Wednesday 28 March, 2012
GILL BVI INTERNATIONAL MATCH RACING CHAMPIONSHIP
Testing Day for Crews in ISAF Rated event
Colin Rathburn from Tortola, BVI leads with 7 Points
Frits Bus (St Martin, Netherlands Antilles) and crew including Roel Ten Hoopen,
compete in the second Gill BVI Match Racing Championship, part of the BVI Spring
Regatta & Sailing Festival
Crews from seven teams raced in tricky conditions on day one of the Gill BVI Match
Racing Championship, an ISAF Grade 3 listed event taking place during the BVI Spring
Regatta & Sailing Festival. Thanks to the support of title sponsor, Gill North America
and supporting sponsor, New England Ropes, top teams have been attracted to race
the fleet of identical IC-24's based at Nanny Cay.
The match racing, coordinated by the Chicago Match Racing center, an important sailing
institution founded two years ago with the aim of producing top-notch match racing
sailors, is taking place for the second year at the Regatta. With back-to-back races
close to shore, the teams include internationally respected skippers as well as
up-and-coming young match racers, such as US Virgin Islands' 18 year old Nicole
Barnes who is skippering for the first time. The match racing duels were played
out on the waters just off the beach at Nanny Cay, Tortola, BVI and with the breeze
back online, spectators were able to watch the match racing and listen to expert
race commentary throughout the day from Denise Holmberg:
"It was a very tricky day out on the water for the teams, with lots of wind shifts
and pressure changes, so it was very testing for the competitors and there were
a lot of penalties," said Holmberg. We completed a full round robin one and almost
half of round robin two by the end of play today. The top of the leader board belongs
to Colin Rathburn from Tortola, BVI with 7 Points, followed by Guy Mossman (USA)
on 6 points and Frits Bus (St Martin, Netherlands Antilles) 5 points. A tie situation
with 4 points for both Juan Mauri (Peru) and Nicole Barnes (US Virgin Islands),
David Storrs (Connecticut, USA) 3 points and Leo Vasiliev (Rus/USA), 1 point."
David Pritchard, President of Gill North America is pleased to support match racing:
"We are title sponsor for the second year running and are happy to be back. Match
racing is an extremely expensive sport to organise as there are large numbers involved
in the set up, organisation and management of the races. Match racing needs sponsorship
and Gill North America are happy to do this along with our other sailing sponsorships
through US Sailing."
The boats themselves are in tip-top condition thanks to the hard work and dedication
of Todd Patterson and Steve Roose who have made them ready for the teams to race
equally.
Match racing is exciting to participate in and to watch, there is no better way
to raise your game than a one-on-one fight to the finish. The Chicago Match Racing
center best describes why this type of racing is so popular: 'Match racing requires
the fundamentals of a fleet racer, the tactics of a chess master and the teamwork
of a Nascar pit crew! In a short race teams will have completed a boxing match-like
pre-start, two spinnaker sets and douses, and enough tacks and gybes to tire a marathon
runner. Participating in match racing will improve all aspects of your sailing.'
Sue Reilly Race Coordinator, along with Bill Canfield as Principal Race Officer
and Henry Menin, Chief Umpire, ensured first class racing and umpiring for the teams
with skippers from as far afield as Peru (Juan Mauri); USA (David Storrs/Connecticut);
Leo Vasilov (New York/RUS); Guy Mossman (South Carolina) and closer to home: Frits
Bus (St Martin, Netherlands Antilles), Nicole Barnes (US Virgin Islands) and from
Tortola, BVI, Colin Rathbun. The 4-crew teams consist of Skipper and 3 crew on index,
jib and bowman and the draw for the round robin pairings was held before racing
to establish the play off for the day.
Chief Umpire Henry was under the watchful eye of the legendary 94-year old Chief
Judge for the BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival, International Judge, Arthur
'Tuna' Wullschleger who is once again presiding over racing at the 41st BVI Spring
Regatta & Sailing Festival.
Team Skipper, David Storrs from Connecticut, USA has never raced in the British
Virgin Islands before: "I was in St Martin three weekends ago and have been travelling
to lots of races this year, but never in the BVI until now. We came in second to
local sailor Colin Rathburn in a very close series recently and that got me pumped
to come here. I checked out the forecast and it's 14-15 knots every single day for
the next seven days, which I think is hard wired into the forecast. This is fantastic,
I love this place and Gill has been wonderful in the way they support the match
racing and all the sponsors, this is like heaven, I'd like to come back here every
year, forever!"
Young match racing hopeful, Nicole Barnes from St Thomas, US Virgin Islands raced
in the Gill Match Racing Championship last year but is skippering her own boat:
"I was crewing for Sandy Hayes in 2011 at the regatta as she was my coach and I
thought I might as well skipper this year. I have my coach Kim Murtha and my buddy
Margie Coxe on board as crew. We all sailed in the International Rolex Regatta last
week. Peter Stanton, one of my older coaches and my boyfriend Nick Heileman are
also part of the team."
Roel ten Hoopen from The Hague, Holland is racing with a team skippered by Frits
Bus from St Martin: "Our Team, Coors Light raced in the Gill Match Racing event
last year but did not do so well, but we didn't have Jo (Joseph Walters) on board,
so maybe this year!" On jib, Chuck Pessler from St Thomas has match raced with Team
Skipper, Frits Bus many times before and the whole crew will race in the BVI Spring
Regatta after taking third place in the recent International Rolex Regatta."
The post-race debrief allowed crews to analysis their performance before heading
into the second and final day of the championships tomorrow.
Points after Day one:
Colin Rathbun ~ 7 points
Guy Mossman ~ 6 points
Frits Buss ~ 5 points
Nicole Barnes ~ 4 points
Juan Mauri ~ 4 points
David Storrs ~ 3 points
Leo Vasiliev ~ 1 point
Flight Winners:
Flight 1: Bus (St. Martin, Netherlands Antilles); Mauri (Peru); Storrs (Connecticut,
USA)
Flight 2: Bus (St. Martin, Netherlands Antilles); Rathbun (BVI); Mossman (South
Carolina, USA)
Flight 3: Rathbun (BVI); Mossman (South Carolina, USA); Mauri, (Peru)
Flight 4: Barnes, (USVI); Storrs, (Connecticut, USA); & Mauri, (Peru)
Flight 5: Rathbun (BVI); Barnes, (USVI); Bus (St. Martin, Netherlands Antilles)
Flight 6: Barnes, (USVI); Mossman (South Carolina, USA); Rathbun (BVI)
Flight 7: Mauri, (Peru), Bus (St. Martin, Netherlands Antilles); Rathbun (BVI)
Image Credits: Todd vanSickle/Gill BVI Match Racing Championship/BVI Spring Regatta
For more information about the BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival go to: www.bvispringregatta.org
Event Press | BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival | Tortola | Virgin Islands, British
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