Tour.

Earlier in the day David Gilmour won 3-1 against US Virgin Islander Taylor Canfield, and Torvar Mirsky similarly eliminated Frenchman Yann Guichard.

Jerwood and his Redline Racing Team took it to five races against Kiwi Chris Steele before also sealing his place in the semifinal. Jerwood went 2-0 up initially, but then Steele fought back to level the score, leaving Redline’s fans with their hearts in their mouths.

“We just tried to reset after our two losses,” explained Jerwood. “We were just feeling a little bit rushed in those two races – I don’t know why. We just got back into our normal groove, we knew what we had to do on the start, it was just about doing it.

“My boys sailed fantastically, we felt strong all day, we felt we could have taken him 3-0, but he’s a great sailor, he’s not going to go down that easily.”

The fourth semifinalist is New Zealander Phil Robertson, the current World Champion, who eliminated the other Western Australian in the quarterfinals, Steve Thomas, who went down 3-1 to his trans-Tasman rival.

After light winds in the morning, the seabreeze rolled up the river to give some knife edge sailing in the afternoon, which kept the crowds at Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club on the edges of their seats. Jerwood’s eventual victory causing a roar of approval, as had Gilmour’s and Mirsky’s.

Here are the pairings for the semifinals:
Dave Gilmour (AUS) vs. Phil Robertson (NZL)
Matt Jerwood (AUS) vs. Torvar Mirsky (AUS)

Semifinals and finals will be sailed on Saturday, March 25.

Broadcast: To watch the racing live, or catch up on earlier races, click here.

Tour details – Event details – Scoreboard – Facebook

2017 World Championship Level Events:
WMRT Match Cup Australia, March 20-25
WMRT Congressional Cup, March 29-April 2
WMRT Northern Europe, June 6-11 (Venue TBA)
WMRT Match Cup Sweden, July 3-8 (Venue TBA)
WMRT Match Cup USA, August 1-6 (Venue TBA)
WMRT Match Cup America, October 3-8 (Venue TBA)

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS
WMRT Match Cup China, November 3-10 (Venue TBA)

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.

Source: WMRT