The Argo Group Gold Cup will take place 1 - 7 October PHOTO: Chris Davies/AWMRT
Hamilton, BERMUDA: September 12, 2012 – The 2012 Argo Group Gold Cup is set to feature teams from 5 continents and 16 countries in the penultimate stage of Alpari World Match Racing Tour, with the winner taking the famous King Edward VII Gold Cup.
The event begins shortly after Match Race France and is now less than three weeks away. The 7th and penultimate stage of the Alpari World Mach Racing Tour will host the largest number of international teams ever at a single Tour event. Ten of the skippers are first time competitors in Bermuda and will have to be at their best to get the most from their classic International One Design Class sloops, which even the most experienced sailors find difficult to master.
Entrants hail from 16 countries in the continents of North and South America, Australasia, Asia, and Europe. For complete team information go to the Gold Cup web site: www.argogroupgoldcup.com.
“We have a fantastic entry of two ISAF Match Racing World Champions, Tour Card Holders and some of the top teams from around the world,” said Chairman Brian Billings, “we are confident that this will be another fantastic event for the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. We have 22 of the 24 entry slots filled to date.”
Bjorn Hansen (SWE) of Mekonomen Sailing Team currently leads Ian Williams (GBR) of Team GAC Pindar on the Tour leaderboard by 6-points and the pair will be top seeds at the event. Johnie Berntsson’s (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team, now 8th on the Tour, will head a group of other top skippers including Staffan Lindberg (FIN), Taylor Canfield (ISV), William Tiller (NZL), Eric Monnin (SUI) and Marek Stanczyk (POL), all ranked top 20 by ISAF.
Representing Bermuda, Blythe Walker has had previous success at the event, including 4th in 2007 and 7th in 2009. Lance Fraser first sailed in the Gold Cup as a Bermuda high school student in 2010, the youngest entry ever. He is back for his third try and alongside Walker, will carry the local support.
The event begins with practice day on October 1st with the Final scheduled for Sunday October 7th. Matches over the final weekend will be live from 14:00 – 16:00 local time (ADT/GMT-3) and televised live and online. Schedule available pre-event at www.wmrt.com/live.
Other highlights for the week include the RenRe Junior Gold Cup, which features the top Optimist Dinghy sailors from over a dozen countries racing against a contingent of Bermuda’s best young sailors. The annual Family Festival of Sail will take place on Finals day in Barr’s Bay Park adjacent to Royal Bermuda YC and is open to all.
| F | SF | QF | QR | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FINAL | |||||
| Ian Williams | .png&w=20) |
1-0 | 3-2 | 0-0 | 9-2 |
| Adam Minoprio |  |
0-1 | 3-1 | 3-2 | 6-5 |
| PETIT FINAL | |||||
| Mathieu Richard |  |
1-0 | 1-3 | 3-1 | 8-3 |
| Johnie Berntsson |  |
0-1 | 2-3 | 3-2 | 6-5 |
The King Edward VII Gold Cup is the oldest match-racing trophy in the world for competition involving one-design yachts. It was given at the Tri-Centenary Regatta at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1907 by King Edward VII in commemoration of the 300th Anniversary of the first permanent settlement in America. C. Sherman Hoyt won the regatta and was the first to accept the now historic cup.
After three decades of holding the Cup, Mr. Hoyt gave it to the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and proposed a regular one-on-one match-race series in 6-Meter yachts. In his letter he expressed the propriety of “my returning a British Royal trophy to the custody of your club, with its long record of clean sportsmanship and keenly contested races between your Bermuda yachts and ours of Long Island Sound, and elsewhere...” The first winner of the Cup in its new format was the celebrated Briggs Cunningham, who was also the first skipper to win the America’s Cup in a 12-Meter.
In the post-war years, the Club placed the Cup in competition in 1956 for match-racing in yachts of the International One Design Class. Bert Darrell had the honor of being first to defend the Cup in this class and won it a total of six times.
By winning his seventh championship in 2004, Russell Coutts surpassed Darrell to become the event’s all-time winner.
Through the years Bermuda has won the Cup 21 times, the United States 17 times, New Zealand 10 times, Australia 5 times, the United Kingdom three times, and in 2002 Denmark claimed the King Edward VII Gold Cup for the first time.
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