Bermuda Gold Cup Through Quarter-Finals With Tropical Storm On Horizon
Berntsson, Canfield, Price and Williams advance to semifinals
HAMILTON, Bermuda (Oct. 4, 2023) - In a thrilling match that saw a tiresome combined 24 tacks in the span of about two and a half minutes, Harry Price’s (AUS) Down Under Racing Team defeated Eric Monnin’s Capvis Swiss Match Racing Team, 3-2, to advance to the Semifinal Round of the 71st Bermuda Gold Cup.
Price, who finished third at the Bermuda Gold Cup in 2019, joins multiple winners Johnie Berntsson’s (SWE) Berntsson Racing Team, Taylor Canfield’s (USA) Stars+Stripes USA and Ian Williams’ (GBR) Chinaone.Ningbo team in the next round. The three veterans combined to go 10-1 in the quarterfinals, which included Berntsson winning four races to get the requisite three points to advance.
Instead of building on the momentum of an exciting day of racing, the Bermuda Gold Cup is being postponed for two days due to the threat of Tropical Storm Philippe. The Bermuda Weather Service issued a bulletin this evening stating that the closest point of approach to Bermuda within the next 72 hours (three days) is forecast to be 31 nautical miles to the west/northwest at 12:00 pm on Friday, Oct. 6, with forecast wind strengths of 35 to 45 knots.
Given the forecast, Principal Race Officer David Campbell-James completed the rounds robin and then rolled into the quarterfinals. A total of 40 races were held in an easterly wind of 12 to 15 knots on Hamilton Harbour.