Governor's Cup lead threatened

by Nancy Mellon on 22 Jul 2012 Governor's Cup day 4. On Saturday conditions started light but improved as the day went on with the afternoon bringing 10 to 12 knot winds. The temperature stayed in the 70’s. The race course was set up north of the Newport pier.

Racers participating in South Shore Yacht Club’s Crew of Two around Catalina race put on quite a show as they went by after starting at 11 am.

Those boats, 30 to 60 feet in length, dwarfed the 21 foot Gov Cups getting ready for our start at noon.

At the end of the first round robin, there were five teams tied for second, but sorted by tie breakers they were listed in first through eight for the top eight teams.

After the semi-finals, the biggest change in the standings has come with the move by Tim Coltman of Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club to second place from seventh and RNZYS to third from sixth.

Tim and David Hazard of Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron both beat Balboa Yacht Club and Mission Bay Yacht Club, putting them into the top four and so putting them into the Semi Finals. The only team from the USA left in the top four is Nevin Snow of SDYC, the defending champion.

Nevin Snow and his team have the lost the first two races in the Semi-Finals, to Tim Coltman, Adam Middleton and James de Lisle of RPNYC. Nevin chose to race Tim’s team.

As leader, he could choose any of the other three teams in the Semi’s. David Hazard of RNZYS and Ashlen Rooklyn of Cruising Yacht Club of Australia have each won one of their races. The first to win three races will be the winner who will then race the winner of the SDYC RPNYC series.

The loser in each of those matches will face each other to decide the final four standings. The teams in fifth through eighth will also be competing against each other.

The other four will race in the Consolation Round Robin. By the end of racing on Saturday, those four teams, with one round to go, are listed in the following order – SFYC, with five wins, Chicago Yacht Club with four, GKSS from Sweden with three and Newport Harbor Yacht Club with two. All of those teams have shown a lot of growth over the regatta so far.

Complete results available at Govenor's Cup website