A light southwesterly is building on Hamilton Harbour and the crews have taken to the racecourse to begin the Semifinal Round. The wind is expected to build to 10 knots and back around to the south throughout the day. At stake is the $100,000 prize purse, with $35,000 earmarked for the champion.
It’s a slow start to the final day of the 67th annual Argo Group Gold Cup. The wind is less than 5 knots on Hamilton Harbour and will likely delay the start of the Semifinal Round.
The semifinals pit Björn Hansen’s Nautiska Racing against Keith Swinton’s Black Swan Racing in Match 1. Match 2 sees Taylor Canfield’s US One go up against Adam Minoprio’s BlackMatch Racing.
The matches were determined when Canfield chose to race against Minoprio, reasoning that the Kiwi hadn’t done a lot of match racing this year and was likely rustier than Hansen or Swinton. Although Minoprio is a past match racing worlds champ, this is his first match race regatta of the year.
The Bermuda Weather Service is forecasting southwesterly winds of 5 to 10 knots, which would be more breeze than the sailors had yesterday during the quarterfinals.
Semi-Final Pairings:
Swinton of Australia takes down world No. 1 Williams in light air Quarterfinal Round
HAMILTON, Bermuda – The semifinals of the $100,000 Argo Group Gold Cup features a past champion, a two-time runner-up, a 12-time entrant and a young gun aiming to upset the balance.
Crews led by skippers Taylor Canfield, Adam Minoprio, Björn Hansen and Keith Swinton advanced to the next round of the regatta after surviving a light and patchy day on Hamilton Harbour where the wind rarely topped 5 knots.
Tomorrow morning’s semifinal round will pit Canfield’s US One against Minoprio’s BlackMatch Racing and Hansen’s Nautiska Racing versus Swinton’s Black Swan Racing. The winners move on to the final tomorrow afternoon.
As the No. 1 seed in the regatta Canfield chose to race Minoprio, which forced the other match up.
The semifinalists are set. All's that's left to determine is who will race whom.
Taylor Canfield's US One, Bjorn Hansen's Nautiska Racing, Adam Minoprio's BlackMatch and Keith Swinton's Black Swan Racing are all in the mix. US One defeated Chris Steele's 36 Below Racing, 3-0, to keep its undefeated record intact at 10-0.
Nautiska Racing defeated Eric Monnin's Swiss Match Race Team, 3-1. Monnin's crew is considered masters of light-air, but that didn't seem to matter today even though the wind strength rarely topped 5 knots.
BlackMatch defeated Phil Robertson's WAKA Racing, 3-2, as did Black Swan Racing versus Ian Williams' GAC Pindar.
The draw for the semifinals will be held this evening.
The first flight of the Quarterfinal Round is complete. Ian Williams' GAC Pindar, Bjorn Hansen's Nautiska Racing, Adam Minoprio's BlackMatch and Taylor Canfield's US One all won to take 1-0 leads in their matches.
The first flight was sailed in winds barely reaching 5 knots. The crews are all dockside as the wind on Hamilton Harbour has died away completely. But there appear to be cumulus clouds building to the southwest and there's hope for a seabreeze to build for the afternoon.
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