Coutts defeats Spithill for seventh Bermuda match title

by Sean McNeill on 25 Oct 2004 New Zealander Russell Coutts, the three-time America’s Cup champion, won the King Edward VII Gold Cup, Stage 3 of the 2004-’05 Swedish Match Tour, with a 2-1 defeat of Australian James Spithill.

With the victory, Coutts gained 25 points toward the 2004-’05 Swedish Match Tour championship. He heads the leader board with the high score of 45 points after three of eight stages. The Swedish Match Tour champion will win a $60,000 bonus and a BMW 545i Touring from Tour partner BMW.

American Ed Baird, in second, trails by 5 points and reigning Tour champion Peter Gilmour of Australia is third with 30 points.

The win was Coutts’s third on the Swedish Match Tour this calendar year.

Earlier he won the Toscana Elba Cup – Trofeo Locman in Porto Azzurro, Italy, and the Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand, Sweden. He also placed second at the Portugal Match Cup in Cascais, Portugal.

Overall, it was his fifth win in nine starts on the Swedish Match Tour since the 2000-’01, the second season.

Coutts (Fechy, Switzerland), sailing with Team Colorcraft crewmembers Jes Gram-Hansen (Åarhus, Denmark), Christian Kamp (Copenhagen, Denmark)and Rasmus Kostner (Åarhus, Denmark), were awarded the championship of the Investors Guaranty Presentation of the King Edward VII Gold Cup and the $30,000 prize when today’s racing was cancelled shortly after 12:30 p.m.

Spithill, the 25-year-old helmsman of Italy’s Luna Rossa Challenge for the 32nd America’s Cup sailing with Magnus Augustsson, Charlie McKee and Joe Newton, placed second and won $18,000.

Baird, sailing with Andy Horton, Piet van Nieuwenhuyzen and Jon Ziskind, finished third and won $11,500. They scored a 2-1 victory over Scott Dickson, who sailed with Sonny Gibson, Allan Lindsay and Dave Ridley. The Dickson Racing Team placed fourth and won $9,000.

For Coutts the victory was his seventh King Edward VII Gold Cup title since 1990. Considering he didn’t sail in 1999 and 2002 due to America’s Cup Class racing in New Zealand, he’s won seven titles in 13 years and becomes the all-time winner of the trophy first awarded in 1937. Previously he won in 1990, ’92, ’93, ’96, ’98 and 2000.

Racing was cancelled today due to what the Bermuda Weather Service described as an extra-tropical weather system to the north of Bermuda. It produced westerly winds gusting up to 50 knots and a 3- to 5-foot sea on sheltered Hamilton Harbour. The strong winds coupled with the rough sea state forced Principal Race Officer H. Charles Tatem to cancel the planned races.

‘We’ve been in contact with harbour radio,’ Tatem said at 12:38 p.m. ‘They’re getting steady readings of 36 to 38 knots with gusts into the 40s. When the rain squalls come through those gusts go into the 50s. Rather than endanger the crews and boats, racing is cancelled.’

With that announcement, Coutts and crew began hugging each other and receiving congratulations from rival competitors.

‘I enjoy sailing with these guys,’ Coutts said of his Danish crew. ‘I didn’t think we were sailing well enough the first couple of days to win. But we were at the end.’

Coutts and crew worked their 2-1 lead in racing yesterday afternoon. They lost the first match to Spithill, partly because they couldn’t get the spinnaker set quickly enough on the first run, but came back to win two straight to take the overnight lead.

Coutts said early in the week that they had tactical and communications issues to work out, but they were smoothed out by week’s end.

‘It’s a new boat for the four of us, we’ve never sailed them together before,’ said headsail trimmer Kamp, 26. ‘I’m doing things differently in the cockpit, Rasmus is talking about trimming the main differently, and Jes is doing the bow for the first time in however long.

‘Everything is different. So of course we have to smooth things out and help each other out,’ Kamp continued. ‘When you get into a new boat you spend a lot of energy to smooth out the crew work. And then you might lose a bit of focus on the racing.’

King Edward VII Gold Cup Final Results:

Place Skipper (Nationality) Team, Won-Lost, Prize money

1. Russell Coutts (NZL) Team Colorcraft, 11-3, $30,000

Crew: Jes Gram-Hansen, Christian Kamp, Rasmus Kostner

2. James Spithill (AUS) Luna Rossa Challenge, 10-2, $18,000

Crew: Magnus Augustsson, Charlie McKee, Joey Newton

3. Ed Baird (USA) Team XL Capital, 8-4, $11,500

Crew: Andy Horton, Piet van Nieuwenhuyzen, Jon Ziskind

4. Scott Dickson (NZL) Dickson Racing Team, $9,000

Crew: Sonny Gibson, Allan Lindsay, Dave Ridley

5. Peter Gilmour (AUS) Pizza-La Sailing Team, 7-5, $7,500

Crew: Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku, Yasuhiro Yaji

6. Staffan Lindberg (FIN), 4-4, $6,500

Crew: Nils Bjerkas, Martin Krite, Daniel Wallberg

7. Mathieu Richard (FRA), 6-4, $6,000

Crew: Olivier Herledant, Philippe Mourniac, Yannick Simon

8. Klaartje Zuiderbaan (NED), 3-6, $5,500

Crew: Carrie Howe, Nanda Nengerman, Jetske Roodvoets, Tryntje Zuiderbaan