USA’S TULLOCH & PORTUGAL’S MARINHO WIN 3RD ANNUAL CARLOS AGUILAR MATCH RACE

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands (December 5, 2010). The ability to recover and learn from mistakes made early in the regatta paid off in a Women’s Division win for the USA’s Genny Tulloch (and her crew - Alice Leonard, Jen Chamberlin, and Liz Hall), while it was a crack crew that could read the tricky wind shifts that led Portugal’s Alvaro Marinho/Seth Sailing Team to champion the Open Division at the Carlos Aguilar Match Race, (CAMR), presented by Ulysse Nardin/Trident Jewels & Time.

Both divisions started this final day of racing by completing the Semi-Finals, then moving right into the Finals.

In the Women’s Division, Great Britain’s Lucy Macgregor handily beat the Netherland’s Klaartje Zuiderbaan (3-0) in the Semi-Finals and the USA’s Genny Tulloch bested the USA’s Sally Barkow in extremely close matches (3-2) to give both MacGregor and Tulloch berths into the Finals.

In the Finals, both Macgregor and Tulloch sparred so closely that after two races the score was tied with each team winning one race. The decider came in the third race when Tulloch took the start and handed Macgregor a penalty at the same time. Macgregor fought back and caught a puff the USA team missed to overtake them at the first windward mark. Tulloch caught up and passed Macgregor on the second upwind run and stretched her team’s lead over the Brits to nearly eight boat lengths by the finish.

“It was good for us to take our losses early, figure out what we did wrong, do it better and clear our heads,” says Tulloch. “I think that mental regrouping was a big reason for our success.”

Tulloch’s GETsailing Team includes Liz Hall, Jen Chamberlin and Alice Leonard.

The title earned Tulloch a Ulysse Nardin Lady Diver precision timepiece. Championing this International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Grade Two event also means a notch up in the ranking for Tulloch, who is currently ranked 12th in the ISAF women’s match race standings. Macgregor is ranked 2nd.

In the Open Division, Semi-Final action saw the U.S. Virgin Islands’ Peter Holmberg beat the USA’s Dave Perry (3-1) and Portugal’s Alvaro Marinho/Seth Sailing Team triumph over the USVI’s Taylor Canfield (3-1), thus launching both Holmberg and Marinho into the Finals.

Holmberg, Open Division defending champion, didn’t let 14th-ranked Marinho off easy and the first two finals races, like the women, ended at an even score with each team winning one race. In the final race, Marinho pulled ahead of Holmberg at the start and held his lead, albeit sometimes a very slim one over Holmberg and his ace crew, right to the end with the Virgin Islander’s nipping at the Portuguese team’s heels the whole way.

“This win is huge for us,” says Marinho. “Not only was it great to win the event, but to beat someone as good as Peter Holmberg was incredible. The local guys were very tough. My crew did a great job and I think our success came in calling the shifts right.”

Seth Sailing Team crew members included Luis Brito, Nuno Barreto and Antonio Fontes.

Marinho pocketed a Ulysse Nardin Maxi Marine Diver precision timepiece for his win.

The (CAMR) is an Official World Tour Qualifier (WTQ) for the 2011 World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) (www.worldmatchracingtour.com). Marinho’s victory earned his Seth Sailing Team an invitation to the Stena Match Cup Sweden, in Marstrand, July 4-10, 2011.

Spectators, which included the public, local officials and Virgin Islands Olympic Committee members, filled the tented bleacher seating to watch the racing which was narrated live by America’s Cup-sailor-turned commentator, Geordie Shaver. Arm chair viewers around the world also tuned in via a live webcast on www.carlosmatchrace.com/.

The St. Thomas Yacht Club (STYC) and the Virgin Islands Sailing Association (VISA) were the joint organizing authority for the CAMR, which was sailed in Inter-Club (IC)-24s. The U.S. Virgin Islands is no stranger to hosting world-class match racing events, having hosted six major regattas of this type in the last twelve years.

The CAMR is presented by Ulysse Nardin, exclusively distributed by Trident Jewels & Time. Major sponsors include the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism, Frenchman’s Reef & Morning Star Marriott Beach Resort, Heineken Beer, distributed in the U.S. Virgin Islands by Bellows International Ltd., Budget Marine, and Yacht Haven Grande.

Budget Marine also sponsored the Budget Marine Youth Regatta on Saturday, which gave nearly a dozen teenage members of HYPE (Helping Young People Excel) a chance to learn how to sail.

Daily race results and copyright-free high-resolution downloadable images by Virgin Islands-based photographer, Dean Barnes, will be available for editorial use on the official event website at: www.carlosmatchrace.com/pr.php

DAY FOUR RESULTS – FINAL STANDINGS

WOMEN’S DIVISION
1. Genny Tulloch, USA
2. Lucy MacGregor, GBR
3. Sally Barkow, USA
4. Klaartje Zuiderbaan, NED
5. Julianna Senfft, BRA
6. Renata Decnop, BRA
7. Sandy Hayes, USA
8. Kelly O’Brien-Uszenski, USVI

OPEN DIVISION
1. Alvaro Marinho/Seth Sailing Team, POR
2. Peter Holmberg, USVI
3. Taylor Canfield, USVI
4. Dave Perry, USA
5. Colin Rathbun, BVI
6. Laurie Jury, NZL
7. Chris Van Tol, USA
8. Stratis Andreadis, GRE

ABOUT THE SPONSOR

Trident Jewels & Time is a family business started by Peter and Nina Alwani in 1980 in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Since then their two children, Satish and Girish Alwani, have established the company as the store of two sensations: jewelry and watches. Trident has two branches in St. Thomas (Main Street & Yacht Haven Grande Marina) and three branches in Aruba (Little Europe and Times Square). Trident carries all varieties of jewels including loose diamonds, sapphires, emeralds and tanzanite. The company is also the exclusive authorized retailer for a selection of some of the most exquisite timepieces in the world: Ulysse Nardin, Harry Winston, Franck Muller, Bovet, Jaquet Droz, Bell & Ross, U-Boat, Graham and Technomarine.

The St. Thomas Yacht Club (STYC) and the Virgin Islands Sailing Association (VISA) are the organizing authority for the Grade 2 CAMR, namesake for the late Carlos Aguilar, who was an avid sailor and match racer. The U.S. Virgin Islands is no stranger to hosting world-class match racing events, having hosted six major regattas of this type in the last twelve years.

The CAMR is presented by Ulysse Nardin, exclusively distributed by Trident Jewels & Time. Major sponsors include the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Tourism, Frenchman’s Reef & Morning Star Marriott Beach Resort, Heineken Beer, distributed in the U.S. Virgin Islands by Bellows International Ltd., Budget Marine, and Yacht Haven Grande.