Four victories in six match races had the SA America’s Cup Team Shosholoza smiling today despite having to sail in pouring rain and miserable 12 degree weather in the Nippon Cup, a Swedish Match Tour event, being held in Japan. The South African’s beat Germany’s Sven-Erik Horsch plus three Japanese teams led by Japan’s top match racing skippers Takumi Nakamura, Yasuhiro Okamoto and Kunio Suzuki. They lost to Emirates Team New Zealand helmsman Dean Barker and the Italian America’s Cup Luna Rossa helmsman Michele Ivaldi.

“They were all good hard races with close, tight racing, even against Dean Barker and Michele Ivaldi who are up there with the best in the world,” said Team Shosholoza skipper Geoff Meek in a telephone interview from Japan today. “We feel we are improving all the time and the value of coming to these events is immense in terms of improving our match racing skills and especially learning the rules of match racing as the same rules apply to the America’s Cup racing,” said Meek. He said it was freezing cold and pouring with rain in Japan.

Team Shosholoza crew member Marc Lagesse who took an unscheduled dip in the chilly Japanese sea yesterday said he was delighted to report that at least five other world class crew had also fallen off the small Yamaha 30S cruiser racer yachts during tight racing in the Nippon Cup during the past two days. Lagesse, who is bowman for the team in Japan, but normally the navigator on board Yacht Shosholoza RSA 48 is one of South Africa’s most experienced match racing crews. He spent two years on the US and European match racing circuit during the late 1990’s. “It was my first “swim” in 21 years of yacht racing. The water is a lot warmer than Cape Town but still not worth a swim, not in a race anyhow.”

Lagesse described his fall as follows: “As we tacked, the rope I use to pull myself onboard became uncleated. I’m sure Gui (Guido Verhovert one of the SA crew) did it just to shaft me! So I very subtly slipped off the bow into the water but fortunately managed to grab the back of the boat and pull myself back on again. I think the umpire’s had the best view, and luckily the TV camera was somewhere else.” Meanwhile Sean McNeill reports from Japan that seven-time Nippon Cup champion Peter Gilmour of Australia has taken control of the 15th anniversary Pizza-La Red Lobster Nippon Cup which represents Stage 4 of the 2004-’05 Swedish Match Tour. Gilmour and his Pizza-La crew (Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku and Yasuhiro Yaji) have won eight races without a defeat, and head the leaderboard. With three races still to sail, they seem assured of advancing to the semifinals, but their road isn’t easy. The Pizza-La crew still has to race Ed Baird, Gavin Brady and Jes Gram-Hansen, whom they’re scheduled to race tomorrow. Due to the structure of the schedule, Baird (4-1), Brady (3-2) and Gram-Hansen (4-1) didn’t race today.

“It’s such a fine line,” said Gilmour, who has posted three fifth-place finishes on the current Swedish Match Tour after running away with last year’s championship. “When the going’s tough you have to stand tall. When it’s running you have to run with it.” Dean Barker, skipper of Team New Zealand, and his crew (James Dagg, Ray Davies and Jared Henderson) finished their round robin with an 8-3 mark, but they’re not assured of advancing to the semifinals. “It’s going to be tough,” said Barker, who’s competing in his first Swedish Match Tour event since last year’s Nippon Cup. “We lost to Gilly, Gavin and Gram-Hansen, so we’re going to need some help to advance.” Day 2 of the Nippon Cup produced blustery north winds around 15 knots, with slightly higher gusts and a heavy rain. With the wind from a northerly direction, the windward mark was placed under Osaki headland on Sagami Bay, which made for more shifty conditions. “The toughest thing was the conditions,” said Barker. “You had to keep your wits about you. No lead was safe. But the good thing is that no race was over.”

Barker’s only loss in six matches today was to Gilmour. The Aussie started to the left of Barker, and when Barker tacked to port off the line Gilmour covered. They got to the right side of the course and Gilmour crossed to the inside of Barker after the Kiwi had tacked back to starboard. Gilmour took a 1.5-boatlength lead around the windward mark and kept a close cover on Barker the rest of the way. Barker lamented yesterday’s loss to Brady, whom he led down the first run. Sailing in light winds, Brady closed up at the leeward mark and then Barker received a red-flag penalty from the umpires, which still had him confused 24 hours later. “They jibed to port and took our transom,” Barker explained. “As we approached the leeward mark on the inside, they heated up on starboard to try and keep us out of the two-length zone. I thought we were in it, but the umpires saw it differently. They gave us the red flag because they thought it was a professional foul.”

Although the semifinalists aren’t yet decided, it’s likely there won’t be any Japanese in the mix. The three Japanese skippers, Yasutaka Funazawa (4-4), Takumi Nakamura (1-7) and Kazuo Seki (1-10) showed good form in today’s racing. Gilmour trailed both Funazawa and Nakamura during their matches today, before he wriggled out of the jams. And Seki, who won Japan’s first-ever sailing medal, a bronze, at the Athens Olympics last August, won his first match race when he came from behind to defeat Nakamura. Seki, an accomplished dinghy sailor, is racing in big boats for the first time. “It was a very good experience being able to sail against top notch sailors from around the world,” Seki said of his competition through an interpreter. “Everyone’s into speed and trimming. I was impressed how they never stopped their boat. We stopped ours a few times.” “I’m very impressed with well the Japanese sailors are going,” said Gilmour. “We almost got cleaned out by Funazawa and Nakamura.”

While the competitors were on and off the water, the umpires were out all day long. And they were put to work. They issued a total of 64 flags today (compared with seven yesterday), including nine penalties on the blue boat, four penalties on the yellow boat, and 51 green flags. “A lot of those greens came on a run where one boat kept insisting on calling proper course,” said chief umpire Marianne Middelthon. Six flights are scheduled tomorrow to complete round robin racing.

Swedish Match Tour sponsors include Swedish Match (Official Sponsor), BMW (Partner and Official Car), Colorcraft, Wedgwood, Musto, Trident Studio and Travel Places (Official Sponsors).

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