WMRT Swan River Match Cup at Royal Perth Yacht Club - Day 1
by John Roberson 23 Jan 2017 13:20 GMT
23-25 January 2017
Perth Match Cup day 1 © John Roberson
Double Olympic medallist Peter Burling and his team of Kiwi sailors head the leaderboard after the first day of action at the Perth Match Cup, hosted by Royal Perth Yacht Club on the Swan River.
Burling, who won gold at the recent Rio Olympics and silver at the previous games in London, has a crew stacked with talent, and it showed on a day of champagne sailing, when he only dropped one race in seven.
His on board team are Blair Tuke, who was his medal winning partner at both games, Josh Junior, another Olympian and Glenn Ashby, a multiple catamaran world champion.
Local Perth based skipper Matt Jerwood holds second place, also with only one defeat, though he has only sailed six races, so has the potential to equal Burling's score.
Jerwood's Redline Racing team have been strong contenders on the match racing circuit for several years, finishing fifth in the Fremantle Championship event last year, and third at the Marstrand finale of last year's tour.
Steven Thomas, another local skipper, holds third place after a tie-breaker with Harry Price, with both teams having won four races of six sailed, though Thomas beat Price when they met. Thomas is from the host club, and has been working his way up the world match racing standings recently.
Harry Price, another Australian, comes from the other side of the country, representing the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, in Sydney. He is perhaps a bit of a surprise package at this stage of the regatta, punching above his weight.
Expected to be doing better are Perth based Torvar Mirsky and Sweden's Mans Holmberg.
Conditions on the Swan River's Matilda Bay were perfect today, with bright sunshine and a seabreeze that built from a sedate 8 to 10 knots in the morning, to over 20 knots by the end of the afternoon.
The three day regatta takes the form of a double round robin, followed by quarter finals, semi-finals and a final, which will be sailed on Wednesday.
Leaderboard after Day 1:
1 Peter Burling (NZL) 6 pts
2 Matt Jerwood (AUS) 5 pts
3 Steven Thomas (AUS) 4 pts
4 Harry Price (AUS) 4 pts
5 Torvar Mirsky (AUS) 3.5 pts
6 Mans Homberg (SWE) 3 pts
7= Will Boulden (AUS) 2 pts
7= Logan Beck (NZL) 2 pts
9 Matt Chew (AUS) 1.5 pts
10 Jeremy Koo (MAS) 0 pts