Keith Swinton’s Black Swan Racing from Australia and Chris Steele’s 36 Below Racing from New Zealand have advanced to the Quarterfinal Round at the 67th annual Argo Group Gold Cup.
The two crews led the Repechage Round yesterday and then held on today through a long day of racing to advance to the next round. Swinton won the repechage with a 6-1 record while Steele was second at 5-2. Racing was interrupted for nearly four hours as the wind died from the west and filled in from the northwest.
“It was a challenging day for everyone. We had our share of luck,” said Swinton. “We felt like we were sailing well in the first round but had some bad luck that put us in the repechage, so we’re happy to go through.”
Headlining the Quarter-Finals is Taylor Canfield’s US One team from the U.S. Virgin Islands. Canfield’s crew is the only one to go undefeated through the rounds robin. That earned the crew the right to choose their opponent and they’ll square off against Steele’s 36 Below Racing. Canfield won the Argo Group Gold Cup in 2012 and has placed third each of the past two seasons. He chose to race Steele because the Kiwi is the No. 8 seed in the quarterfinals.
“We’re not surprised,” said Steele. “We were the last qualifier and he was the first. But we’ve learned a lot in the last day and a half.”
Other quarterfinal matches pit Phil Robertson’s WAKA Racing against Adam Minoprio’s BlackMatch in a battle of Kiwi teams. “The winner picks up the tab Sunday night,” said Minoprio.
Eric Monnin’s Swiss Match Race Team races Björn Hansen’s Nautiska Racing from Sweden. “People have a tough time telling Swedish and Swiss apart, so we’re going to help them out,” said Hansen.
The remaining match pits Ian Williams’ GAC Pindar against Swinton’s Black Swan Racing. “Ian’s a master at starting, but it’s easy to put pressure on him when he loses a few races,” said Swinton.
Notable for not advancing were the two America’s Cup crews, Dean Barker’s SoftBank Team Japan and Francesco Bruni’s Artemis Racing. Both skippers are accomplished match racers and have enjoyed past success at the Argo Group Gold Cup. But they’ve spent more time in the past few years racing foiling catamarans, a far different craft than the International One-Design sloop featured in the Gold Cup.
2015 RenaissanceRe Junior Gold Cup
Spain’s Ignacio Davila continues to lead the 2015 RenaissanceRe Junior Gold Cup, after recording a 2nd, 3rd and 9th place finish in the three races sailed on the day. With Sailors allowed to drop a race, Davila has 17 Net Points, five points ahead of British Virgin Island’s Rayne Duff who has 22 and Norway’s Mathias Berthet is in third with 26 Net Points.
Tayte Stefaniuk continues to lead the Bermuda Fleet of sailors, he is in 9th with 71 Net Points.
2015 RenaissanceRe Junior Gold Cup Standings after 8 Races
17 Nacho Davila 22 Rayne Duff 26 Mathias Berthet 30 Mia Nicolosi 36 Max Wallenberg 44 Julia Mellers 68 Peter Fagan 71 Daniela Bartelheimer 71 Tayte Stefaniuk 78 Christian Spodsberg 82 Gabi Czapska 87 Jordan Etemadi 94 Micah Raynor Thomas 96 Robbie McCutcheon 105 Campbell Patton 109 Thomas Westerhof 115 Fabian Magnusson 121 Will Shapland 122 Massimo Contessi 122 Sebastian Kempe 129 Joe Arrowsmith 137 Rian Geraghty-McDonnell 141 Luke Madeiros 154 Emil Kjaer 170 Lachie Stewart 172 Christian Ebbin 177 Azhai Smith 180 Aiden Lopes 181 Camille Chin-Gurret 187 Leyli Walker 187 Magnus Ringstead 203 Genevieve Lau 209 Jacob Pimentel 213 Teji Simons 218 Fiachra McDonnell 222 Ethan Edmunds 230 Christopher Adderley 241 Jack Hildebrand 256 Nicholas Bridges 257 Daylon Whitter 269 Jack Roberts 273 Peter Komposch 277 Thomas Evans 280 Skye Oliviera 294 Cameron Lucas