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 wind shift 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, while Kelsey Durham would finish winless in the qualifying round.
Ian Williams’s Team GAC Pindar, Torvar Mirsky’s Mirsky Racing Team, and Taylor Canfield’s Stars+Stripes have advanced to the Quarterfinal Round of the 70th Bermuda Gold Cup and 2020 Open Match Racing World Championship.
Williams won Group B with a 6-1 record. He gained the top spot by defeating Mirsky’s crew in a fantastic match in Flight 6. Mirsky held a tenuous lead of one boat length around the windward/leeward race course through to about halfway down the run to the finish. That’s when Williams positioned himself just to leeward of Mirsky’s transom.
Williams was initially penalized for luffing too quickly, but moments later he offset that penalty with another luff that earned Mirsky a penalty for not responding quickly. With no penalties and Williams to leeward, he was able to force Mirsky outside the pin end of the finish line and claim what appeared to be an easy win, although it was far from it, meanwhile, Lance Fraser who grew up sailing on the Hamilton Harbor would pick up 2 wins on Day Two, Fraser pulled off wins over Jelmer van Beek and Pauline Courtois.
