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GILMOUR
LEADS BRADY, BAIRD AND HUTCHINSON INTO SEMIFINALS
LONG
BEACH, Calif.---While the winds and some rivals
blew hot and cold
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A
parade of spinnakers strutting their stuff in
a strong Long Beach sea breeze. Photo ©
Rich Roberts |
Friday, Australia's Peter Gilmour led the way into
Saturday's semifinals of the 40th Congressional
Cup on a record of 15 wins and 2 losses and a nine-race
win streak.
What
does that mean?
"Absolutely
nothing," said Gavin Brady to a laughing audience
at the post-race press conference---and he should
know.
Brady,
a two-time winner in 1996 and '97 when the event
had no sailoffs, has been in the finals the last
two years without winning again, even though he
was 16-2 before going up against Ken Read (10-8)
for the Crimson Blazer a year ago.
The
18th and final flight of the double round-robin
remains to be sailed, but Brady (12-6) and Americans
Ed Baird and Terry Hutchinson (each 11-6) also have
secured their spots in the best-of-three semis,
to be followed by a best-of-three championship match.
Those
final four were among the favorites going in, but
until Friday Hutchinson, who won the Congressional
Cup in 1992, couldn't keep his fire going. Then
he swept through Brady, Scott Dickson, Kelvin Harrap
and luckless Allan Coutts, who stands 0-17.
"We
sailed the same today as we did yesterday,"
Hutchinson insisted. "Today we got s couple
of breaks."
Hutchinson's
Team Annapolis Volvo, with Chris Larson calling
tactics, put their best foot forward to win their
first match against Brady, who guessed wrong by
picking the left side of the half-mile-long race
course.
Hutchinson
said, "We just tacked [right] and got a nice
lane of pressure, and Chris said, 'Just keep going.
There's more breeze coming.' After five minutes
of sailing, when we tacked everybody was full hiking,
and Gavin still had guys leaning in. Whoever got
to the breeze first was going to have a big lead."
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Hard-driving
Gavin Brady (at wheel) leads fellow semifinalist
Ed Baird into the windward mark Friday. Photo
© Rich Roberts |
Gilmour
also got lucky, as if he needed to, when he trailed
Jes Gram-Hansen hopelessly on the last leg of his
third race and the Dane's spinnaker tore completely
through the middle. Gilmour won by 59 seconds as
the Dane limped to the finish line.
Through
the afternoon a southwest sea breeze built quickly
from 7 knots to as much as 20 and switched repeatedly
through 20 to 25 degrees. Thatcaused windward mark
attendant Molly McCloud of the host Long Beach Yacht
Club to continuously shuttle the inflatables back
and forth to keep them directly upwind.
The
odd phenomenon, though, was that when the wind came
from the left it was the chilly breeze felt through
the first three days, but when it shifted right
it was warm and dry.
Finally,
when it swung 60 degrees to the right and blew clouds
of sand straight down the beach, principal race
officer Bobby Frazier postponed the last three matches
and finally abandoned the 18th round with the first
two matches well under way.
Cameron
Appleton, who was leading Scott Dickson by a half-minute
more than halfway through, requested redress from
the race jury but was denied.
The
primary issue to be resolved now is Gilmour's selection
of an opponent. He rated the other semifinalists,
none of whom was on the match-racing circuit when
he won the Congressional Cup in '88.
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Terry
Hutchinson leads Kelvin Harrap on a 4-0 day
that got him into the semifinals. Photo ©
Rich Roberts |
"Gavin's
sort of naturally through the years been a quite
feisty and aggressive sailor," Gilmour said.
"[John] Kostecki sailing with him [as tactician]
has kind of smoothed some of that out. Often they
find it a little bit difficult if they're behind,
but they're strong when they're ahead.
"I
think Ed [Baird] is very reliable . . . always there.
He's a good benchmark. If you're sailing well, you'll
beat him. If you're not sailing well, he'll beat
you.
"Terry
[Hutchinson] . . . I really don't know a lot about
him. He's probably less experienced than the other
three in a match-racing sense."
Gilmour
may have forgotten that he raced Hutchinson in the
finals of the Knickerbocker Cup in New York in 1997,
but Hutchinson hasn't.
"He
beat us 2 to 1," Hutchinson said.
Frazier
hoped to start Saturday's racing an hour earlier
than usual at 11 a.m., hoping to beat the major
late-afternoon wind shift that has shortened the
schedule the last three days. There is $25,000 in
prize money, with $6,000 to the winning team.
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Peter
Gilmour and his veteran Pizza-La crew are in
top form with nine straight wins Photo ©
Rich Roberts. |
Live
radio commentary of the racing may be heard worldwide
on www.KLBC.org or at 810 AM within a four-mile
radius of the Belmont Pier spectator site. Video
highlights of each day's racing may be replayed
each evening on the club's Web site, www.LBYC.org.
Sportshow
TV is producing a half-hour highlight video to be
aired later by the Outdoor Life Network.
Friday's
results: Round 14
Peter
Gilmour, Australia, def. Mattias Rahm, Sweden, 51
seconds.
Scott
Dickson, Long Beach, Calif., d. Allan Coutts, New
Zealand, 0:30.
Terry
Hutchinson, Annapolis, Md., d. Gavin Brady, New
Zealand, 0:50.
Kelvin
Harrap, New Zealand, d. Jes Gram-Hansen, Denmark,
did not finish.
Ed
Baird, St. Petersburg, Fla., d. Cameron Appleton,
New Zealand, 0:26.
Round
15
Hutchinson
d. Dickson, 0:13.
Harrap
d. Brady, 0:14.
Gram-Hansen
d. Appleton, 0:03.
Gilmour
d. Baird, 0:16.
Rahm
d. Coutts, 0:26.
Round
16
Hutchinson
d. Coutts, 0:25.
Harrap
d. Dickson, 0:25.
Brady
d. Appleton, 0:21.
Gilmour
d. Gram-Hansen 0:59.
Baird
d. Rahm, 0:10.
Round
17
Hutchinson
d. Harrap, 0:18.
Appleton
d. Coutts, 0:57.
Gilmour
d. Dickson, 0:33.-Hansen
d. Rahm, 0:33.
Brady
d. Baird, 0:29.
Standings
(after 17 of 18 rounds):
1.
Gilmour, 15-2; 2. Brady, 12-5; 3. tie between Baird
and Hutchinson, 11-6; 5. tie between Gram-Hansen
and Harrap, 9-8; 7. tie among Dickson, Rahm and
Appleton, 6-11; 10. Coutts, 0-17.
Daily
radio (12 noon PDT): www.KLBC.org
Nightly
video replays: www.LBYC.org
MORE
INFORMATION:
Long
Beach Yacht Club (562) 598-9401 www.lbyc.org
www.swedishmatchtour.com
Rich Roberts Press Officer (310) 835-2526 cell
(310) 766-6547
richsail@earthlink.net
MORE
INFORMATION:
Long Beach Yacht Club
(562) 598-9401
www.lbyc.org
Rich
Roberts
Press Officer
(310) 835-2526
richsail@earthlink.net
SWEDISH
MATCH TOUR
www.swedishmatchtour.com |
