2010 Congressional Cup

[Stuart Streuli]

It's 'Sally forth' against the guys in Congressional Cup

LONG BEACH, Calif.

Nine of the world's best match racing skippers have accepted invitations to the 46th Congressional Cup March 23-27. A 10th will be Sally Barkow, who didn't wait to be invited.

Barkow, 29, of Nashotah, Wis., earned the privilege by winning last summer's Ficker Cup qualifier on the same outer harbor course off Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier where she'll meet the men in the same Catalina 37s. It's the only Grade 1 Open match racing event in North America.

The rest of the lineup, alphabetically, with current International Sailing Federation (ISAF) rankings:

Johnie Berntsson (9), Sweden, Royal Gothenburg YC
Gavin Brady, Annapolis, Md./N. Zealand, Royal Hong Kong YC
Francesco Bruni (24), Italy, Yacht Club Costa Smeralda
Simone Ferrarese (31), Italy, Yacht Club Cortina
Bill Hardesty, San Diego, Chicago Match Race Center
Damien Iehl, (3) France, APCC Voile Sportive
Eric Monnin (30), Switzerland, Yacht Club Immense
Evgeniy Neugodnikov (20), Russia , Team Synergy
Dave Perry (45), Southport, Conn., Long Beach YC

The rankings are based on a sailor's best four results dating back two years. Brady and Hardesty have competed in only two and three events, respectively, in that time.

Berntsson is defending champion. Brady is one of three four-time winners. Perry won in 1983 and '84.

"We're really excited about it," Barkow said. "It was our goal going to the Ficker Cup."

But there's much more than that to the resume of the lady from the Pine Lake Yacht Club: Rolex (American) Yachtswoman of the Year in 2005 and 2007; three-time all-American at Old Dominion University, with a BS in psychology (that helps in match racing); in 2004, with Debbie Capozzi, Carrie Howe and Annie Lush of the UK, the ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championship; Olympic skipper at Qingdao in 2008.

Not bad for a lake sailor from the Midwest, starting at age 5.

She won Ficker Cup with an all-woman crew that she hoped would remain intact, but they'll be unavailable while preparing for the Olympic-geared Princess Sofia match race regatta at Palma de Majorca, Spain, which starts just after Congressional Cup ends. Barkow plans to join them for the first day of racing.

She will be only the fourth woman skipper in the Congressional Cup, following JJ Fetter Isler in 1993 and '96 and Betsy Alison in '99. Fetter was the only one to race with an all-woman crew. Barkow will have Dave Dellenbaugh as tactician and is arranging for alternative talent that will probably include a male-female mix of six or seven.

Whatever works out, now it's "Sally forth"---definition: "to set out in a sudden, energetic or violent manner." Barkow will offer nor receive no slack. ISAF ranks her 16th among women and 118th in the Open classification, where no woman is ranked higher. That's because she divides her racing between the two groups, preferring to race against men when she can.

"We had been racing on the women's circuit, which hasn't given us the points, so we just started racing on the Open circuit last March and we've been moving up in the ranking," she said. "We started in the thousands and then we were in the hundreds. Our goal of the year was to get into that top hundred."

They almost made it. Their breakthrough achievement came in the Grade 3 Ficker Cup where they whipped five teams, including those of Perry, the current US Sailing match racing champion, and Annie Nelson with an otherwise all-male crew. The contest is named for Bill Ficker, the 1974 Con Cup and 1970 America's Cup winner. The champion automatically receives a Con Cup berth.

Barkow has a new sponsor: Safe Passage Sailing, which provides opportunities for intermediate and advanced sailors to participate in high-profile events internationally.

In 2008 she and crew Debbie Capozzi and Carrie Howe---Team 7 Sailing---sailed an Yngling for the U.S. in the women's Olympic match racing at Qingdao, China and placed seventh.

"[Match racing] is the bigger thing for me right now, trying to break into the circuit for another year or two," she said. "I really enjoy sailing the bigger boats."

But now, testing the Congressional Cup waters, isn't there a risk of reaching too high and setting back the cause of women in the game?

Barkow said, "You take the opportunity to race against some of the top guys. We recognize that racing against women gets you only so far.

"I don't think there's much difference with the way women and men sail. Other sports, like basketball, they can just jump higher. Sailing is a unique sport. There is an equality there and, yeah, we're looking to close that gap and get the respect we want and have a chance to go race against them.

"It comes down to the same things that win every event, which are experience and knowledge and talent. There is nothing holding women back from that except going out and doing it."

She is not in the least intimidated by crossing the gender line. She did that a lot as a kid and as an all-American at Old Dominion.

