RUSSELL COUTTS, DENNIS CONNER HEAD UP CONTENDERS FOR COLORCRAFT GOLD CUP IN BERMUDA

by Keith Taylor on 26 Aug 2000 America's Cup winner Russell Coutts and Cup veteran Dennis Conner head up a list of world class skippers contending for the Colorcraft Gold Cup to be raced in Bermuda in October this year.

The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC) today announced the eight seeded skippers who will match race, on Hamilton Harbor. Still to be announced are 16 unseeded international skippers. The club has already received 30
requests for invitations, several from prominent America's Cup sailors.

"This is the most outstanding field we have ever seen for the Colorcraft Gold Cup," said RBYC Commodore Somers Cooper. "It holds the promise of close and spectacular competition. It will be the biggest gathering of America's
Cup talent since New Zealand defended the Cup in Auckland last March."

The eight seeded skippers are: Ed Baird (United States), Dean Barker (New Zealand), Dennis Conner (United States), Russell Coutts (New Zealand), Peter Gilmour (Japan), Andy Green (United Kingdom), Magnus Holmberg (Sweden), and
Peter Holmberg (US Virgin Islands).

* Ed Baird, from St Petersburg, FL, was shut out of America's Cup competition in Auckland after his IACC racer Young America broke up and nearly sank. He finished third in the recent Danish Open Match Racing Championships.

* Dean Barker, from Auckland, New Zealand, is the new young skipper for Team New Zealand's 2003 defense, taking over after the surprise departure of Russell Coutts to head a Swiss America's Cup team. Barker subsequently
won the World Match Racing Championships and is second on points in the Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour.

* Dennis Conner, San Diego, CA, has won the America's Cup four times and lost it twice. However, he has never before raced in the Colorcraft Gold Cup in Bermuda. Conner is heading the New York Yacht Club's 2003
challenge for the America's Cup.

* New Zealander Russell Coutts is a five-time Gold Cup winner and has won the America's Cup and successfully defended it. He is now skipper and executive director of a new Swiss challenge for the America's Cup.

* Australian Peter Gilmour is sailing with his Japanese Pizza La team. A three-time World Match Racing Champion, he won the Gold Cup in 1995 and 1997. Gilmour will skipper a new Seattle, WA, challenge for the America's
Cup in 2003.

* Young British match racer Andy Green won the Gold Cup last year, and with it, an automatic nomination to the seeded entries this year.

* Sweden's Magnus Holmberg and his Stora Enso Team scored a decisive victory over Frenchman Bertrand Pace to win the recent Danish Open Match Racing Championships, notching up his second successive win on the Swedish
Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour.

* Peter Holmberg, from the US Virgin Islands, raced with Dennis Conner on Stars & Stripes in Auckland. He is a regular competitor on the Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour.

Now in its 52nd year, the Colorcraft Gold Cup is raced in 33-foot International One Design sloops on short windward-leeward courses inside Hamilton Harbor, within view of spectators ashore. The event gets under way on October 22, with qualifying rounds for the 16 unseeded teams. The
finals will be sailed October 29, followed by the official Colorcraft Gold Cup prizegiving.

Adding an extra element of suspense, the event is the finale of the Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour. A French team headed by Bertrand Pace is leading the series, while Team New Zealand represented by Dean Barker
is in second place. If Pace or his delegated skipper doesn't make the unseeded list and fail to sail in Bermuda, Barker must still finish second or better collect the first prize of $50,000 for the tour.

Altogether, the club is inviting 24 skippers, comprising the eight seeded and 16 unseeded entries. The latter group will include the top two Bermudan skippers from the Goslings' Black Seal Cup for the National Match Race
Championship, and the winner of the York Cup match race event sailed in Toronto, Canada. The eight best unseeded skippers will go forward to race against the eight seeded skippers in Round One of the Colorcraft Gold Cup.

This is the second year that Colorcraft has sponsored the Gold Cup event. Colorcraft is an international print and publishing project manager. It sources a wide variety of printing, color separation and binding facilities for many of the world's leading publishers. In addition, the company provides a wide variety of non-book items such as clothing, accessories and novelty items to the publishing, media and film industries. Colorcraft
was founded in Hong Kong by the Walker family in 1970 and is now recognized as the leading print project manager in the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. During 2000, the Company moved its international corporate headquarters to Bermuda and expanded its global reach by the establishment
of a permanent presence in the United Kingdom, Spain and the U.S.A.

The website for the event is http://www.bermudagoldcup.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Keith Taylor
Taylor Associates
Tel: (781) 837-8833
Fax: (781) 846-0788
ktolyc@compuserve.com