GovCup Day 4: Jack Parkin (USA) and Nick Egnot-Johnson (NZL) go 1-1
in their Semi-final, while Frank Dair (USA) is up 2-0 over pre-regatta
favorite Leonard Takahashi (NZL) in the other; Semis resume Saturday
morning at 11:30 PST followed by the Finals
After four days of racing, the leaderboard of the 53rd Governor’s Cup
International Youth Match Racing Championship hosted by Balboa
Yacht Club, Newport Beach, California, and presented by DISC Spine
and Sports Center, finally sorted itself out and the semi-final matches
began, but not without some high drama.
The double round-robin stage of the championship, where each team
sailed against every other team twice, was completed by mid-afternoon
Friday. After leading that stage for all four days, two-time Governor’s
Cup runner-up Leonard Takahashi of the Royal New Zealand Yacht
Squadron qualified first, and as is typical in modern match racing, was
given the privilege of choosing his opponent. He chose the fourth
qualifier, Frank Dair (USA, California YC) and may live to regret that
choice. After two semi-final races, he trails Dair by a 2-0 score in the
first-to-win-three series.
If anyone can come back from that kind of deficit, it is Leonard and his
experienced crew of Josh Wijohn and Taylor Balogh. But Dair was on a
roll. To date, consistency may not be Dair’s strong suit, or at least it
wasn’t during the round-robins. After a reasonable first day, on
Wednesday Dair jumped to the top of the leaderboard just behind
Takahashi, but almost sailed himself out of semi-final contention by
losing his first two races Thursday. Clearly, he bounced back today, but
can he put it together tomorrow?
The other semi-final matched Jack Parkin (USA, Riverside YC) against
another product of the RNZYS youth development programs, Nick
Egnot-Johnson. After their two races today, they are tied at 1-1. Jack is
a former U.S. Youth Match Racing Champion and he and his tactician,
Wiley Rogers (USA, Texas), are former World Youth Champions in the
International 420 Class. “Nick EJ” was the most successful youth match
racer in Australia and New Zealand regattas in the past year, and also
won the U.S. “Grand Slam” match racing series.
With six teams still in contention at the start of today’s racing, two
were going to be on the outside looking in with only four semi-final
spots on offer. Perhaps the most dramatic result was that of the
youngest RNZYS sailor, Jordan Stevenson (NZL), who lost each of the
last two round-robin races. In approaching the finish of those races
against Jeppe Borch (DEN) and Finn Tapper (AUS), respectively, both of
the latter were able to do a last-minute gybe towards the Race
Committee boat end of the finish line. That end was slightly closer than
the opposite “pin” end, and in doing so, edged Stevenson by a few feet
in one case and a few inches in the other. His head in his hands after
each told the story, but Stevenson has three more years to try to win
the Governor’s Cup. Many observers would lay odds he would achieve
his goal.
Tomorrow will continue with the semi-finals, plus best two-of-three
series for those skippers who are not semi-finalists. These to determine
their final overall placing – 5 th place finisher in the round-robins,
Tapper, will sail against the 6 th place finisher, Stevenson; local favorite
and Balboa YC representative, David Wood, in 7 th against Matt
Whitfield (UK) in 8 th ; Clare Costanzo (AUS) in 9 th place against U.S.
Youth Match Racing champion Cameron Feves of Cabrillo Beach YC in
10 th ; and finally, an all Scandinavian match between Borch versus Mans
Holmberg (SWE) for the 11 th and 12 th positions.
While these are often called consolation rounds, each finish position is
important to these sailors as it will affect points earned in World
Sailing’s “Open Match Racing Rankings,” especially because it is likely
the GovCup will again be granted “Grade 1” status by World Sailing –
increasing the point value of each position.
Typical Southern California conditions prevailed Friday with southwest
breeze from 6-9 knots. Saturday’s forecast is for slightly more breeze,
but the Governor’s Cup 22s have performed well in all conditions.
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MORE INFORMATION
Susan Kenney
+1 949 294 2054
susankenney9094@gmail.com
www.govcupracing.com