Hamilton, Bermuda- 12 April 2022 - The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC) has made the difficult decision to cancel this year's Bermuda Gold Cup, a World Match Racing Tour Event, due to be held October 18 – 22, 2022.
"This is not a decision we have taken lightly and there were a few overriding concerns that have led to this outcome," said Past Commodore Jon Corless, Chair of the RBYC International Sailing Events Committee, "Securing sufficient sponsorship was paramount for this prestigious event, which is renowned around the world for its standard of excellence and has proven challenging in these uncertain and fast changing times."
We know that this will come as an enormous disappointment, not only to our other sponsors, competitors and spectators, but also to the global sailing community. The Match Racing world is still adjusting to the limitations of the past two years of Covid-19 and now has been impacted by the unrest in Europe that has caused further concerns and problems throughout the world. We would like to thank our host sponsor, the Bermuda Tourism Authority, for their continued support for this event.
"It is obviously a great shame the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club has been forced to cancel this year's event" added WMRT Executive Director James Pleasance. "The Bermuda Gold Cup is one of the longest running events on the world tour and in one of the most iconic match racing venues in the world. The last few years have been very challenging for many international sporting events and we are working closely with the team at the RBYC to bring the Gold Cup back on tour as soon as possible."
The Bermuda Gold Cup is a founding event of the WMRT and the RBYC will continue to work hard with the WMRT to present this world class match racing event in the near future.
About the Bermuda Gold Cup
The King Edward VII Trophy, awarded to the winner of the Bermuda Gold Cup, is the oldest trophy in the world for match racing competition involving one-design yachts. First presented in 1907 by King Edward VII at the Tri-Centenary Regatta at Jamestown, Va., honoring the 300th anniversary of Jamestown's founding, the trophy is the only King's Cup ever to be offered for competition in the United States which could be won outright.
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Nicole Butterworth
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Skipper notches third Gold Cup, second Worlds victories
HAMILTON, Bermuda (Oct. 30, 2020) — Skipper Taylor Canfield and Team Stars+Stripes – Mike Buckley, Victor Diaz de Leon, Mike Menninger and Eric Shampain – won the 70th Bermuda Gold Cup and 2020 Open Match Racing World Championship with a penalty-marred victory over Ian Williams’s Team GAC Pindar.
Canfield and crew won three of the four races in winds ranging from 12 to 20 knots on Hamilton Harbour. They showed grit and determination in clawing back from deficits and a killer’s instinct in laying penalties on Williams and crew. They also showed great boatspeed when free and clear on the racecourse.
For Canfield the victory is his third at the Bermuda Gold Cup (2012, ’18) and second Open Match Racing World Championship (2013).
“It’s unbelievable. I can’t thank my team enough,” said Canfield. “I put us in a lot of tough spots this week and they got us out of almost every one of them. Thanks to Bermuda for getting us here. We’re excited to be out racing again, and to come away with a win is unbelievable. We’re thrilled.”
Quarterfinal round packed with action, penalties and two Race 5’s
HAMILTON, Bermuda (Oct. 29, 2020) — If today’s late-afternoon form holds through to tomorrow morning, Ian Williams’s Team GAC Pindar will square off against Taylor Canfield’s Team Stars+Stripes for the championships of the 70th Bermuda Gold Cup and 2020 Open Match Racing World Championship.
Williams’s and Canfield’s crews lead their semifinal series, 2-0, against Jeppe Borch’s Borch Racing Team and Phil Robertson’s China One Ningbo crew, respectively. One more victory for each puts them into the final of the $100,000 regatta, with $30,000 earmarked for the winner who’ll also be awarded the King Edward VII Gold Cup and the sterling silver World Match Racing Tour trophy.
The quartet advanced to the penultimate round of the regatta after a Quarterfinal Round that saw a slew of penalties (14 penalties and one black flag against seven green flags), nearly as many lead changes, and two winner-take-all fifth races.
HAMILTON, Bermuda (Oct. 28, 2020) — A pair of Scandinavian crews, Jeppe Borch’s Borch Racing Team (above) from Denmark and Johnie Berntsson’s Berntsson Racing Team from Sweden, advanced to the Quarterfinal Round of the 70th Bermuda Gold Cup and 2020 Open Match Racing World Championship after placing first and second, respectively in today’s Repechage Round.
Borch and Berntsson are somewhat on opposite sides of the ledger at this regatta. The upstart Borch, 23, sailing his first Bermuda Gold Cup, is the youngest skipper remaining in the regatta. Berntsson, 48, is one of the event’s grizzled veterans: a 12-time competitor, six-time finalist and two-time winner of the King Edward VII Gold Cup. In the lightest conditions of the week, a 4- to 8-knot westerly, they shared one common thread – they won enough races to advance to the quarterfinals.
Berntsson’s two losses in the seven-race Repechage Round were to the two youngest skippers, Borch and 23-year-old Matthew Whitfield of Great Britain. But he shook them off and put forth a dominant performance against 25-year-old Jelmer van Beek’s Team Dutch Wave in the final race to stamp his ticket to the quarterfinals.
Six advance to quarterfinals; Repechage Round to decide final two
HAMILTON, Bermuda (Oct. 27, 2020) — If the conditions on Day 1 of the 70th Bermuda Gold Cup and 2020 Open Match Racing World Championship were spectacular, today they were nearly perfect. What’s the difference? A steadier, stronger breeze more oriented to the length of Hamilton Harbour as opposed to the width.
