Dave Perry wins qualifier for U.S. Match Racing Championship

Dave Perry with a team comprised of local sailor Jon Singsen, Chris Museler, Doug McLean and Steve Natvig went undefeated to win the first Qualifying Series for the U.S. Match Racing Championship.

Hosted by Oakcliff Sailing (Oyster Bay, NY) on April 11-12, the field included half of the top 10 ranked skipper in the USA, with several of the teams including top 25 skippers as part of the crew. Canadian Peter Wickwire, previously ranked 30th in the world, finished second.

The U.S. Match Racing Championship will be sailed October 10-12, 2015, at Oakcliff Sailing in Oyster Bay, N.Y. –

Saturday saw heavy air racing with steady winds in the low twenties and gusts into the high twenties in the middle of the day requiring the RC to fly the no spinnaker flag for 5 flights. Sunday was the antithesis with light fluky winds. PRO Todd Field and a very talented team was able to get as much sailing as possible out of the conditions to complete the format.

Wickwire, with regular crew Hamish and Ali Mathews, Jim Barnash and Terry Shannon, only lost Dave Perry and Doug Shannon. The winner of the petit finals was David Storrs sailing with USone (2013 World Match Racing Champions) team members Rod Dawson tactician, Hayden Goodrick, Mal Parker and Ricky McGarvie.

New this year, the qualifier system has removed the geographical areas so any match racer can request an invitation to any of the 6 qualifiers still to be held at St. Francis YC (May 23-24) and (Sept. 5-6), CMRC (May 30-31), San Diego YC ( June 13-14), Annapolis YC (June 20-21) and Bayview YC (June 27-28). Female skippers can qualify for the USWMRC at most of these qualifiers. Details.

Final Results
1. Dave Perry
2. Peter Wickwire
3. David Storrs
4. Chris Poole
5. David Niemann
6. Peter Holz
7. Doug Shannon
8. Steven Lopez