...to BMW ORACLE Racing team members Rod Dawson (NZL, weather team) and Kazuhiko Sofuku (JPN, sailing team). They were members of Peter Gilmour's Pizza La Sailing Team that won the Monsoon Cup final today in Malaysia against a team skippered by Russell Coutts.

Rod and "Fuku" have been sailing with Peter very successfully on the match racing circuit for a number of years. Indeed, on the strength of their win Gilly's team is now atop the leaderboard of the Swedish Match Tour. The Monsoon Cup was the fourth of nine stops on the 2005-06 Tour.

For those of you who may have watched the racing yesterday or today live on Eurosport, ESPN Asia or the SMT internet site (great webcast, by the way), you will know the key roles that both Rod (who is Gilly's tactician) and Fuku played in their 2 wins today. Maybe the best example -- in the first race of the finals, the Pizza La team were leading but had to complete a penalty before the finish and still stay ahead of Coutts who was only a few boat lengths back and charging down on a puff. Rod called for the loop at just the right moment, and Fuku (Gilly's bowman) handled the foredeck perfektly. They completed the penalty and were just able to cross the line ahead of Russell's team.

Nice work, guys, and congratulations.


BMW ORACLE's Rod Dawson (left), and Kazuhiko Sofuku (right) at today's
Monsoon Cup prizegiving in Malaysia.