The southwesterly wind between 10 and 16 knots propelled six crews into the Quarterfinal Round. Chris Poole’s Riptide Racing, Phil Robertson’s China One Ningbo and Eric Monnin’s Capvis Swiss Match Race Team advanced from Group A while in Group B Ian Williams’s Team GAC Pindar, Torvar Mirsky’s Mirsky Racing Team and Taylor Canfield’s Stars+Stripes moved on.
The six will be joined by two crews from tomorrow’s Repechage Round, which will feature Nicklas Dackhammar’s Essiq Racing Team, Johnie Berntsson’s Berntsson Sailing Team, Anna Östling’s Team WINGS, and Matthew Whitfield’s Dragon Racing Team from Group A and Jeppe Borch’s Borch Racing Team, Team Dutch Wave, Mati Sepp’s Gleam Energy Sailing Team and Lance Fraser’s Team RCYC from Group B.
Are they rusty or is match racing like riding a bike? It all depends on perspective
HAMILTON, Bermuda (Oct. 26, 2020) — As Phil Robertson’s China One Ningbo and Torvar Mirsky’s Mirsky Racing Team streaked out to 4-0 leads in their respective groups at the 70th Bermuda Gold Cup and 2020 Open Match Racing World Championship, it’s hard to believe all of the skippers, including those two, who talked of being rusty coming into this regatta.
There’s no doubting that many in the fleet haven’t sailed much over the past eight months due to the coronavirus pandemic. There’s also no disputing the fact that many haven’t match raced monohulls in 12 to 18 months; multihulls have been ubiquitous on the World Match Racing Tour for a few years now. It’s just hard to believe them when they say they’re rusty.
All sailors, race committee, umpires and support staff clear COVID testing
HAMILTON, Bermuda (Oct. 25, 2020) — After a year in which too many regattas were postponed or cancelled due to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, the hope of International One-Design (IOD) sloops thrashing about Hamilton Harbour is anticipated by all associated with the 70th Bermuda Gold Cup and 2020 Open Match Racing Worlds, which begin tomorrow with gold and silver awaiting the winner at week’s end.
“Our schedule was affected quite a lot, like everyone,” said Eric Monnin of Switzerland, the world’s No. 1-ranked match racer and leading Bermuda Gold Cup veteran who’s making his 13th appearance. “We’ve done some sailing at home since June, but very little match racing. It’s very difficult to know where we stand with the others.”
HAMILTON, Bermuda (Oct. 23, 2020) – The relentless march of time has everyone associated with the 70th Bermuda Gold Cup and 2020 Open Match Racing Worlds anxious with anticipation as gold and silver awaits the winner at the championship ceremony next Friday. Racing for the 16 crews begins on Monday with the first set of flights scheduled to get underway at 0930.
The majority of the crews are en route to the 21-square-mile island in the Atlantic Ocean after having taken their COVID-19 PCR tests, as required by the Bermuda Government protocols. All sailors will be tested upon arrival at Bermuda’s L.F. Wade International Airport before quarantining in their hotel rooms while the tests are processed. Everyone will also be tested on Day 4 of their stay.
Two crews, Torvar Mirsky’s Black Match Mirsky Racing Team and Ian Williams’s Team GAC Pindar, have been on the island since early in the week and got in a pit of practice before the boats were sequestered beginning Tuesday evening in preparation for the regatta.
Courtois, Östling set to shatter another glass ceiling
HAMILTON, Bermuda (Oct. 19, 2020) - Another glass ceiling for women in sailing will be shattered next week at the 70th Bermuda Gold Cup and 2020 Open Match Racing World Championship when two accomplished female skippers - Frenchwoman Pauline Courtois and Anna Östling of Sweden - will race in the Open Worlds for the first time ever.
Women's crews have been regular entrants at the Bermuda Gold Cup since the regatta was reformatted to a ladder-style tournament in the mid-1980s. Successful racers such as Betsy Allison, Sally Barkow and JJ Fetter of the U.S., Bermudian Paula Lewin and Klaartje Zuiderbaan of the Netherlands are among those who have tried to tackle the International One-Design (IOD) sloop on Hamilton Harbour.
In the past two years Lucy Macgregor's Team Mac from Great Britain posted back-to-back fourth-place finishes, the best showings ever by an all-women's crew at the famed regatta.
The Open Worlds, however, have long been the domain of men. Never has a woman skipper raced in the Open Worlds, let alone two. Next week, that record changes.
Field of 16 entrants includes leading men's, women's skippers
HAMILTON, Bermuda (Oct. 7, 2020) — World and event champions highlight a fleet adorned with accolades for the celebratory 70th Bermuda Gold Cup and 2020 Open Match Racing World Championship, hosted by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Oct. 26-30.
Sweden's Johnie Berntsson, Taylor Canfield of the U.S., Australian Torvar Mirsky and Ian Williams of the U.K. have all won the King Edward VII Gold Cup, awarded to the winner of the Bermuda Gold Cup, while Canfield, Mirsky, Williams and New Zealander Phil Robertson of Sweden have all won the Open World Championship. The fleet's credentials are further boosted by Sweden's Anna Östling, a two-time champion of the Women's Match Racing World Championship.
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