The Argo Group Gold Cup will take center Stage in an area that anyone in Bermuda will have the opportunity to watch for free, on October 6th – 11th, as 16 skippers will once again be fighting it out to win another of match racing’s most prestigious events.
While competitors will be focusing on getting their name on the giant King Edward VII Gold Cup Trophy alongside many of the greats in our sport, they will also be keeping one eye on the overall championship points for the 2015 World Match Racing Tour.
The Argo Group Gold Cup is the penultimate event on the Tour and competitors in Bermuda will be gunning to get a good result enabling them firstly to make it through to the seasons’ grand finale, the Monsoon Cup, to be held in Johor, Malaysia in January, and secondly how points earned in Bermuda will impact their overall results.
This year the World Match Racing Tour has expanded with the addition of ‘World Tour Events’, joining the six regular Tour events, now known as ‘World Championship Events’. So now each of the ‘World Championship Events’ scores 35 for a win, 31 for a second, 28 for a third and so on, while the larger array of ‘World Tour Events’ score around half that – 18 for a first, 16 for a second, 14 for third, etc.
Across the season competitors get to keep their top three results in the knowledge that the top six teams on the Tour leaderboard, and probably the top eight, will get a place at the Monsoon Cup. Those that do get to race in the grand finale in Malaysia, are obliged to count their performance there, it becoming a mandatory fourth result in their season’s score line.
So they need to finish in the Finals in Bermuda to improve their already just-short-of-perfect scoreline. Similarly Bjorn Hansen’s Nautiska Racing team is counting a 4-1-4, leaving the Swedish team in second overall, five points adrift of Williams and needing a top three result if they are to build their score. However, a top result in Bermuda is much more crucial for Taylor Canfield and his US One team, currently third overall. He, along with Kiwi Phil Robertson’s WAKA Racing, Australian Keith Swinton’s Black Swan Racing plus Stena Sailing Team’s Johnie Berntsson this season has only scored results at two events.
Because a good result in Bermuda is crucial for this group it also makes them vulnerable, as Tour Director Craig Mitchell observes: “If say Ian [Williams] wins Qualifying, he could pick Taylor [Canfield] to sail in the Quarter Finals and try and knock him out. That could leave Taylor a long way adrift overall in the Championship.” Moving down the leaderboard, the next group is indicative of how the new format World Match Racing Tour is working. Unlike the previous group, these younger teams have sailed many more events and have gleaned points wherever they can including World Tour Events.
GROUP 1
1. Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar 2. Joachim Aschenbrenner (DEN) Aschenbrenner Racing 3. Eric Monnin (SUI) Team SailBox 4. Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing 5. Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team 6. Chris Poole (USA) Riptide Racing 7. Dean Barker (NZL) SoftBank Team Japan 8. Blythe Walker (BER) Team RenRe
GROUP 2
1. Björn Hansen (SWE) Nautiska Racing 2. Taylor Canfield (ISV) US One 3. Reuben Corbett (NZL) Corbett Racing 4. Chris Steele (NZL) 36 Below Racing 5. Keith Swinton (AUS) Black Swan Racing 6. Nicolai Sehested (DEN) Trefor Match Racing 7. Francesco Bruni (ITA) Artemis Racing 8. Adam Minoprio (NZL)
