CMRC kicks off 2015 Season with the spring invitational
by Dobbs Davis on 30 May 2015
Grade 3 - Spring Invitational Chicago Match Race Center
Chicago Match Race Center will kick off its seventh season with an ISAF Grade 3 event featuring nine teams from around the US. The significance of this event is more than just being a season opener: it is a qualifier for three additional events on the 2015 match race calendar. The top-placing eligible skippers will earn invitations to the following: the US Match Racing Championship, hosted by Oakcliff Sailing in October; the Oakcliff International Grade 2 Grand Slam in August; and the YRUGL Richardson Trophy Regatta in October at Sheboygan YC. The top-placing skipper from the Lake Michigan Sail Racing Federation will also be named the 2015 Lake Michigan Match Racing Champion.
Among the nine teams assembled for this event who come from all over the U.S, top-ranked among them is Don Wilson at 24th-ranked in the world and is the top-ranked US match racer. Another Chicagoan, Steve Lowery, will also be racing as the fourth ranked match racer in the US and 34th in the world. David Niemann from Wisconsin will also be racing, and is ranked fifth in the US and 47th in the world. Peter Holz has been away at college at Hobart, and will be returning to Chicago to race this weekend ranked 11th in the US and 75th in the world.
The remaining field of skippers are relatively new to match racing, but have been proven performers in other forms of competitive sailing. Jack Thompson from Newport Beach, CA has been racing the intercollegiate circuit at College of Charleston. Ryan Seago from Bayview YC in Detroit has been active on the University of Michigan sailing team, while also match racing at Bayview Yacht Club. Evan Jahn from Chicago has recently taken a break from match racing, but not from competitive fleet racing: he has been co-skippering his father Helmut's Flash Gordon in the ultra-competitive Farr 40 class for years. Jack Barton from San Anselmo, CA is a young talent who won the Chubb US Junior Championship in the 2013 season. And Leif Sigmond is a veteran competitor in the T-10 and Farr 40 fleets at the Chicago Yacht Club.
Racing will consist of Round Robin racing, followed by a Knock-out Series and Finals, weather permitting.
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