Investors Guaranty™ Presents The King Edward VII Gold Cup - Heavy Rain, Light Air Halt First Day Of Racing

HAMILTON, Bermuda (October 18, 2003) – The morning’s bright sunshine and steady winds yielded to heavy rains and light air as the day progressed, forcing an abandonment of the final flight of racing and bringing an early end to a very wet first day of the Investors Guaranty Presentation of the King Edward VII Gold Cup, the second event on Swedish Match Tour 2003/2004.

Great Britain's Andy Green of Team British Racing Green leads America's Bill Hardesty day one of the Investors Guaranty presentation of the King Edward VII Gold Cup 2003, Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, Hamilton, Bermuda. Oct, 18th. 2003 Photo © Sergio Dionisio / Oceanfashion / Swedish Match Tour

"What a weird day. It's kind of crazy some days on Hamilton Harbor, that's why you have to keep your head up,” commented American skipper Ed Baird of Team XL Capital. “We were happy to see the kids out in the Optis (dinghys) this afternoon, because they helped us figure out where the wind was coming from our second race."

The two completed flights of racing in both Groups 1 and 2 provided the skippers and crew contesting the 55th edition of this fabled match racing regatta with the chance to further familiarize themselves with the unique International One Design (IOD) racing sloops that are as synonymous with the event as the Dark `n Stormy drinks served on the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club terrace.

In Group 1, Italy’s Paolo Cian of the Riviera di Rimini Sailing Team, New Zealand’s Cameron Appleton of Team Triangle Rigging and fellow Kiwi Cameron Dunn of Team Kaenon are all at 2-0, while Baird and Bill Hardesty, competing in just his third match racing regatta, are both 2-0 atop Group 2.

"It was a pleasing day today, it took me quite a long time to get my crew together, in fact I just got three guys from the East Coast of the United States to come sail with me this past week,” explained Appleton. “I'm looking forward to tomorrow, I need to get the boat off the line a little bit better, but we sailed around the course really well and look forward to getting better as the week goes along."

Surprisingly, both Sweden’s Magnus Holmberg of Team Continental Airlines, a former winner of the Swedish Match Tour, and local skipper Peter Bromby of Team Ace Group are both 0-2, following their day on Hamilton Harbor.

Holmberg looked like he was going to salvage a split today when he overcame a pre-start penalty, by executing his turn and still having a comfortable lead over his British opponent.

"We took our penalty turn at the start of the second beat but ended up getting into trouble in the last two hundred yard, we were about 10-15 boat lengths ahead of Andy but the wind dropped on us and its hard in these conditions needing to qybe twice with the wet, heavy spinnaker,” explained Holmberg. “Andy beat us by about half-a-meter. It's tough to take, but there’s still some racing ahead of us so we'll look forward to a better day tomorrow."

Bromby likewise is optimistic about what the future may hold. "(I'm) not too upset with the way we're sailing, we've sailed a lot worse and done better, but the hardest part is coming back to shore and explaining it to my mates,” laughed Bromby. “With the conditions we had this afternoon the second race was a roll of the dice."

On the first day of racing in the Bermuda International Women’s Match Racing Championship, local favorite Paula Lewin lived up to her billing, leading her team to two wins, defeating American skippers Sally Barkow and Sandy Hayes.

"We had a good day. In our first race against Sally (Barkow), it was quite exciting, we switched leads three times - we're just happy to have gotten away with a win and the position we're in after the first day."

Also on two points is Sweden’s Jenny Axhede of Team Panorama, sailing in place of countrywoman Marie Bjorling who will be having her first child within the next two weeks, who knocked off American Deborah Willits and Klaartje Zuiderbaan of the Netherlands.

In addition to competing for a $15,000 prize purse and the 4th Cruiser Squadron Bowl, the winner and runner-up of the Bermuda International Women’s Match Racing Championship also advance to round one of the Investors Guaranty™ Presentation of the King Edward VII Gold Cup (October 22-26).

Racing continues on Sunday, October 19th at 9:00 am local time when the unseeded skippers from Group 2 take to the water to complete the third flight of racing, originally scheduled for today and commence with tomorrow’s slate.

The winner of The King Edward VII Gold Cup will be presented with the King Edward VII Trophy and a take home a share of the $100,000 prize purse.

Today’s Results

Unseeded Skippers – Group 1

Flight 1
Paolo Cian def. Kelvin Harrap
Cameron Dunn def. Matthew Gregory
Staffan Lindberg def. Adam Barboza
Cameron Appleton def. Maxim Taranov

Flight 2
Dunn def. Harrap
Taranov def. Barboza
Cian def. Gregory
Appleton def. Lindberg

Unseeded Skippers – Group 2

Flight 1
Scott Dickson def. Magnus Holmberg
Bill Hardesty def. Andy Green
Mattias Rahm def. Peter Bromby
Ed Baird def. Blythe Walker

Flight 2
Green def. Holmberg
Walker def. Bromby
Hardesty def. Dickson
Baird def. Rahm

Bermuda International Women’s Match Racing Championships

Flight 1
Paula Lewin def. Sally Barkow
Elizabeth Kratzig def. Sandy Hayes
Jenny Axhede def. Deborah Willits
Betsy Alison def. Klaartja Zuiderbaan

Flight 2
Lewin def. Hayes
Axhede def. Zuiderbaan
Barkow def. Kratzig
Willits def. Alison

For more information about Investors Guaranty’s presentation of The King Edward VII Gold Cup, contact the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club race office at +1-441-295-2214 or visit www.KingEdwardVIIGoldCup.com.

About Investors Guaranty™ www.investorsguaranty.com
The Investors Guaranty Global Alliance™ is comprised of over 60 companies in Europe, North America and Australasia dedicated to optimizing, integrating a nd marketing their core competencies. Alliance members outsource their non-strategic functions and implement global “best-practices” in compliance with standards promulgated by Investors Guaranty GmbH (Zurich). Alliance companies specialize in strategic investments, insurance and banking technologies, asset management and fund administration, legal and accounting systems, administrative and corporate management services, branding and media, and information technologies.

About the Swedish Match Tour www.swedishmatchtour.com
The Swedish Match Tour is comprised of nine of the world's leading professional sailing events and is proving to be the ultimate battleground of sailing. In addition to more than US$800,000 in individual event prize money, the Swedish Match Tour awards US$200,000 to the top eight sailors on the Swedish Match Tour, with the first-place skipper netting US$60,000.

In addition to a US$60,000 first prize, the winner of the Swedish Match Tour receives the official Swedish Match Tour Championship Trophy, 15" (30 cm) high with 22 carat gold gilding, produced by Swedish Match Tour sponsor Wedgwood. Additionally, Wedgwood supplies runner-up prizes for second and third places as well as commemorative plaques to each event organizer.

The Swedish Match Tour produces 155 hours of television coverage reaching more than 427 million households worldwide. Swedish Match Tour partners include Swedish Match, Octagon and the Match Race Association. Swedish Match Tour sponsors include Colorcraft, Champagne Mumm, Musto Selden Group and Wedgwood.