Governor’s Cup: Balboa Yacht Club in semis again
Going perfect for the second day in a row in the Governor’s Cup wasn’t out of the picture for skipper Christophe Killian and his Balboa Yacht Club crew. The Corona del Mar High alumnus was that confident going into Friday’s final four races in round-robin action off Newport Beach.
A day after winning all six of its races, Balboa Yacht Club began Friday by claiming its first two. In the third race, the host’s winning streak ended with a loss to Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
It didn’t matter to Killian and his crew of Harrison Vandervort and Jack Martin, because by then, the trio had clinched a berth into the semifinals of the oldest youth match racing regatta in the world for the third year in a row.
The three have reached this stage every time they have competed together in the Governor’s Cup. The next step for Killian, Vandervort and Martin is qualifying for the finals for the first time and winning the 50th Governor’s Cup for Balboa Yacht Club.
Balboa Yacht Club, which last won the Governor’s Cup 36 years ago, has its work cut out for itself. After 22 round-robin races, Balboa Yacht Club finished fourth with 14 wins, resulting in 14 points and a matchup with the last skipper to lead a U.S. team to a Governor’s Cup championship five years ago.
Killian is familiar with that skipper, Nevin Snow, from first-place San Diego Yacht Club. He has competed with Snow in college, Killian representing the College of Charleston in South Carolina and Snow sailing for Georgetown.
Now the two skippers will go at it in the semifinals of the Governor’s Cup on Saturday, starting around noon.
For posting a 20-2 record during the first four days of competition, San Diego Yacht Club earned the right to pick its semifinal opponent. San Diego Yacht Club chose Balboa Yacht Club, the only semifinalist not to beat San Diego Yacht Club.
The other two semifinalists are from Australia — Cruising Yacht Club (17 points) and Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club (15) — and they each defeated San Diego Yacht Club.
One thing is certain with these semifinals: After last year’s all-Australian final, a U.S. team will be in the best-of-five championship. The question is which American team will try to end Australia’s and New Zealand’s dominance in the Governor’s Cup since 2009. Since then, those two countries have won the event three times each.
“Definitely the hardest year because there is stiffer competition,” Killian said.
The semifinals are stacked with skippers who have won the Governor’s Cup in the past. Harrison Price took first last year with Cruising Yacht Club. Sam Gilmour won it in 2014 and ’13 with Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, and Snow prevailed with San Diego Yacht Club in 2011, when he was 17.
Snow is 22 now, and he’s looking to lead San Diego Yacht Club, which includes members Scott Sinks, Rebecca McElavain and Chuck Eaton, to its second finals appearance in three years.
San Diego Yacht Club features one more member than Balboa Yacht Club. Whether that’s an advantage or disadvantage, Vandervort said it depends on how windy it will be Saturday.
“If it’s a little windy,” Vandervort said, “it helps them.”
It wasn’t windy enough to hold the semifinals on Friday, and officials moved the semifinals to Saturday. Depending on the conditions, Killian said the semifinals would be either a best-of-five series or a best-of-three series.
The two times Balboa Yacht Club and San Diego Yacht Club met during this week, San Diego Yacht Club easily sailed to victory in the first race, and the second one was tighter. Balboa Yacht Club even led the second time around, before San Diego Yacht Club pulled away.
Killian has gotten the best of Snow before, coming at the Intercollegiate Sailing Assn. College Match Race National Championship last November. Killian skippered a different crew against Snow’s the last time, as his College of Charleston team won the 10-team event and Snow’s Georgetown team finished third.
Vandervort was there competing with UC Santa Barbara, his school at the time, when Killian led the College of Charleston. Now Vandervort, who’s transferring to Vanderbilt, and Martin, who is transferring to UCSB from Orange Coast College, will do their best to help Killian knock off Snow, the two-time Marlow Ropes College Sailor of the Year.
“I did like that that they picked us,” said Martin, adding that Snow’s familiarity with Killian is most likely the reason he decided to face Balboa YC in the semifinals. “Hopefully we bring home first. It would be comical if we got third again.”