"I grew up with three older brothers," she said. "That's how I learned to sail."

The 10 six-man crews will rotate daily on Catalina 37s owned by the Long Beach Sailing Foundation. Each team will race every other team twice. The top four qualify for the championship sailoffs on Saturday.

Official Event Website

[Stuart Streuli]

LONG BEACH, Calif.

A fifth Crimson Blazer: that's Gavin Brady's goal in the 46th Congressional Cup running Tuesday through Saturday as the only Grade 1 Open match racing event in the United States.

Johnie Berntsson, 37, from Sweden, is happy with the one he won last year. For now.

Francesco Bruni was ready for a fitting last year, and Sally Barkow is looking for one with a feminine flair.

The traditional prize, unique in sailing, also has been won four times by Rod Davis and Peter Holmberg, who aren’t competing, while Brady is on a roll. Although an infrequent competitor on the world match racing circuit recently, he was skipper of Italy's Mascalzone Latino team that was runnerup to Emirates Team New Zealand in the prestigious Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta concluding in New Zealand last weekend.

Brady was an unknown 21 when he won his first Congressional Cup in 1996.

"The first one was a huge thing," he said. "I never even thought about winning any more."

Francisco Bruni, a finalist against Berntsson here last year, a semifinalist in the Louis Vuitton and winner of an earlier LVT in France, also is here with the core of his Azzurra crew.

The 10 skippers, alphabetically, with current International Sailing Federation (ISAF) rankings:

Sally Barkow, Nashotah, Wis. (99), Pine Lake YC
Johnie Berntsson (9), Sweden, Royal Gothenburg YC
Gavin Brady (no ranking), New Zealand, Royal Hong Kong YC
Francesco Bruni (24), Italy, Yacht Club Costa Smeralda
Simone Ferrarese (32), Italy, Yacht Club Cortina
Bill Hardesty (no ranking), San Diego, Chicago Match Race Center
Damien Iehl, (3) France, APCC Voile Sportive
Eric Monnin (31), Switzerland, Yacht Club Immensee
Evgeniy Neugodnikov (20), Russia, Team Synergy
Dave Perry (45), Southport, Conn., Long Beach YC

They'll all be racing in the Long Beach outer harbor off Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier, where spectators will enjoy grandstand seating and free parking at the beach.

Racing will start at noon each day, conditions permitting. Each boat will race every other boat twice in a double round robin. The top four will advance to best-of-three semifinals and finals Saturday. The non-qualifiers will run a fleet race.

Perry won the Crimson Blazer in 1983 and '84 and after a quarter-century hiatus has been rebuilding his match racing resume. At the time he won his blazers they were an American monopoly. Now the event has gone so international that the last five have been taken home abroad.

But few have had to work as hard as Berntsson to win it. After starting 4-7 in the double round robin, Berntsson had to win 6 of the last 7 races to reach the semifinals---on a tiebreaker. Then he had to beat France's Mathieu Richard twice in the best-of-three semifinals. His first clinching win was tossed because he caused damage in a collision in that race, so he did it again in a second sailoff to advance to the finals, where he swept Bruni, 2-0.

For Brady and Bruni, this time around has taken on the added dimension of a possible 2013 America's Cup campaign.

"It fits into our program," Bruni said. "It keeps the program running."

Brady, who plans to move back to his native New Zealand later this year after living in Annapolis, Md. for several years, said, "Everything's forming quite fast with the America's Cup. But the America's Cup comes and goes. This event comes every year."

Berntsson said, "Winning at Long Beach [in 2009] was the start of a great year for us. We won five events and crowned it with the European championship. Of course, the conditions were perfect, but especially being second the last two years the result was fantastic.

"We had to struggle to end up on top, but we made it with really good teamwork and a good fighting spirit onboard.

"This year's crews are very strong. If you look at it from a ranking view it might seem lower than usual, but if you look behind the figures there are some really experienced teams that have been, and are, in the top level of match racing, and some new upcoming teams that are really good but haven't yet collected the ranking points that they are probably going to earn soon."

Notes

The prize money breaks down from $10,000 for first place to $1,000 for last, plus $1,000 to the winner of Saturday's fleet race for non-sailoff qualifiers. . . . Barkow is the event's first woman skipper since 1996 but doesn't have her usual all-woman crew, which is in Palermo, Italy training for a major Olympic path event that starts next week. But she does have one female crew: Genny Tulloch, who has become a serious match racer since sailing the 2007 Transpacific Yacht Race with the late Roy E. Disney's Morning Light team for the film documentary project. . . . She has already has achieved one goal for this year: breaking into the top 100 at number 99 in ISAF's latest Open Grade 1 rankings. No other woman is ranked higher than the two-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year.

