Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Commodore Somers Kempe was crowned the 2014 Bermuda National Match Racing Champion recently.
The regatta was held in Hamilton Harbor in near perfect conditions. The Bermuda Sailing Association (BSA) organized the event which was hosted by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.
Three sailing veterans and their teams fought it out for the title and the resulting free entry berth into the Argo Group Gold Cup in October.
The wind never reached the forecast 20 knots and the beautiful International One Designs were a sight to behold under sunny skies and a steady breeze from the South-West, veering West-South-West.
Principle Race Officer Charles Tatem, assisted by his practiced race management team with the addition of Bermuda Sailing Association President Martin Siese and Board members George Hayward and Allan Williams set windward/leeward courses in the harbor with each match lasting about twenty minutes.
Bermuda’s own International Umpire (with both Americas Cup and Olympic experience) Peter Shrubb adjudicated the rules on the water and to make sure that infringements were awarded the appropriate penalties.
RBYC Commodore Kempe with his crew of Adam Barboza, Will Thompson and Paul Ring quickly showed their dominance with an early win over Patrick Cooper with his crew of David Hillier, Richard Neame and Robert Zuill. In spite of Cooper’s considerable track record with his own IOD, Solna, he was not able to match the match racing experience of his opponents.
By the end of three flights, the score was Kempe with two wins and the third skipper, Pete Ramsdale with one win. The latter, with his crew of RBYC Rear Commodore Jonathan Corless, Ann Symons and Jeff Roach, showed excellent boat speed upwind but was often unable to hold the lead on the downwind legs, ensured that the matches were always close with several changes of position. Ramsdale also gave the umpires their only work of the day, collecting two penalties over the course of four matches.
The result of the Round Robin was four wins for Kempe and a tie with one win each for both Cooper and Ramsdale. Under the Appendix C scoring for breaking a tie, Cooper went through since he was the winner of the last match between the two of them.
The final was thus sailed between Kempe and Cooper with Kempe choosing the boat for the first match, leaving Cooper with the favored starboard entry. The second match saw a boat swap and an entry switch and Kempe did not miss a beat as he sailed the final to a quick 2 match win. As the sailors and the race committee came off the water, the heavens opened!
