Yachting: Black Match poised to strike in title defence

Adam Minoprio just goes out to win. Photo / NZ Herald

As far as Kiwi world champions go, Adam Minoprio is as unassuming as he is underrated.

Currently in a prime position to defend the world match racing title he spectacularly took last year, the 25-year-old Minoprio talks with the ease and calm of a veteran combined with the nerveless, no-fear attitude of a teenager.

After a cut-throat repechage and squeezing into the last eight on a countback yesterday, Minoprio faces a crucial quarter-final against English superstar Ben Ainslie this morning in Bermuda.

He seems unaffected by the pressure as the nine round series draws to a close: "I'm not worried about pressure. You can't change it - we just go out there in every race to win. It's just another yacht race. You have got to make your own luck in any sporting event so there is no point getting too stressed about anything."

Minoprio and his Black Match racing team picked up placings of 6th, 7th, and 11th in some of the early events but are coming home with the proverbial wet sail, having finished third and first in the last two regattas.

"In the past two years we have always peaked at this time of year. If things go like they have done in the past then we will be pretty happy with that."

Mathieu Richard led by 17 points going into round eight but crashed out early on in Bermuda and now faces a real battle to retain his lead going into the final round, the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia in mid-November.

The Frenchman won three of the first six regattas but has since began to slump. His Kiwi rival is not surprised.

"It's all about pressure," points out Minoprio. "In the last three years he has been in with a chance of winning right up until the last regatta but he always crumbles at the end of the season. We are hoping he does that again."

Apart from Richard, Ainslie and Australian Tovar Mirsky loom as contenders for the title. In 2009 Minoprio became the youngest skipper to be world champion, following in the footsteps of Chris Dickson, Russell Coutts and Dean Barker.

There are a few permutations, but it seems most likely Minoprio will be in charge of his own destiny in the final regatta.

"Hopefully we can race him [Richard] in the quarter-finals or semifinals of the Monsoon Cup and knock him out. If we win, or finish a few places higher than him, that should be enough."

While they are sailing professionals battling it out in exotic locations, on another level it is a bunch of young Kiwis having the time of their lives.

"It is good to be the young ones - we are at the same level of the some of the other guys who are in their 30s and 40s. Hopefully we can keep improving and we won't get stuck in a rut. I wouldn't be too pleased with myself if, in 10 years, I was still at the same level."

Bermuda is always a favourite stop, as local families billet the sailors. They enjoyed a home cooked barbecue one night and have relaxed each evening with a few 'dark and stormys' - the favoured local mix of dark rum and ginger ale - by the pool.

Minoprio is still quite taken by the Bermuda suits worn by everyone - the classic combination of suit jacket and shorts, with long socks that must match your tie.

The Black Match team have resisted making a purchase so far and are probably all too young to recall a suave Sean Connery in Thunderball or Never Say Never Again, who first put the suits on the map.

Maybe for Minoprio, who will shelve match racing for the Volvo Ocean race next year, another Bond title (The World Is Not Enough) might be more appropriate for the quietly ambitious Kiwi.