Eric Monnin's Swiss team is the only one with seven crew members, including the skipper. There is no limit on numbers, but the maximum weight limit is 525 kilos (1,157 pounds). The biggest Swiss is 182 pounds. . . . Pete Ives, a Long Beach YC member and veteran racer, umpire and judge, will be principal race officer for the Congressional Cup for the fourth time. Peter Shrubb of Bermuda will be the chief umpire, with Shane Borrell of New Zealand as deputy chief umpire among 12 on-water umpires from five countries in all. . . . The "Junior Con Cup"---match racing in singlehanded Sabots among LBYC junior sailors and Con Cup competitors---will be a post-race highlight Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the channel next to the club. . . . The week-long weather forecast is for temperatures in the low 70s and winds of 8-10 knots from south to west. At Long Beach, generally, west is best and south is shifty.

[Stuart Streuli]

The Teams
(with ISAF Open Grade 1
rankings; tacticians listed first)

Sally Barkow, USA (99)
Dave Dellenbaugh
Genny Tulloch
Carl Barkow
Payson Infelise
Eric Berzin

Johnie Berntsson, Sweden (9)
Johan Barne
Niklas Carlzon
Johan "Rocker" Backman
Bjorn Lundgren
Martin Berntsson

Gavin Brady, New Zealand (NR)
Chris Larson
James Baxter
Zach Hurst
Kazuhiko Sofuku
Rodney Daniel

Francesco Bruni, Italy (24)
Tom Burnham
Ben Durham
Matteo Auguadro
Pierluigi De Felice
Pietro Mantovani

Simone Ferrarese, Italy (32)
Juan Carlos Oliva
Valenti Michelangelo
Michele Valenti Corrado
Capece Minutolo
Andrea Quartulli
Marco Infante

Bill Hardesty, USA (NR)
Andrew Campbell
Matt Cassidy
Rod Hagebois
George Peet
Andy Escort

Damien Iehl, France (3)
Fred Guilmin
Francois Verdier
Julien Faixia
Greg Evrard
Devan Le Bihan

Eric Monnin, Switzerland (31)
Jean-Claude Monnin
Simon Brugger
Loris von Siebenthal
Damien Cardenoso
Marc Monnin
Alain Marchand

Evgeniy Neugodnikov, Russia (20)
Valeriy Zatsarinskiy
Egor Larionov
Alexander Ekimov
Nikolay Kornev
Konstantin Besputin

Dave Perry, USA (45)
Charlie McKee
Steve Flam
John Hayes
Doug McLean
John Busch

NR---No bonafide ranking

[SW Editor]

March 23, 2010

LONG BEACH, Calif.

The Long Beach breeze would seldom be called fickle, but it took a freak turn Tuesday that settled a battle of unbeatens and left defending champion Johnie Berntsson of Sweden in first place after Day 1 of the 46th Congressional Cup.

Late in the fourth of five flights, the wind shifted 70 degrees to northwest directly out of downtown Long Beach and dropped from a peak of 16 knots to 3, sending Berntsson home free.

Then, with the course re-set in the new direction, Berntsson (5-0) made all the right plays to beat four-time winner Gavin Brady (4-1) by 1 minute 25 seconds in the last flight of the day.

"We were lucky to have the right shift," Berntsson said. "It was a matter of timing the wind and not doing more tacking than you needed to do."

Halfway up the first beat he broke off a tacking duel and went toward the beach as Brady went the opposite way. When Berntsson returned to round the windward mark he had an unbeatable led in the drifting breeze.

"All the tacking was very expensive," he said.

Not so lucky was Bill Hardesty, a first-time Congressional Cup skipper who in the previous flight was swapping leads with Berntsson in a bow to bow battle near the end of their race.

"We were two boats left of him, and that was enough to put 20 boat lengths on us," Hardesty (2-3) said.

At day's end, then, Brady shared second place with Italy's Francesco Bruni, last year's runnerup, and two-time winner Dave Perry, whose only stumble was against Berntsson, who made the noted rules guru pay hard with penalties for two tactical miscues to win by 1 minute 24 seconds.

It was not so nice a day for Sally Barkow, a two-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year and the event's first woman skipper since 1996 who sits at 0-5 after what she described as a learning experience.

"We had a tough day," she said, "but racing against some of the best professionals here is fun. It takes some time to get used to the boats, and that's what today was about."

