Unbeaten Gilmour in a league of his own
Gilmour and his Team Pizza-La, drawn from Craig McCaw’s OneWorld Challenge stable, refuse to be defeated
It’s been another perfect day for Australia’s Peter Gilmour on Perth’s Swan River. He started the day with 11 wins and no losses, and ended it with 18 wins and still no losses.
This is good news and bad news for British fortunes. Andy Beadsworth’s GBR Challenge team is getting a bit of a spanking while they hang onto their rocketing learning curve but on the flip side, our own Ben Ainslie, one of Gilmour’s OneWorld crew, is being tutored by the biggest hitter in the game at the moment.
Unfortunate enough to be meeting Gilmour today were first, France’s Luc Pillot, the former Young Australia skipper, now OneWorlder James Spithill, Prada’s Gavin Brady, Oracle’s Chris Dickson, Jes Gram Hansen, Nicola Celon and finally Jesper Radich.
“The boys are doing a fabulous job,” stated Gilmour. “We were sailing quite fast and could really strategise each start to decide where we wanted to start from and take the benefit from there.”
While suitably dazzled by Gilmour’s rampant form, it must be remembered that Team New Zealand are involved in another round of testing in Auckland. That takes 2000 series winner Bertrand Pacé, strike helmsman Dean Barker and apprentice helmsman Cameron Appleton out of the picture.
Russell Coutts is busy in Europe with Ernesto Bertarelli’s Swiss challenge syndicate, trying to navigate a mutually acceptable path round the obstacles placed, rather childishly, in their way by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
Click here for the event latest.
Sun Microsystems Australia Cup
Skipper: Win-Loss
Peter Gilmour (USA) 18-0Magnus Holmberg (USA) 16-3Gavin Brady (ITA) 13-5Luc Pillot (FRA) 10-8Kenny Read (USA) 9-9Chris Dickson (USA) 9-10Jesper Radich (DEN) 6-11Neville Wittey (AUS) 6-12Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN) 6-12Andy Beadsworth (GBR) 5-13James Spithill (USA) 5-13Nicola Celon (ITA) 4-13