Phil Robertson leads Sunseeker Australia Cup undefeated

[Source: Sunseeker Australia Cup] With skill and guile that belies his age, the young Kiwi skipper Phil Robertson manoeuvred his way through the first day of the Sunseeker Australia Cup undefeated in a field that would over awe considerably older skippers.

Most notable of the scalps he collected on the first day was last year’s winner Torvar Mirsky, the home-town boy who is currently fourth on the World Tour leader board, and hoping to capture the world title next week in Malaysia.

In other matches he downed fellow Kiwis Reuben Corbett and Will Tiller, who is one of his former crew, and another Perth skipper Peter Nicholas. Last week Robertson won the New Zealand Championships, one of the toughest national competitions on the planet.

Talking about the day’s action he said, “we’ve just come off our nationals, so the team is in pretty good shape, we’re just trying to improve on the small things now. I like the small race course here, it makes it that much more exciting, and it makes the pre-start that much more important, it’s good racing out there. I think in most of the races we came off pretty fair in the pre-start, which created a decent lead, but Torvar was definitely the hardest.”

Phil Robertson reports on day 1 of the Sunseeker Australia Cup. Perth, 24 November 2010. Video copyright Waka Racing

Behind Robertson the ladder is crowded with Frenchman Mathieu Richard, England’s Ian Williams and Torvar Mirsky all on a 3 – 2 score line.

Making up the top half of the leader board is British golden boy Ben Ainslie with three wins from five races.

The Swan River was at its best, with a healthy 15 to 18 knot seabreeze, and a cloudless sky. The Sunseeker Australia Cup is hosted by the Royal Perth Yacht Club and run by Swan River Sailing.

Results after day 1
1. Phil Robertson (NZL) 4 – 0
2= Mathieu Richard (FRA) 3 – 1
2= Ian Williams (GBR) 3 – 1
2= Torvar Mirsky (AUS) 3 – 1
5. Ben Ainslie (GBR) 3 – 2
6= Keith Swinton (AUS) 2 – 3
6= William Tiller (NZL) 2 – 3
8. Peter Nicholas (AUS) 1 – 4
9. Iain Ainslie (RSA) 0 – 2
10. Reuben Corbett (NZL) 0 – 4