Brady offered the same tone that "first you get a feel for the conditions and try to get faster every day so at the end of the week you're ready for the semifinals."

Racing will continue starting at 11:30 each day, conditions permitting. Each boat will race every other boat twice in a double round robin. The top four will advance to best-of-three semifinals and finals Saturday. The non-qualifiers will run a fleet race.

The racing is in the Long Beach outer harbor off Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier, with free grandstand seating and parking for spectators.

Notes

Monday night's dressy/casual Skippers Dinner was standing room only, with the sailors setting the tone for the week by firing off a few zingers. Gavin Brady, assessing veteran Dave Perry, said, "I see that Dave was ranked number 39 [in the world]. I think that was on the Senior Tour." . . . Russia's Evgeniy Neugodnikov told the audience, "There are many jokes I do not understand, but I'm glad you're smiling, anyway." . . . By the way, his names are pronounced ev-gen-yee and nay-oo-godnikov.
. . . As for Simone Ferrarese of Italy, it's see-mone and fur-are-essy---or close.

The Congressional Cup has maintained a high level of organization over the years with a volunteer force of some 300 club members and their families. Each crew is assigned boat hostesses and a housing team to deliver the outstanding local hospitality the Congressional Cup has offered now for 45 years.

Spinnaker sponsors are F&M Bank, the Press-Telegram and Oceanaut Watches. Sails sponsors are MCA Logistics, Gladstone's Restaurant, Newmeyer & Dillion and Union Bank. Hospitality sponsors are The Port of Long Beach, St. Mary Medical Center, City National Bank, The Breakers of Long Beach and Mount Gay Rum. An Honorary sponsor is Catalina Yachts.

Results

FLIGHT 1
Johnie Berntsson, Sweden, def. Sally Barkow, USA, 29 seconds.
Gavin Brady, New Zealand, def. Simone Ferrarese, Italy, 0:58.
Francesco Bruni, Italy, def. Evgeniy Neugodnikov, Russia, 0:35.
Damien Iehl, France, def. Eric Monnin, Switzerland, 0:30.
Dave Perry, USA, def. Bill Hardesty, USA, 0:39.

FLIGHT 2
Brady d. Neugodnikov, 0:10.
Morrin d. Bruni, 0:18.
Iehl d. Barkow, 0:15,
Berntsson d. Perry, 1:24.
Hardesty d. Ferrarese, 0:26.

FLIGHT 3
Bruni d. Barkow, 0:31.
Perry d. Iehl, 1:00.
Berntsson d. Ferrarese, 0:21.
Brady d. Hardesty, 0:42.
Neugodnikov d. Monnin, 0:10.

FLIGHT 4
Iehl d. Ferrarese, 0:20.
Berntsson d. Hardesty, 0:31.
Brady d. Monnin, 0:58.
Neugodnikov d. Barkow, 0:38.
Perry d. Bruni, 0:16.

FLIGHT 5
Berntsson d. Brady, 1:25.
Monnin d. Barkow, 0:10.
Perry d. Neugodnikov, 0:16.
Bruni d. Ferrarese, 1:20.
Hardesty d. Iehl, 0:45.

STANDINGS
(after 5 of 18 flights)

Berntsson, 5-0; Brady, Bruni and Perry, 4-1; Iehl, 3-2; Hardesty and Neugodnikov, 2-3; Monnin, 1-4; Barkow and Ferrarese, 0-5.

[Stuart Streuli]

Berntsson, Brady a race short but 1-2 in Con Cup

LONG BEACH, Calif.

A jolt of intensity, a runaway mark and some unsettled business in the jury room left the 46th Congressional Cup in overnight anxiety after competition lurched through Day 2 Wednesday.

Johnie Berntsson, the defending champion from Sweden, remained unbeaten at 10-0 even though 11 of the 18 round-robin flights had been sailed. Whether he and Italy's Francesco Bruni will have to resail Wednesday's match, which Berntsson thinks he won legitimately, was to be determined at a special hearing before Thursday's racing.

Four-time winner Gavin Brady, in second place at 9-1, will have to resail his match against France's Damien Iehl, which he didn't finish.

The problem developed when, in brisk breeze building from 3 to 12 knots through the afternoon, broke the windward mark loose from its ground tackle in the ninth flight of racing. The yellow inflatable drifted downwind as the two matches approached, led by Berntsson over Bruni. The mark was chased down by the attending mark boat, which quickly pulled it onboard and held its position to serve as the new mark---an acceptable practice in such situations.

Berntsson and Bruni then rounded the mark boat, but Brady and Iehl were waved off the course by an on-water umpire signaling with a hand across his throat that their race was over because of the displaced mark.

