FICKER CUP: Who will Canfield pick to keep his streak rolling?

Long Beach, CA (April 6, 2013) – Decisions, decisions. Who will Taylor Canfield pick to race in Sunday’s semifinals of the Long Beach Yacht Club’s Ficker Cup?

It may be Japan’s Waturu Sakamoto … and if Sakamoto were to win that match and ultimately the Ficker, would he collect a local crew to race in next week’s 49th Congressional Cup, while tactician Laurie Jury takes the Japanese crew into the Congressional, as originally planned?

All of that was on the table late Saturday as the seven round robin and four best-of-three quarterfinal matches were completed, with Canfield on an eight-race win streak following his opening loss Friday to Scott Dickson, whose own streak was stopped by Sakamoto in the sixth round Saturday.

Canfield, Sakamoto and Dickson all finished the round robins with 6-1 records, and Canfield and Dickson then swept New Zealand’s Colin Rathbun and Chicago’s Peter Holz, respectively, out of the quarterfinals, 2-0, as did Long Beach’s Dustin Durant with Australia’s Jordan Reece. Sakamoto dropped Maine’s Christopher Poole, 2-1.

Canfield gets to choose his foe, but he was in no hurry as he and his crew kicked around the options over cold beer and snacks on the LBYC patio.

“We’ll pick it [Sunday] morning,” he said. – Read on