Governor’s Cup: Balboa Yacht Club third once again

Heavy fog off Newport Beach delayed the start of the final day of the Governor’s Cup. The visibility was so bad that skipper Christophe Killian and his Balboa Yacht Club crew couldn’t see 100 yards away.

Balboa Yacht Club’s crew, which included Harrison Vandervort and Jack Martin, had to wait a couple of hours before the semifinals of the oldest youth match racing regatta in the world began on Saturday afternoon. Once the fog bank rolled away, the competition got underway.

Then the winds picked up, getting as high as 18 knots, ideal conditions for most competitors, except for Balboa Yacht Club.

The hosts of the 12-team tournament are one of the lightest boats and the three-man crew struggled in the semifinals against San Diego Yacht Club’s four-person crew. Balboa Yacht Club lost the first two races in the best-of-three format. San Diego Yacht Club advanced to the finals, while Balboa Yacht Club settled for the third-place event, a familiar one for Killian, Vandervort and Martin.

For the third straight year, the trio finished third in the Governor’s Cup. Balboa Yacht Club won two of three races against defending champion Australia Cruising Yacht Club, which featured skipper Harry Price.

With the Governor’s Cup in its 50th year, Killian, Vandervort and Martin wanted to win the title badly for Balboa Yacht Club. The last time Balboa Yacht Club won the Governor’s Cup was in 1980.

Balboa Yacht Club will have to wait at least another year for a chance to keep the trophy at home. Killian, a Corona del Mar High alumnus, and Vandervort and Martin, both Newport Harbor graduates, have two more shots to win it together, as the team will be eligible the next two years.

One sailor who won’t be eligible next year is skipper Nevin Snow, from San Diego Yacht Club. He turns 23 in October, and in his final Governor’s Cup appearance, Snow went out on top.

Snow won the Governor’s Cup for the second time, sweeping skipper Sam Gilmour and his Australia Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club crew. San Diego Yacht Club is the first U.S. team to win the Governor’s Cup since 2011, when Snow led San Diego Yacht Club to the championship.

“The first one was really special because at the time it was two of the kids [Jake LaDow and Jake Reynolds] I grew up sailing with,” said Snow, who competed in the Governor’s Cup five times. “We practiced a lot and won it together, and we were one of the youngest teams to ever win it. But this one is special, too, because there are four sailors, a bigger group of San Diego representatives and a little bit of a different crew.”

Snow and his crew of Scott Sinks, Rebecca McElavain and Chuck Eaton went 24-2 during the five-day competition, capping things off by topping a formidable opponent in Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, which won the Governor’s Cup in 2014 and ’13.

San Diego Yacht Club’s only losses were to Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club and Cruising Yacht Club, both coming in round-robin action. Outside of those two setbacks, Snow and San Diego Yacht Club dominated the field. Snow is one of the best young sailors around, having been recently named the Marlow Ropes College Sailor of the Year for the second time during his time at Georgetown.

By coming in first during the 22 round-robin races, Snow earned the opportunity to pick his semifinal opponent and he singled out Killian, whose crew went 14-8 during the round robin.

“It was just the only team of the semifinalists that we had beaten both times,” Snow said was the reason behind choosing Balboa Yacht Club. “With the other two semifinalists, we had [split our races]. We just felt the most comfortable against Balboa.”

San Diego Yacht Club showed how comfortable it was by beating most of the field. The other boats included fifth-place Japan Yacht Match Race Assn. (skipper Ryo Leonard Takahashi), sixth-place Marina del Rey Yacht Club (Christopher Weis), seventh-place finishers Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (William Dargaville) and Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club (Lachy Gilmour), ninth-place Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron (George Anyon), 10th-place Portland Yacht Club (Charles Lalumiere), 11th-place San Francisco Yacht Club (Romain Screve) and 12th-place Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club (Will Boulden).

Balboa Yacht Club turned things around after San Diego Yacht Club swept Balboa Yacht Club in the semifinals.

Killian and his crew had to rebound in a hurry. Balboa Yacht Club lost the first race against Cruising Yacht Club in the third-place match, making it three straight losses on the day, before it won the next two races by a fair distance.

“A third one in a row,” Killian said of the third-place result. “It was a very tough group of people here, so I think we’re pretty happy with how we did, although we would have liked to have done better.

“[The winds] were challenging to race against Nevin because he’s one of the heavier teams. We had our work cut out for us there, but once we got matched up against a lighter team, I think we were pretty good in that one.”