Knockouts begin at Match Racing Worlds

Shenzhen, China (October 26, 2017) – Joachim Aschenbrenner defied the odds today to battle his way out of the Sail Off and into the Super 16 stage at the 2017 WMRT Match Racing World Championship.

The final of the World Match Racing Tour is every bit as challenging as the 18 international teams might have expected, and the young Dane capitalised on the fickle light airs to dispatch two hot Australian crews out of the competition in the three-way Sail Off. “We really spent the last two days getting familiar with the boats,” said Aschenbrenner. “Today it started coming together with boat handling, communication and speed.”

The Dane also took full advantage of some misfortune for Steve Thomas whose rudder kicked up when the Australian boat hit some debris in the water. “That allowed us to catch up,” admitted Aschenbrenner. “We had a close race and made a tack where we could get inside him and finish it off.”

Meanwhile four skippers have already booked their spot in the Quarter Final stage after sweeping aside their rivals in the Super 16.

Pieter-Jan Postma has looked strong in the fleet racing stage as he topped the group, but today the ‘Flying Dutchman’ came up against the fearsomely talented match racer Torvar Mirsky from Australia who beat him 3-1. Postma was gutted not to make it to the next stage but Mirsky was too sharp. “This format is brutal,” noted Mirsky. “If you win this you’re in the top eight, if you lose you go right to the bottom. You instantly beat eight other teams just by being in the knockout.”

In their first match, Postma took the fight to Mirsky in the pre-start and had the Australians well under control. But then Postma’s rudder hooked the pin end start mark and he was stuck as Mirsky wriggled free and out into the lead. “He got a bit unlucky catching the mark,” said Mirsky. “The team rallied and we sailed quite cleanly around the course; we’re really relieved to still be in the hunt for this championship.”

While defending World Champion Phil Robertson beat Sam Gilmour, the Kiwi’s 3-0 scoreline did not tell the full story.

“Gilmour is never an easy beat,” shared Robertson. “Sam’s had a cracker of a season and he pushed us pretty hard in the starts. But we had just a click of speed on him around the track, especially downwind. The boys have sailed a lot of multihulls in light airs and you can see the difference in experience on a day like today.”

Robertson will use tomorrow to relax and take stock of where they’ve got to in the competition. “This is a glamour little location here in Shenzhen, especially for our team being backed by Ningbo. We’re stoked to be here. We’re improving every day and still plenty to come. That’s the trick, you’ve to be firing on all cylinders when it really matters.”

Sweden’s Nicklas Dackhammar fell to his rival Ian Williams who won his Super 16 round 3-1. The most successful helmsman in the history of the Tour, Williams is looking dangerous here and particularly so after his win at the recent Chicago Match Cup.

Yann Guichard is best known for his round-the-world multihull exploits, sailing far from land, let alone anywhere near other boats. While skilled in the M32, the one-on-one aggression of match racing has been his weak point at times this season, but he’s been working hard to change that. The Frenchman beat Sweden’s Johnie Berntsson 3-1.

“We were very aggressive in the start and won four in a row,” observed Guichard. “That’s good for us because it has been a weakness but it was a lot better today. We have been working hard on our match racing skills; winning the qualifier in Alicante was very important and in the past I haven’t been aggressive enough but today was different and we worked hard to keep control of the other competitor.”

SAIL OFF
Sail Off 1: Steve Thomas (AUS), RPM Racing 2-0 Vs. Matt Jerwood (AUS), Redline Racing
Sail Off 2: Joachim Aschenbrenner (DEN), ART Sailing 2-1 Vs. Steve Thomas (AUS), RPM Racing

SUPER 16
PAIR 1: Joachim Aschenbrenner (DEN), ART Sailing Vs. Chris Steele (NZL), 36 Below Racing
PAIR 2: Taylor Canfield (ISV), US One Sailing Team Vs. Måns Holmberg (SWE), Gothenburg Racing
PAIR 3: Torvar Mirsky (AUS), Mirsky Racing Team 3-1 Vs. Pieter-Jan Postma (NED), Sailing Team NL
PAIR 4: Phil Robertson (NZL), China One Ningbo 3-0 Vs. Sam Gilmour (AUS), Neptune Racing
PAIR 5: Markus Edegran (USA), E11even Racing Vs. Harry Price (AUS), Down Under Racing
PAIR 6: David Gilmour (AUS), Team Gilmour 3-0 Vs. Jonas Warrer (DEN), Warrer Racing
PAIR 7: Yann Guichard (FRA), Spindrift Racing 3-1 Vs. Johnie Berntsson (SWE), Flux Team
PAIR 8: Ian Williams (GBR), GAC Pindar 3-1 Vs. Nicklas Dackhammar (SWE), Essiq Racing Team

Tour details – Event details – Leaderboard – Facebook

Competition format:
• Day One and Two – Fleet race Qualifying in Groups. Each Group sails 6-8 races.
• Day Three – Bottom team from each Group compete in a sail-off to decide who moves on to the Super 16 knockout. Top three from each Group join the sail-off winners in a 16 team, first to three-point, knockout. 1v16, 2v15, 3v14 etc.
• Day Four – Sponsor day and remaining races from the Super 16 Knockout.
• Day five – Quarter-Finals and start of Semi-Finals (knockout format).
• Day six – Finish Semi-Finals and complete Final/Petit-Final (knockout format).

2017 World Championship Level Events:
WMRT Match Cup Australia, March 20-25
WMRT Congressional Cup, March 29-April 2
WMRT Match Cup Sweden, July 3-8
WMRT Match Cup Russia, August 1-6
WMRT Match Cup Chicago, September 26-October 1

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS
WMRT Match Cup China, October 24-29

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