2015 Oakcliff International – World class teams go head to head

by Conrad Volle on 17 Aug 2015 The Oakcliff International saw world-class teams go head-to-head this weekend, with a young Australian team defeating the world’s number three Swiss team, earning a shot at the U.S. Grand Slam Series and an invitation to the prestigious Congressional Cup next spring.

Racing 36 matches over four days, ten teams sailing the Oakcliff International were whittled down to a final two, Eric Monnin (SUI), ranked third, and Matt Jerwood (AUS), ranked eighth. Today’s final day of heated competition saw light winds and a fast-approaching time limit, but excellent boat speed and calculating tactics saw a win for Jerwood in the final minutes of the event.

Jerwood’s Redline Racing, the winning team, receives $2,400 in prize money, and with more possible wins in the Grand Slam Series, a shot at an invitation to the 2016 Congressional Cup in Long Beach, CA, the prestigious grade one event. 'We're stoked to have won the Oakcliff International, especially since Redline Racing is relatively new to match racing,” Jerwood said after the regatta finished today. 'We only have two years of experience, and this is our first tour racing in America. We were determined to improve after a poor performance at Knickerbocker Cup, but luckily a teammate flew in just for this event, giving us the edge we needed to overcome little experience sailing boats with wheels. We always aim to keep the mood on the boat fun and fresh, and good results follow.'

As the second event in the U.S. Match Racing Grand Slam Tour after the Knickerbocker Cup, winning teams accumulate points as well as parts of $10,000 in prize money. Racing consisted of a partial double round robin, followed by quarterfinals, semifinals, petit finals and finals.

“This is exactly the type of opportunity that Oakcliff Sailing is all about,” said Dawn Riley, Executive Director. “We are here to foster the growth of young teams and create opportunities for those teams to advance to compete at the highest level of the sport. We are proud to have hosted this competitive grade two Grand Slam event and to have such high level competitors here from around the world. To see that it produced a young winner who now has a shot to compete at grade one reinforces what we are trying to do at Oakcliff Sailing every day.'

With events in Chicago, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Port Washington, New York; and Oyster Bay, New York, the Grand Slam Series has become well known and invitations are highly sought after by high-level match racers from around the world. In addition to tough competition, sailors are enticed by the prizes that the Series offers. The Knickerbocker Cup and Oakcliff International have, respectively, $11,000 and $10,000 in prize money that is distributed among the top ten finishers, and the winners of the Detroit Cup and Knickerbocker Cup receive invitations to the Bermuda Gold Cup, a stop on the World Match Racing Tour.

Final		1	2	3	4	5	W
Matthew Jerwood		1	0	1			2
Eric Monnin		0	1	0			1

Petit Final		1	2	3	W
Chris Poole		0	0		0
Sam Gilmour		1	1		2

Semi Final 1		1	2	3	4	5	W
Matthew Jerwood		1	1				2
Chris Poole		0	0				0

Semi Final 2		1	2	3	4	5	W
Eric Monnin		0	1	1			2
Sam Gilmour		1	0	0			1

Quarter Final 1		1	2	3	4	5	W
Matthew Jerwood		1	1	0	1		3
David Storrs		0	0	1	0		1

Quarter Final 2		1	2	3	4	5	W
Chris Poole		1	0	1	1		3
Charlie Lalumiere		0	1	0	0		1

Quarter Final 3		1	2	3	4	5	W
Chris Steele		0	0	0			0
Sam Gilmour		1	1	1			3

Quarter Final 4		1	2	3	4	5	W
Eric Monnin		1	1	1			3
Christophe Killian		0	0	0			0