1600 Hours
Congratulations to Taylor Canfield and Team Stars+Stripes -- Mike Buckley, Victor Diaz de Leon, Mike Menninger, Eric Shampain -- winners of the 70th Bermuda Gold Cup and 2020 Open Match Racing World Championship. They defeated Ian Williams's Team GAC Pindar -- Christian Kamp, Gerry Mitchell, Richard Sydenham -- in a final series filled with drama. We'll have a full report later.
1600 Hours
The Quarterfinal Round came to conclusion well after the action on the water finished.
Two thrilling, fifth race winner-take-all contests highlighted the Quarterfinal Round with upstart Dane Jeppe Borch leading his Borch Racing Team to victory over Chris Poole’s Riptide Racing. Similarly, veteran Ian Williams’s Team GAC Pindar dispatched Eric Monnin’s Capvis Swiss Match Race Team in a penalty filled series.
Taylor Canfield’s Team Stars+Stripes defeated old foe Johnie Berntsson’s Berntsson Racing Team 3-1 and Phil Robertson’s China One Ningbo defeated Torvar Mirsky’s Mirsky Racing Team 3-0. But it was the finish of the third race that led to a request for redress from Mirsky for improper actions by the Organizing Authority that led to a protest hearing which lasted for more than one hour. More on that later.
The semifinal pairings feature Williams versus Borch and Robertson versus Canfield. Each match is first to three points. The crews are heading back to the water for the first two flights. The wind is up to 15 to 20 knots from the southwest. The race committee will attempt to run the first two flights of the semifinals.
1500 HOURS
Jeppe Borch’s Borch Racing Team (above) and Johnie Berntsson’s Berntsson’s Sailing Team have advanced to the Quarterfinal Round of the 70th Bermuda Gold Cup. Borch finished the Repechage Round with a 6-1 record while Berntsson posted a 5-2 mark.
They join Chris Poole’s Riptide Racing, Ian Williams’s Team GAC Pindar, Phil Robertson’s China One Ningbo, Torvar Mirsky’s Mirsky Racing Team, Eric Monnin’s Capvis Swiss Match Race Team, and Taylor Canfield’s Stars+Stripes in the next round.
The pairings for the quarterfinals are yet to be decided but the winner of each match will be the first to score three points. The quarters are scheduled for 0930 tomorrow morning.
Repechage Round Provisional Standings
1. Jeppe Borch, 6-1
2. Johnie Berntsson, 5-2
3. Nicklas Dackhammar, 4-3
4. Anna Ostling, 3-4
5. Matthew Whitfield, 3-4
6. Lance Fraser, 3-4
7. Jelmer van Beek, 2-5
8. Mati Sepp, 2-5
Flight 6
M1: Sepp b. Borch
M2: Whitfield b. Berntsson
M3: Fraser b. Dackhammar
M4: van Beek b. Östling
Flight 7
M1: Fraser b. Sepp
M2: Dackhammar b. Östling
M3: Borch b. Whitfield
M4: Berntsson b. van Beek
1445 Hours
Chris Poole’s Riptide Racing stole the win in Group A with a come-from-behind victory over Phil Robertson’s China One Ningbo crew in the last match of Flight 7.
Robertson appeared to have the match in hand after the first lap of the two-lap race, but Poole found a bit of a windshift on the left side of the course and put Robertson on the back foot coming in from the right side.
Poole’s win gave him the tiebreak advantage against Robertson and the Group A win. Both crews join Eric Monnin’s Capvis Swiss Match Race Team in advancing to the Quarterfinal Round, joining the three crews from Group B that advanced earlier today.
1330 Hours
Group A has completed its four flights and Phil Robertson’s China One Ningbo team leads the group with a 4-0 record. Robertson defeated Anna Ostling’s Team WINGS, Nicklas Dackhammar’s Essiq Racing Team, Matthew Whitfield’s Dragon Racing Team and Eric Monnin’s Capvis Swiss Match Racing Team.
The wind was mostly from south/south-southwest and blowing between 8 and 12 knots. But the wind direction meant the wind was blowing across Hamilton Harbour, which makes for a shifty and puffy breeze.
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“We were just getting puffs out of everywhere,” said Robertson. “It was a nasty day for the race committee, but they did well. It makes the racing harder to stay ahead or catch up. There were lots of opportunities out there.”