Congressional
Cup 2005 Presented
By Acura
Long Beach Yacht Club
April 12-16, 2005
April
16, 2005
Barker
Beats Coutts For 2nd Congressional Cup Title
LONG
BEACH, Calif.---The stuff of folk tales became
real life
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Photo
© Sean Downey / YachtRacing.com
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Saturday
when Dean Barker, the bruised and humbled former
apprentice, lived to defeat his mentor, Russell
Coutts, for victory in the 41st Congressional
Cup, presented by Acura.
Coutts
said the better man won.
"We
had a chance to win, but we never really deserved
to win," said Coutts, who sailed with Jes
Gram-Hansen and his Danish crew. "It's not
a bad situation. They sailed great all week. They
were a little sharper than us."
That,
from the man who had eliminated Chris Dickson,
CEO and skipper for BMW Oracle Racing's America's
Cup team, 2-1, in the semifinals while Barker
was coming from behind to oust France's Mathieu
Richard by the same score.
When
Dickson beat Richard, 2-1, for third place, it
meant that Kiwis would finish 1-2-3, but the top
two remained to be settled in a match rife with
human elements.
Barker
succeeded Coutts as skipper for Team New Zealand
(now Emirates TNZ) when Coutts switched to Switzerland's
Alinghi in 2003, then gave his former understudy
a 5-0 whipping in the title match. But this success
was less revenge than a coming of age as a key
player at Valencia in 2007---an event Coutts will
miss after his separation from Alinghi.
Now
Barker again has donned the Crimson Blazer he
first wore when he won the Congressional Cup in
2000---the year Coutts let him drive the clinching
race against Prada.
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Photo
© Sean Downey / YachtRacing.com
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"It
was tough racing in the semifinals and finals,"
Barker said. "I was very impressed with the
way Mathieu Richard sailed. He showed why he's
ranked number four [in the world by the International
Sailing Federation]."
It
was clear that the bonds remain strong between
Barker and Coutts as they sat next to each other
at the evening press conferences, leaning together
to exchange personal thoughts.
As
for his first encounter with Coutts since that
forgettable fiasco on the Hauraki Gulf five years
ago, Barker said, "The Alinghi team was much
better prepared, but it's always nice to meet
Russell because he's such a good competitor. It's
a healthy relationship. In the America's Cup it's
never one individual against another, but team
against team."
On
the water they were intense adversaries. As the
sun dipped late in the afternoon, spectators jammed
onto Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier watched at
close quarters as the pair swapped straightforward
wins in their first two matches, Barker winning
by 33 seconds, then Coutts by 17.
But
with the wind dying from a peak of 9 knots to
less than 5 near the shore, principal race office
Mike Van Dyke was forced to make the difficult
call of moving the windward-leeward race course
a half-mile out, far from view of the pier but
into better wind for a fairer final race.
Both
went left from the starting line, and Barker seized
a controlling windward advantage as they tacked
at the port layline to lead by 6, 10 and 11 seconds
at the marks and 19 at the finish.
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Photo
© Sean Downey / YachtRacing.com
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On
the final run to the finish a 120-degree wind
shift to the from southwest to east caught both
teams by surprise and revived a bitter memory
for Barker's tactician, Terry Hutchinson, who
lost the lead and the Congressional Cup to Ed
Baird when the wind died on him on the last leg
of the last race.
Hutchinson
said, "About 30 seconds before it happened
I said, 'I think the breeze is going hard left.'
"
When
it did, down came the spinnakers, up went the
jibs and all Coutts could do was to follow Barker
on a straight reach to the finish.
Hutchinson
won the Congressional Cup as skipper in 1992 and
as tactician for Ken Read in 2003. Now a teammate
of Barker's, he said, "It's a little redemption
from last year, but we still have a lot of hard
work to do."
For
another American on the crew, pitman Moose McClintock,
it was his fifth victory in the event with four
different skippers. Other crew members were main
trimmer Skip Baxter, headsail trimmer James Dagg
and bowman Jeremy Lomas.
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Race video provided by t2p.tv
Results:
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Photo
© Sean Downey / YachtRacing.com
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SEMIFINALS
Chris
Dickson, Golden Gate YC, San Francisco, d. Russell
Coutts, Aarhus Sejlklub, Denmark, 3 minutes 0
seconds; Coutts d. Dickson, 0:26; Coutts d. Dickson,
0:33 (Coutts wins, 2-1).
Mathieu
Richard, APCC-Voile Sportive, France, d. Dean
Barker, Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, 0:18;
Barker d. Richard, 0:54; Barker d. Richard, 1:10
(Barker wins, 2-1).
CHAMPIONSHIP
FINAL
Barker
d. Coutts, 0:33; Coutts d. Barker, 0:17; Barker
d. Coutts, 0:19 (Barker wins, 2-1; Barker $10,000,
Coutts $5,700).
THIRD
PLACE
Dickson
d. Richard, 0:10; Richard d. Dickson, 0:08; Dickson
d. Richard, 0:09 (Dickson wins 2-1; Dickson $4,800,
Richard, $4,400).
FIFTH
PLACE---Staffan Lindberg, Aaland Islands YC, Finland
($3,800), d. Chris Law, Royal Cape YC, South Africa
($3,000), 0:44; SEVENTH PLACE---Philippe Presti,
Union Nationale pour la Course au Large, France
($2,700), d. Lars Nordbjerg, Skovshoved Sejlklub,
Denmark ($2,300), 0:35; NINTH PLACE---Chris Larson,
Annapolis YC ($1,900), d. Scott Dickson, Long
Beach YC ($1,500), 0:39.
FINAL
ROUND ROBIN STANDINGS: 1. Tie between Barker and
C. Dickson, 14-4; 3. Coutts, 12-6; 4. Richard,
11-7; 5. tie between Lindberg and Law, 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
