Canadians On Top At ISAF Nations Cup North America & Caribbean Regional Final

ISAF Nations Cup Regional Final - North America / Caribbean - Fort Worth, Texas, USA

At the end of the first day of racing at the ISAF Nations Cup North America & Caribbean Regional Final the Canadian crew of Peter Wickwire, Matt Christie and Tim Bishop are in the lead.

The trio, who have an ISAF World Match Race Ranking position of #75, came into the regatta as favourites. And they have lived up to expectation after winning all of their races against crews from the British Virgin Islands and El Salvador.

Colin Rathbun and his crew of Christopher Haycraft and Antony Wighting from the British Virgin Islands are in second place. The trio defeated El Salvador’s representatives of Mauricio Gallardo, Jorge Guevara and Humberto Zepeda four times to leave the El Salvadorian crew without a race win.

Following a brief morning meeting and boat draw, the competitors hit the lake under cloudy skies and blustery, though relatively steady winds with moderate velocity. Spinnakers were allowed for matches all during the day since predicted gusts in the high 20s never materialized.

Thursday saw great competition as the Race Committee signal boat staff performed flawlessly through two double round robins. They stayed on the water for lunch in order to maximize the racing time, the weather expected to deteriorate throughout the morning with a wall of thunderstorms and possible hail moving in from the southwest.

The umpires conducted a short debrief at 17:00 local time, explaining calls on several specific situations and discussing their typical expectations in a variety of situations based on wind speeds and aggressive moves or more conservative boat handling maneuvers.

Sailing is scheduled to start at 10:00 local time today.

The ISAF Nations Cup is a global competition to find the world’s top match racing nations in both open and women’s events and to develop match racing infrastructure around the world. The Nations Cup encompasses a series of eight Regional Finals from March to July 2011, from which the top team will qualify for the ISAF Nations Cup Grand Final, which will take place in Sheboygan, USA from 13-18 September 2011. (As the host country, the USA will have automatic spots in both the Open and Women’s Divisions, thus they are not competing at the Regional Final.)

Nations Cup Microsite: http://www.sailing.org/nations-cup.php.

Written By Karen Smith - Fort Worth Boat Club - http://www.fortworthboatclub.com