Mary Longpre - Longpre Photos ©
The winner is the Defending Champion team of Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron of William Tiller, Harry Thurston and Shaun Mason, as they prevailed in both final races.
For the final day of one of the best Gov Cups ever, it was another cool, overcast day with light, erratic breeze. Competition was to begin at noon with a continuation of the match racing between teams that finished out of the final four, but had to be postponed. Once racing began the wind direction changed, so marks were reset as needed. The consolation round would provide teams with the opportunity to move up one place in the standings if they could defeat the team in the next spot in a two out of three series. The eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth teams raced in a round-robin to decide their final standings.
In the semi-finals, the first team with two wins moved on to the Finals. The semi-finals between Royal Port Nicholson and Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron began with a win by RNZYS on Saturday. Cruising Yacht Club of Australia lost their first race to Newport Harbor Yacht Club’s Segerblom, also on Saturday. In their rematches on Sunday, RNZYS and NHYC Segerblom were the winners in the first two races. The winner of the petit final for third place was the Royal Port Nicholson team of Matthew Steven, Tim Coltman and Chris Jones. The New Zealand team won over their neighbors, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia team of Jay Griffin, Will Parker and Ted Hackney, who placed third in the 2009 Gov Cup.
The final races between last year’s defending champion team from Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron of William Tiller, Harry Thurston and Shaun Mason, and the almost unbeaten team of Chris Segerblom, Connor Bathen and Kieran Chung from Newport Harbor Yacht Club were very close and exciting. In the first race of the finals, RNZYS's Tiller prevailed over NHYC Segerblom. Tiller's team is one of only two who had beaten the Segerblom team during the whole regatta. The Royal Port Nicholson team also won a race against them in the round robin.
In the final race, Segerblom rounded the first mark eight seconds ahead but had spinnaker problems, so Tiller had a chance to catch up. He went left to find breeze and at the next cross was ahead. Tiller rounded the next mark ten seconds ahead and was able to win.
The standings for the teams at the end of the Regatta:
1st Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, Tiller
2nd Newport Harbor YC, Segerblom
3rd Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club (NZ), Steven
4th Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, Griffin
5th San Diego Yacht Club, Snow
6th Mission Bay Yacht Club, Hoffmann
7th Howth Yacht Club (Ireland), Scott
8th Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron (Aus), Reece
9th Lake Beulah Yacht Club, Haeger
10th Newport Harbor Yacht Club, Mason
11th Royal Yachting Association, Lees
12th Balboa Yacht Club, Davidson
13th Club Nautico Mar Del Plata, Rogala
The 45th edition of the Gov Cup will occur in July of 2011. William Tiller, Harry Thurston and Shaun Mason of RNZYS will no longer be eligible, but perhaps Chris Segerblom will return from his first year at Yale to take on all comers again.
This year, the up to the minute reports on Twitter and Facebook by Stacie Brandt have added a great touch to the coverage. In addition, Sailgroove's representative Megan Place, took photos and videos, available on their web site. You can check links on our web site for a lot more detail about the individual races. For additional information go to the Gov Cup page at www.balboayachtclub.com. Links to Gov Cup coverage can be found for photos, videos, FaceBook, Twitter and Sailgroove. Over one hundred volunteers helped to make this another banner year.
The 44th annual Governor’s Cup is sponsored by the Newport / Balboa Sailing & Seamanship Association (owner and manager of the Governor’s Cup 21 Fleet used in this event) and CR&R, Inc. In addition, Tommy Bahama’s Island Grille sponsored the Friday evening reception, Blue Water Grill provided dinner for the competitors on Saturday evening, and American Yacht Charters provided a harbor cruise that evening for competitors. Additional support was provided by Black Flys, Crevier BMW, Island Marine Fuel, LBS Distributing, Leading Edge Yacht Services, L. Gaylord Sportswear, Volcom, and West Marine .
