Ian Williams went down 3 to 1 to defending champion Chris Poole in the Final of the Congressional Cup at the Long Beach YC.
The USA’s Poole and his Riptide Racing team of Joachim Aschenbrenner, Bernardo Freitas, Mal Parker, Luke Payne, and Harry West defeated five-time Congressional Cup winner Ian Williams 3-1 in a tense final.
Poole came into the final after a 3 to 0 victory over Switzerland’s Eric Monnin, where he faced Williams and his Gladstone’s Long Beach team of Richard Sydenham, Gerry Mitchell, Ricky McGarvie, Ted Hackney and Oisin Mcclelland, who had a 3 to 1.25 semi-final win over Nick Egnot-Johnson of New Zealand.
Poole claimed the first point of the best of five race final, with both Williams and Poole pushing the match racing rules and boats to their maximum.
After Williams won the second match against Poole to tie the score, Poole’s team rallied to come back strong with two wins and a final score of 3-1 to win his second consecutive Congressional Cup and Crimson Blazer.
Switzerland’s Eric Monnin / Capvis Swiss Match Racing team went into the Petit-finals against New Zealand’s Nick Egnot-Johnson/ KNOTS Racing.
Monnin took a convincing 2-0 win against the Kiwi team to secure third place.
Congressional Cup Final Overall placings:
1st USA – Chris Poole, Joachim Ashenbrenner, Bernardo Freitas, Mal Parker, Luke Payne, Harry West
2nd GBR – Ian Williams, Gerry Mitchell, Richard Sydenham, Ricky McGarvie, Ted Hackney, Oisin Mcclelland
3rd SUI – Eric Monnin, Simon Brügger, Julien Falxa, Jean-Claude Monnin, Ute Monnin-Wagner, Mathieu Renault, Maxime Mesnil
4th NZL – Nick Egnot-Johnson, Taylor Balogh, Sam Barnett, Alastair Gifford, Zak Merton, Jorden Van Rooijen
5th DEN – Jeppe Borch, August de la Cour, Thor Malthe Andersen, Sebastian Pieters, Matias Rossing, Gustav Wantzin
6th USA – Dave Hood, Nick Blackman, Chris Main, Chris Steele, Steve Natvig, William Tiller
7th USA – Gavin Brady, Chris Cowan, Harry Hall, Ryan Houston, Chris Larson, Joshua Wijohn
8th AUS – Cole Tapper, Max Brennan, Hamish Vass, Jordan Reece, George Richardson, Nathan Gulliksen
9th SWE – Johnie Berntsson, Herman Andersson, Filip Karlsson, Fredrik Langström, Erik Malmberg, Jesper Stålheim
10th ITA – Rocco Attili, Alberto Corneli, Andres Guerra, Edoardo Mancinelli Scotti, Luca Camilli Meletani, Ludovico Mori, Gianluca Perasole
11th USA – Scotty Dickson, Erik Berzins, Garrett Brown, Steve Flam, Zack Hanna, Greg Dair
12th. NZL – Megan Thomson, Josi Andres, Sebastian Olsen, Charlotte Porter, Bastian Sorensen, Cormac Murphy.
The 59th Congressional Cup is the opening event for the 2024 World Match Racing Tour. Since 2000, the World Match Racing Tour and its events have awarded over USD 24million in prize money to sailors which has helped to contribute to the career pathway of many of today’s professional sailors.