A hearing Wednesday night ruled that they would try again Thursday before the scheduled races commence, but Berntsson and Bruni remained unsettled, even though Berntsson finished the race.

After returning to the dock, Berntsson said of the incident, "It didn't affect the result. Bruni [already] had a penalty and we had a good lead."

Bruni, asked at the evening's press conference, if he'd like a resail, said, "Of course, I'd be happy."

Otherwise, he'll stand with 6 wins and 5 losses starting the day, with Berntsson at 11-0. Brady is currently 9-1 and Iehl 5-5.

Amid all the uproar, Bill Hardesty, a Con Cup rookie skipper from San Diego, quietly climbed into third place Wednesday by winning five of his six races, including a battle with Evgeniy Neugodnikov marked by a couple of collisions that cost the Russian disqualifying penalties.

"We're feeling more confident," Hardesty said, "and I'm feeling better about driving with a wheel."

Other smaller boats he races successfully, such as winning Etchells world championship in 2008 and the Rolex U.S. Prince of Wales Bowl match racing title in 2009, are steered with tillers, not wheels.

Sally Barkow, the event's first woman skipper since 1999, seized her first win, beating still winless Simone Ferrarese of Italy, but she also fought to some close finishes, including a one-second loss to Dave Perry.

Racing will continue through Saturday, starting at 11:30 each day, conditions permitting. Each boat will race every other boat twice in a double round robin. The top four will advance to best-of-three semifinals and finals Saturday. The non-qualifiers will run a fleet race.

The racing is in the Long Beach outer harbor off Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier, with free grandstand seating and parking for spectators. Snacks and refreshments are available.

Notes

Kyle Blair, 11, came from far behind to win the post-race Junior Con Cup fleet race pitting Long Beach YC youth sailors against the pros in singlehanded Naples Sabots in the channels around the club.

The Congressional Cup has maintained a high level of organization over the years with a volunteer force of some 300 club members and their families. Each crew is assigned boat hostesses and a housing team to deliver the outstanding local hospitality the Congressional Cup has offered now for 45 years.

Spinnaker sponsors are F&M Bank, the Press-Telegram and Oceanaut Watches. Sails sponsors are MCA Logistics, Gladstone's Restaurant, Newmeyer & Dillion and Union Bank. Hospitality sponsors are The Port of Long Beach, St. Mary Medical Center, City National Bank, The Breakers of Long Beach and Mount Gay Rum. An Honorary sponsor is Catalina Yachts.

Results

FLIGHT 6
Eric Monnin, Switzerland, def. Dave Perry, USA, 0:37.
Evgeniy Neugodnikov, Russia, def. Simone Ferrarese, Italy, 0:45.
Bill Hardesty, USA, def. Francesco Bruni, Italy, 0:38.
Johnie Berntsson, Sweden, def. Damien Iehl, France, 1:10.
Gavin Brady, New Zealand, def. Sally Barkow, USA, 0:35.

FLIGHT 7
Iehl d. Bruni, 0:07.
Brady d. Perry, 0:26.
Barkow d. Ferrarese, 0:09.
Monnin d. Hardesty, 0:38.
Berntsson d. Neugodnikov, 0:18.

FLIGHT 8
Perry d. Ferrarese, 0:16.
Hardesty d. Barkow, 0:15.
Berntsson d. Monnin, 0:42.
Brady d. Bruni, 0:32.
Neugodnikov d. Iehl, 0:26. 9

FLIGHT 9
Perry d. Barkow, 0:01.
Monnin d. Ferrarese, 0:37.
Hardesty d. Neugodnikov (DNF), no time.
Berntsson vs. Bruni, possible resail following jury hearing Thursday morning.
Brady vs. Iehl, to be resailed Thursday.

FLIGHT 10
Berntsson d. Barkow, 0:18.
Brady d. Ferrarese, 0:05.
Bruni d. Neugodnikov, 1:25.
Monnin d. Iehl, 0:33.
Hardesty d. Perry, 0:22.

FLIGHT 11
Brady d. Neugodnikov, 0:17.
Bruni d. Monnin, 0:12.
Iehl d. Barkow, 0:46.
Berntsson d. Perry, 0:30.
Hardesty d. Ferrarese, 1:20.

STANDINGS
(after 11 of 18 flights)

Berntsson, 10-0; Brady, 9-1; Hardesty, 7-4; Bruni, 6-4; Perry, 6-5; Iehl, 5-5; Monnin, 5-6; Neugodnikov, 4-7; 1-4; Barkow, 1-10; Ferrarese, 0-11