2000 Kenwood Cup - Day Four

AUSSIES HOLD KIWIS AT BAY

Australia, USA and NZ take 1st, 2nd and 3rd in middle distance race, Bumblebee slides to 11th overall.

As the numbers crunched at the end of the blister-paced 51-mile middle distance race of the 2000 Kenwood Cup, John Kahlbetzer's on-the-water winner Bumblebee 5 slipped to 11th position overall, while the so-called 'beach-ball' boat of the fleet, Simon Whiston's Smile, bounced through to first. Smile and her sister-ship Fruit Machine are matching Beneteau 40.7 cruiser/ racers, radically optimized for racing, and know affectionately in their native Australia as 'the beach-balls' partly because of their rounded appearance and partly because of their bouncing motion going upwind in a sea-way. These beach balls, however, pack a mean punch. Sailed by brothers Simon and Neil Whiston they have been cleaning-up in Australia, and here in Hawaii there seems no stopping their wining ways. Not only was Smile first on corrected time, Fruit Machine came fourth. Between them were the USA's Esmeralda (Farr 50, Makoto Uematsu, skippered by Ken Read) and New Zealand's Sea Hawk (Farr 47, Naohiko Sera with Ray Davis in charge). The result is enough to keep the Kenwood Cup interestingly open, but at the same time confirm that Australia is this year's team to beat.

With Yendys (Farr 49, Geoffrey Ross) finishing in 8th place Australia held on to and slightly improved their lead in the overall points table, and New Zealand with 3rd, 4th and 5th consolidated second. Sadly for the USA Red team, Esmeralda's second place could not be matched by her team-mates, the Farr 40s Samba Pa Ti (John Kilroy, Jnr) - 6th - and Orion (Philippe Kahn), 9th.

Results Summary Race 5:

Class A
1 Esmeralda      Farr 50             Makoto Uematsu    USA
2 Seahawk        Farr 47             Naohiko Sera      NZL
3 Air NZ High 5  Farr 47             Mick Cookson      NZL
4 Big Apple III  Farr 45             Hideo Matsuda     NZL
5 Yendys         Farr 49             Geoffrey Ross     AUS
6 Bumblebee 5    Sydney 62           John Kahlbetzer   AUS
7 Andiamo        Davidson 55         Andrew Taylor     NZL

Class B
1 Karasu         Judel/Vrolijk 43    Yasuo Nanamori    JPN
2 G'Net          Farr ILC 40         Shizue Kanbe      JPN
3 Cha-Ching      Sydney 41           Scooter Simmons   USA
4 Maupiti        Farr 39             Hiroshi Yamagishi JPN
5 Liberte Expres Beneteau First 47.7 Yasumasa Kawamura JPN
6 Glama!         Sydney 41           Seth Radow        USA
7 Tower          Lidgard 45          Daisuke Kimura    JPN

Class C
1 Samba Pa Ti    Farr 40 OD          John Kilroy Jnr   USA
2 Orion          Farr 40 OD          Philippe Kahn     USA
3 Zamboni        Farr 40 OD          Doug Taylor       USA
4 Foundation     Farr 40 OD          Masato Fujumaki   JPN

Class D
1 Smile          Beneteau 40.7       Simon Whiston     AUS
2 Fruit Machine  Beneteau 40.7       Neil Whiston      AUS
3 Matador        Aerodyne 38         Jason Khoury      USA
4 Mojo Rising    Beneteau 40.7       Clayton Craigie   AUS
5 Bondi Tram     Frers 41            John Haig         USA

Kenwood Cup Teams
 1 AUS       218
 2 NZL       208
 3 USA RED   173
 4 JPN       113
 5 USA WHITE 101
 6 USA BLUE   36

More Information:

• www.kenwoodcup.com