Britannia Rules at Governor's Cup

By Rich Roberts
For YachtRacing.com

Royal Yachting Association team from the UK celebrated its Governor's Cup sweep with a swim in the Pacific.

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.---A trio of teenagers flying the Union Jack as their burgee and singing "Rule Britannia" before their crucial matches won all 15 of their races to bring the UK its first victory in the 36 years of the Governor's Cup Sunday.

Skipper Paul Campbell-James, 19, of Southampton; trimmer Alex Cherry, 19, Brighton, and bowman Paul Burgoine, 18, Coventry, represented the Royal Yachting Association of Seaford in East Sussex, England.

Moments after crossing the final finish line to dispatch Mark Dorling's Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron team, 2-0, they pulled off their shirts and performed a forward flip dive into the Pacific to celebrate their second major title in two weeks, following a first-place in the Student University Championships in France.

The four-day event hosted, as always, by the Balboa Yacht Club, embodies the United States Youth Match Racing Championship. Each participant must not turn 20 years of age within the calendar year.

Twelve three-person crews representing clubs from the UK, Australia, New Zealand and across the U.S. sailed Santana 20s in winds of 5 to 10 knots. Contrary to Southern California's celebrated summer, the sun broke through only for the closing races of the final day.

Royal Yachting Association team crosses Royal Sydney on way to 2-0 win in finals.

This was the first year the event featured sailoffs, which advanced the top four round-robin teams into the semifinals. Defending champion Simon Minoprio and his team from the Royal New Zealand YC went down before the Brits, 2-0, but defeated Dan Corlett's Royal Prince Alfred team from Sydney, 2-0, for third place.

After the "all-royal" sailoffs, the top U.S. finisher was Mission Bay YC from San Diego, led by skipper Piet VanOs, in fifth place. An all-girl team from the St. Petersburg (Fla.) YC won one race.

The crews rotated boats after every race, but it made no difference to Campbell-James and his lads which one they sailed. Second to Minoprio last year, they always seemed to be faster and one move ahead of their rivals.

"We've been doing this together for three years," Campbell-James said.

"We do as many events as possible," Cherry said.

Skipper Paul Campbell-James stands on leeward rail with Alex Cherry as they prepare to roll-tack their Santana 20.

In the deciding race, they fouled Royal Sydney moments before the start but were able to accelerate across the line and do a penalty turn before the rival could move out of irons. But then they gave up the lead with a deep duck behind Royal Sydney on their starboard hip in order to get to the right side of the course.

On the first downwind leg, Cherry said, "We got on his breeze," allowing them to overtake and poke their bow inside at the mark and sail into new breeze that was building on the left. Soon they had a 50-yard lead and a free run to the championship.

Results (with round-robin records in parentheses): 1. Paul Campbell-James, Royal Yachting Association, UK (11-0); 2. Mark Dorling, Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, Australia (6-5); 3. Simon Minoprio, Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (7-4); 4. Dan Corlett, Royal Prince Alfred YC, Australia (8-3); 5. Piet VanOs, Mission Bay YC, San Diego (6-5); 6. Charles Higgins, Ft. Worth
(Tex.) Boat Club (6-5); 7. Mike Wilde, Rochester (N.Y.) YC (5-6); 8. Scott DeCurtis, King Harbor YC, Redondo Beach, Calif. (5-6); 9. Jose Fuentes, Annapolis (Md.) YC (5-6); 10. Carson Reynolds, Balboa YC (4-7); 11. J.V. Gilmour, Golden Gate YC, San Francisco (2-9); 12. Evan Brown, St. Petersburg (Fla.) YC (1-10).

Royal Yachting Association crew (from left) Paul Burgoine, Alex Cherry and Paul Campbell-James hoist spinnaker as rival Royal Sydney approaches windward mark.