“It’s your year! It’s your year!”
Chris Poole and his team from Seawanhaka Yacht Club started the chant early in the week and it added volume as the week went on.
It was indeed time for Poole and his smooth-running team from New York. After four attempts, it was their turn to win Long Beach’s fabled Congressional Cup, the world’s longest-running annual match-racing regatta, on Saturday, April 22.
“I’m still in disbelief that we sailed the perfect regatta,” said Poole. “I don’t think it gets any better than that.”
Related: History of the early Congressional Cups
The winning skipper added: “Thanks to my team. It’s been a two-year progression.”
But on Saturday’s final day of action for the Cup’s 58th edition, the celebration was put on hold for a while, subject to the whims of the wind.
Breezes quieted for a while in the still waters at the end of the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier, forcing a two-hour postponement of racing. But once the competition re-started, Poole wasted no time in snaring the victory.
Hosted by the Long Beach Yacht Club, the event is a high-intensity contest of strategy between the world’s top skippers in Catalina 37 boats.
Poole and his Riptide Racing team were undefeated throughout the regatta. That hasn’t happed since the double round-robin format was implemented, according to Congressional Cup statistician Pete Young.
It was a battle between the tournament’s two remaining skippers — 34-year-old American Poole and 25-year-old Jeppe Borch from Denmark. In world sailing rankings, Poole is top-ranked, with Borch fourth.
This week’s battle followed last week’s annual Ficker Cup, a match-racing competition that serves as a qualifier.
Just after Saturday’s final race, the LBYC hosted a victory celebration, featuring the fleet of Catalina 37 sailboats parading through Alamitos Bay, flying their beautiful spinnakers, greeted by a Long Beach Fire Department boat’s towering water salute.
The…
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