Yachting: Minoprio title bid down to the wire

Adam Minoprio and his BlackMatch crew face strong challenges in Malaysia. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Kiwi sailor Adam Minoprio and his BlackMatch racing crew face several tough obstacles in their bid to defend their world match racing crown at this week's season-ending regatta in Malaysia.

The young team, who last week picked up the overall gong at the Yachting New Zealand's Excellence Awards, are seeking back-to-back titles on the prestigious world tour with a win in the Monsoon Cup, which begins tomorrow at the Malaysian resort of Kuala Terengganu.

But Minoprio and his crew of Nick Blackman, Dave Swete, Dan McLean and Tom Powrie will have to fend off a number of challenges for their crown. They are locked in a five-way battle for overall honours heading into the final deciding event.

The tense finish to the series has drawn comparisons to the recent grandstand finish in Formula 1, which saw four drivers go into the final grand prix of the year with a shot at winning the title.

Although five sailors are in with a mathematical chance of winning this year's title, in reality it is likely to be a three-way battle between Minoprio, Frenchman Mathieu Richard and Britain's Ben Ainslie.

Richard has a handy 15-point advantage at the top of the leaderboard and can wrap up the championship with a top two finish in the Monsoon Cup.

Minoprio lies in second place on the overall standings, but can defend his crown if he wins in Malaysia and Richard finishes no better than third, while Ainslie will need to win this week's regatta and rely on a couple of other results to go his way to steal the crown.

But with the conditions at the Malaysian resort notoriously difficult, there is a very real chance of upsets.

If there is a lot of rain the week before the regatta, the rivers become raging torrents and turn Pulau Duyong into a very difficult area to sail. In the past, red hot favourites have been undone by calls they misjudged in the unforgiving current.

So far the downpours have not eventuated, but Minoprio still expects the conditions to be challenging.

"At this stage the monsoons haven't arrived, so everything is pretty clean and dry; the water is looking pretty good because we don't have the mud running off down the river," he said.

"It's going to be very tricky as usual, but we've come here a day early so we can prepare for that."

The Monsoon Cup will be Minoprio's last appearance on the world match racing tour for the foreseeable future.

Next year the 25-year-old will take up a new challenge - ocean racing. Minoprio will join Team New Zealand's 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race campaign.