Congressional
Cup 2005 Presented
By Acura
Long Beach Yacht Club
April 12-16, 2005
March
10, 2005
Kiwis
Coming In Force To Congressional Cup
LONG
BEACH, Calif.---The lineup for the 41st Congressional
Cup, presented by Acura, sends an ominous message:
Here come the Kiwis!
Russell
Coutts, Chris Dickson and Dean Barker---three
of the best talents spawned by New Zealand's cradle
of world-class match racers over two decades---will
be among those going head to head in the Long
Beach Yacht Club classic April 12-16.
Their
rivals, listed alphabetically with current ISAF
international rankings and their clubs noted:
Scott
Dickson (No. 37), Chris Dickson's younger brother
who is representing the host club as a Long Beach
resident the past 10 years;
Chris
Larson (No. 256), Annapolis, Md., Annapolis YC;
Chris
Law (No. 51), England, the 1994 winner, representing
South Africa's Royal Cape YC;
Staffan
Lindberg (No. 12), Finland, Aaland Islands Yachting
Club, winner of last week's JPMorgan Fleming Winter
Challenge Cup in England;
Lars
Nordbjerg, (No. 9), Denmark, Skovshoved Sejlklub;
Philippe
Presti (No. 6), France, Union Nationale pour la
Course au Large;
Mathieu
Richard (No. 4), France, APCC-Voile Sportive.
Coutts
ranks No. 8 after winning three of four events
on the Swedish Match Tour, where he ranks second
to Ed Baird. He has been sailing with a Danish
crew since his disassociation with Alinghi, the
Swiss team that he led to an America's Cup victory
in 2003 following his two triumphant campaigns
with New Zealand. He'll represent Denmark's Aarhus
Sejlklub.
Baird,
the 2004 Congressional Cup winner and current
Swedish Match Tour leader, and Gavin Brady, a
two-time winner plus a semifinalist the last three
years, will not be competing because of their
commitments to the America's Cup campaigns of
Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing, respectively. Chris
Dickson, the latter team's CEO, will represent
Larry Ellison's San Francisco-based team instead.
Coutts
has never sailed in the Congressional Cup but
won the World Match Racing Championship event
in the same Catalina 37 sloops on the same waters
in 1996.
Dickson,
42, is returning as a skipper long after his back-to-back
Congressional Cup wins in 1990-91. He ranks only
235th but has competed in only two events during
the current ranking period. He and five crew members
from the America's Cup team will represent the
Golden Gate YC.
Dickson
said, "The Congressional Cup is a long-standing
match race event that always offers a competitive
field. As one of the first match race events on
our schedule this year, it is a great tune-up
for [our] intense racing season in 2005."
Dickson's
only Congressional Cup appearances in recent years
have been as tactician for his brother Scott,
who again qualified by winning the Ficker Cup
over a tough domestic field last September.
Barker,
sailing for the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron,
ranks 97th with only four events but won the Congressional
Cup in 2000, a few weeks after Coutts stepped
aside to let his protégé drive in
the Cup-clinching race against Prada before thousands
of hometown fans in Auckland.
Coutts
and Barker met as opponents in 2003 when Alinghi
ran off a 5-0 victory over a Team New Zealand
team beset by a series of boat breakdowns. Barker
has remained as helmsman for the restructured
Emirates Team New Zealand, now rated as one of
the stronger challengers for 2007 at Valencia.
Presti
is helmsman for France's Le Defí 2007 America's
Cup team, which is reported to be joining forces
with Chinese businessman Wang Chaoyong in a joint
bid for the Cup.
Racing
will be a double round robin followed by four-team
sailoffs. The 10 teams will rotate boats daily.
The races will be run on a short windward-leeward
course set off the end of the Belmont Pier, where
close-up spectator viewing and commentary will
be provided at no charge.
After
a three-year involvement the Congressional Cup
is no longer part of the Swedish Match Tour. As
the new presenting sponsor, Acura will raise the
purse to $40,000, up from $25,000 last year.
Acura
offers a full line of luxury performance vehicles
through a nationwide network of more than 260
dealers. The Acura lineup features six distinctive
models, including the exotic NSX supercar, the
RL luxury sedan, the TL performance luxury sedan,
the TSX sports sedan, the race-bred RSX sports
coupe and the award-winning MDX luxury sport utility
vehicle. For more information about Acura vehicles,
please visit www.acura.com. For media inquiries,
please go to www.acuranews.com.
The
Long Beach Yacht Club continues to be an innovator
in match racing. It is the first club to have
live commentary on an AM radio station and daily
streaming video of the race highlights on a Web
site ( www.LBYC.org/concup ). Through a joint
effort with the City of Long Beach, the radio
station broadcasts live commentary from the Belmont
Pier each race day starting at about noon on 810
AM. If you are not within a four-mile radius of
the pier to hear the station, log on to the event's
international Web site (above) and follow the
prompts to listen to the live commentary---and
later, a live press conference each day at about
1700 PST.
Congressional
Cup Winners
1965
Gerry Driscoll
1966
Gerry Driscoll
1967
Scott Allan
1968
Skip Allan
1969
Henry Sprague III
1970
Argyle Campbell
1971
Tom Pickard
1972
Argyle Campbell
1973
Dennis Conner
1974
Bill Ficker
1975
Dennis Conner
1976
Dick Deaver
1977
Ted Turner
1978
Dick Deaver
1979
Dennis Durgan
1980
Dennis Durgan
1981
Rod Davis
1982
Scott Perry
1983
Dave Perry
1984
Dave Perry
1985
Rod Davis
1986
Harold Cudmore
1987
Eddie Warden-Owen
1988
Peter Gilmour
1989
Rod Davis
1990
Chris Dickson
1991
Chris Dickson
1992
Terry Hutchinson
1993
Rod Davis
1994
Chris Law
1995*
Harold Cudmore
1996
Gavin Brady
1997
Gavin Brady
1998
Peter Holmberg
1999
Peter Holmberg
2000
Dean Barker
2001
Peter Holmberg
2002
Peter Holmberg
2003
Ken Read
2004
Ed Baird
*--"Masters" event (former winners).
MORE
INFORMATION:
Long
Beach Yacht Club
(562)
598-9401
www.lbyc.org
PRESS
OFFICER
Rich
Roberts
(310)
835-2526
richsail@earthlink.net
