Governor's Cup: Solid start for RNZYS Teams on Day 1

by Andrew Delves, RNZYS 17 Jul 2019 06:48 BST 17 July 2019

Leonard Takahashi - Governor's Cup Day 1, July 16, 2019 © Andrew Delves

The four Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron teams at the 53rd Governor’s Cup, at Newport Beach, California have got away to a solid start on Day 1.

The breeze was consistent throughout the day and picked up in the afternoon which provided some nice tight racing and an even playing field for the 12 international teams.

Leonard Takahashi and his RNZYS Performance Programme Pacific Racing Team has the best record out of the RNZYS contingent so far, with five wins and two losses to his name which sees him tied for the lead with the CYCA’s Finn Tapper.

Jordan Stevenson - Governor's Cup Day 1, July 16, 2019 - photo © Andrew Delves

This could have been different if it wasn’t for a dramatic final match of the day between Takahashi and Tapper. Tapper managed to ping a penalty on Takahashi in the pre start, but as they approached the start-line Tapper collided with a finishing boat that was completing a penalty turn, which gave Takahashi a nice head-start and enough time to wash his penalty. Tapper also hit a mark during the race, allowing Takahashi to sail to a comfortable victory.

Two-time Gov’s Cup runner up Takahashi was pretty happy with how his day unfolded – “All in all it was a pretty good day, five wins and two losses is a good start. The boat’s feeling fast, we just need to sort out a few loose ends in the pre-start game.”

Our remaining three skippers – Jordan Stevenson (RNZYS PP Vento Racing), Nick Egnot-Johnson (RNZYS PP Knots Racing) and Frankie Dair (RNZYS YTP) – are all tied on four wins and three losses. All of them had some great races and some not so great, including against each other, and are looking good to improve their records over the next few days.

Nick Egnot-Johnson - Governor's Cup Day 1, July 16, 2019 - photo © Andrew Delves

Stevenson’s RNZYS PP Vento Racing Team had an impressive win over Takahashi in what was one of the best matches of the day, and is looking forward to getting back out in the Gov’s Cup 22’s tomorrow – “It was a really good day today, we’re pretty happy with our record and I think we were sailing well but there were lot’s of lessons learnt. We had a good start against Leonard and just managed to hold it around the track so we’re stoked with that one.”

Frankie Dair also looked good on the water but is looking to improve on Wednesday – “We had a mixed bag today. We made a lot of rookie mistakes but also did some really good things so it’s just a matter of shaking off a bit more rust and getting back into the groove of things.”

Egnot-Johnson’s Knots Racing also had a mixed bag. The team lost the first match of the day against American Ryan Parkin but went on to record some good wins and a couple of tight losses – “We had a tough day today, we threw away two wins at the start of the day in really shifty conditions – we just missed out on one big shift each upwind and that was enough for the race to be over. After that we managed to plug out four wins so we were happy to be improving after each race.”