Governor’s Cup: Vose, definitely a contender
When the Royal Southern Yacht Club team of skipper Annabel Vose, middle Tim Gratton and bow Bradley McLaughlin traveled to Newport Beach for the 49th Governor’s Cup they had hoped they could visit the Grand Canyon.
The trio from the United Kingdom didn’t realize it was so far away in Arizona. Instead, they are hiking in a different way. They still, however, would like to end up on top of a mountain, the winners of this prestigious international youth match racing regatta in Corona del Mar.
Vose is one of five teams that recorded eights wins to complete the round robin of 12 teams. The five teams advance to Thursday’s quarterfinals.
Balboa Yacht Club, the home team skippered by Christophe Killian, also earned eights wins. Killian, with middle Harrison Vandervort and bow Jack Martin, are doing their best to end BYC’s 35-year drought without the Gov Cup trophy.
Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (Harry Price), Royal Freshwater Bay YC of Australia (Lachy Gilmour) and Del Rey YC (Chris Weis) also earned eight wins.
San Diego YC (Scott Sinks) posted seven victories, Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (Leonard Fry) has five and Newport Harbor YC (Jack Thompson) with four wins also qualified for the quarterfinals, which will be another round-robin series. The top four move on to Friday’s semifinals. The championship finals take place Saturday.
Vose’s team opened with a loss to Gilmour to open the regatta on Tuesday, but reeled off four wins after shaking off nerves and growing more familiar with the boats.
Vose dealt Killian his first loss on Wednesday. The BYC team also fell to Price and Gilmour.
“They were among the most aggressive and perhaps the most aggressive but only in a very sporting manner,” Paul Blank said of the U.K. team on Tuesday.
Blank, a BYC member of 32 years, has been tweeting the action on Twitter (@bycgovcup) for the past two days. He’s hosting the Royal Southern team.
“They were not offensive in any way shape of form,” Blank said of Royal Southern’s aggressiveness. “They know their stuff. They are going to do quite well in this regatta.”
Vose, Grant and McLaughlin have done their best to also have fun while in Orange County. They said they took in some great sites and food in the three days leading up to the racing. They visited Laguna Beach, ate at The Cannery on Lido Isle, as well as Bear Flag Fish Company for tacos. They also had brunch at the Pelican Hill Resort and shopped at South Coast Plaza and Fashion Island during their first trip to Orange County.
“We’ve eaten so well. That’s why we like the breeze,” Vose joked. “We’ve eaten solidly for three days since we got here.”
Vose won both the Women’s World University Match Racing Championships and British Youth National regatta over the last two years to go with a world title in the 420 class. She’s quickly earned the respect of the other racers in the Gov Cup.
Gratton and McLaughlin also respect their skipper. They say she is a great leader and her communication is sound.
She usually bakes them cupcakes, but the young men were OK to be without them for the Gov Cup.
Blank said he has been impressed with the team’s ability to come together and compete at a high level in such a quick time, as this is their first regatta.
The quarterfinals are expected to be very competitive with five teams having earned eight wins and Sinks at seven.