New Zealand’s Phil Robertson, the reigning world champion, made it look easy as he cruised to a 3–0 victory in the final of the Match Cup Australia, beating local skipper Matt Jerwood.
“It was a very, very good day for us,” was Robertson’s description of the final. “We always try to learn at all the events, you’ve got to be taking whatever you can to make any marginal gains, and we managed to make a few and get up to speed.”
Talking about the conditions today he said, “today was a bit lighter, which was nice, and very shifty which played into our hands. The boys got the boat going fast, and going the right way, it seems to all fall into place if you can pull those two things off.”
The Kiwi put on a master class of match racing, winning all three starts, and only allowed Jerwood to cross in front of him once in the three races.
Matt Jerwood was gracious in defeat, “I’m incredibly proud of the guys, it’s always disappointing to lose, but Phil and his team were better than us this week, and we can’t wait to sail against him again.”
Robertson had progressed to the final by defeating another local skipper, David Gilmour of the host club, Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, 3 – 1 in the semi-finals, definitely finding the lighter breezes to his liking.
Until the final, Matt Jerwood had been the giant slayer of the week, moving smoothly through the opening rounds, until the quarter finals where another Kiwi, Chris Steele pushed him to five races. This seemed to set him up to cruise through the semi-final defeating Torvar Mirsky in three straight races, but the dream run ended in the final.
This was the first event on the 2017 World Match Racing Tour, a seven regatta circuit, which takes in venues in Europe, and the United States before ending in China for the World Championships.
