Congressional
Cup 2005 Presented
By Acura
Long Beach Yacht Club
April 12-16, 2005
April
15, 2005
Three
Kiwis, One Frenchman In The Semifinals
LONG
BEACH, Calif.---There was only one pertinent question
for Dean Barker going into Saturday's championships
sailoffs of the 41st Congressional Cup, presented
by Acura: who's it gonna be---fellow New Zealanders
Chris Dickson or Russell Coutts or France's Mathieu
Richard?
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Photo © Sean Downey / YachtRacing.com
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Tip:
It probably won't be another Kiwi.
The
skippers for two of the top-rated three America's
Cup teams in 2007---Barker with Emirates Team
New Zealand and Dickson with BMW Oracle Racing
of San Francisco---are both former winners of
the Crimson Blazer (Dickson has two) and each
finished the double round robin with 14 wins and
4 losses Friday after splitting their head-on
matches, but Barker gets to select his semifinal
opponent by virtue of beating Dickson in their
most recent race.
"We
haven't chosen yet," Barker said at the evening's
press conference. "We'll sleep on it tonight."
Although
Barker lost the undisputed lead to Dickson, it
was only because Coutts, the only three-time America's
Cup winner, interrupted his 10-race win streak.
Otherwise, he had a 3-1 day and has won 11 of
his last 12 races.
He
also has an American wild card on board: pitman
Moose McClintock, who has sailed in 16 Congressional
Cups since 1983 and been on four winning boats---two
with Dave Perry and one each with Barker's tactician,
Terry Hutchinson, and Ken Read.
"These
guys are really sailing well," said McClintock,
who isn't a regular member to the team. "It's
a privilege to be with them."
Coutts
(12-6), his former mentor, said he didn't think
Barker would pick him---"but he might."
The
smart money says that Barker will tag France's
Mathieu Richard (11-7).
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Photo
© Sean Downey / YachtRacing.com
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Nodding
to Dickson seated on his left, Coutts said, "I
think it's likely we'll be racing Chris again
tomorrow."
They
split their two races, both on Friday.
Richard
doesn't care. "I just feel very happy being
in the top four," he said.
None
of the Kiwi troika considers the lesser-known
Richard to be a pushover. Although he has no America's
Cup connections, he is rated No. 4 in the world
by the International Sailing Federation, beat
Dickson 2-0 in the semifinals of a recent event
at Marseilles---and more than held his own against
them this week, 1-1 across the board.
Dickson
had said earlier, "So we'd be happy if we
weren't racing Richard. It's one of those times
when you're happy not to have to choose."
The
semifinals and finals are scheduled as best-of-three,
although an uncertain wind picture puts that at
risk. Friday found what locals call a "Catalina
eddy" condition when the sea breeze arrives
from the south off the east end of Santa Catalina
Island 23 miles away, instead of down the San
Pedro Channel in an accelerating funnel between
the island and the mainland.
The
breeze hit a brisk 10 knots for the last of four
rounds sailed, reducing the potluck factor a bit.
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Photo
© Sean Downey / YachtRacing.com
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Either
way, Finland's Staffan Lindberg will take it.
After winding up tied with England's Chris Law
at 9-9, he said, "To be out there on a boat
all day is great. Normally [in other venues] you
sit on the shore a lot and wait."
Dickson
lost the first race of the day to Coutts---a makeup
of their Round 9 postponement---and then posted
the day's best scorecard with four consecutive
wins, including a closing 20-second victory over
Coutts to even their score.
"The
first one we rolled him on the run but couldn't
stay there," Dickson said.
In
the second, they split opening tacks, and Dickson
kept attacking from the left on port and Coutts,
with starboard right of way, kept bouncing him
off with lee-bow tacks until Dickson finally made
it stick and pushed his bow out of Coutts' wind
shadow into clear air. He rounded the weather
mark first and stretched his lead unchallenged.
Coutts
figured that, like his golf, he isn't quite on
his game.
"I
started better today," he said, "but
I'm making some stupid mistakes. I probably could
have held him off with a better tack, but I tacked
too early. But we're still in the regatta, so
I'm happy with that."
Racing
will start at noon, conditions permitting. The
non-semifinalists will return to the course to
sail off for fifth, seventh and ninth places and
determine their shares of the $40,000 purse.
Race
video provided by t2p.tv
Results:
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Photo
© Sean Downey / YachtRacing.com
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ROUND
9 (makeup race)--- Russell Coutts, Aarhus Sejlklub,
Denmark, def. Chris Dickson, Golden Gate YC, San
Francisco, 29 seconds,
ROUND
15---Coutts d. Chris Larson, Annapolis YC, 0:07;
Philippe
Presti, Union Nationale pour la Course au Large,
France, d. Scott Dickson, Long Beach YC, 0:54;
Mathieu Richard, APCC-Voile Sportive, France,
d. Chris Law, Royal Cape YC, South Africa, 0:21;
C. Dickson d. Staffan Lindberg, Aaland Islands
YC, Finland, 0:19; Dean Barker, Royal New Zealand
Yacht Squadron, d. Lars Nordbjerg, Skovshoved
Sejlklub, Denmark, 1:05.
ROUND
16---Larson d. Law, 0:32; S. Dickson d. Lindberg,
0:25; Barker d. Presti, 1:34; Richard d. Coutts,
0:34; C. Dickson d. Nordbjerg, 0:21.
ROUND
17---Coutts d. Barker, 0:10; Lindberg d. Richard,
0:17; C. Dickson d. Law, 0:33; S. Dickson d. Nordbjerg,
0:02; Larson d. Presti, 0:06.
ROUND
18---C. Dickson d. Coutts, 0:20; Nordbjerg d.
Larson, 0:04; Presti d. Richard, 0:18; Barker
d. Lindberg, 0:09; Law d. S. Dickson, 0:09.
FINAL
ROUND ROBIN STANDINGS (18 rounds): 1. Tie between
Barker and C. Dickson, 14-4; 3. Coutts, 12-6;
4. Richard, 11-7; 5. tie between Lindberg, 9-9;
7. Nordbjerg, 7-11; 8. Presti, 6-12; 9. S. Dickson,
5-13; 10. Larson, 3-15.
www.lbyc.org
PRESS
OFFICER
Rich
Roberts
(310)
835-2526
richsail@earthlink.net
