Detroit Cup Launches Grand Slam Finale

Detroit, MI (August 25, 2016) – Today’s first of four days of racing in the 2016 edition of Bayview YC’s Detroit Cup featured a little of everything – sunshine, rain, brisk winds and frustrating calms – to keep all teams challenged throughout the day. Yet out of this chaos on the Detroit River a full Round Robin was completed and a leader emerged, but only in the last match.

Top-ranked in the field at 14th in the world, Harry Price and his team from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia had lost a close match at the finish line in Flight 6 with local-based Ryan Seago, and thus trailed the series leader Jeremy Koo from Malaysia, who was undefeated coming into the final flight.

In true shootout fashion, the teams were hammering each other in the pre-start, on the first beat, the first run, and on the second beat with no more than 2 lengths separating them throughout most of the match. The final showdown to determine the leader would be decided on the final run to the finish, and with the sun setting and the breeze puffing up to 18 knots, being behind by only a few lengths could be a powerful position for the Malaysians.

But just moments after rounding the mark, and as the team’s bright pink spinnaker started to snake its way up the mast, it then sagged heavily: disaster struck as the sail filled with water and the boat stopped. The Australians never looked back and sped away towards victory, tied now with Koo on 7-1 and now winning the tie-break.

Lying in third on scores of 6-2 was Nathan Hollerbach’s Bayview-based team, who raced for the day with brother Ian skippering for the day until Nathan arrived. With Nathan among the spectators ashore, this team’s final match was also exciting, with rival Seago in the lead halfway through the match. Then disaster struck for Seago: a big puff rolling through the course caught them while on final approach into the downwind mark, forcing them into a broach and allowing Hollerbach to waltz into the lead.

“I wanted the day to end and to pass it over to Nate when we took a break for a passing storm after Flight 6 and we were 5-1,” said Ian. “But the day ended up well.”

Stage One Round Robin match racing resumes tomorrow morning at the Detroit Cup, where PRO Brian Keith plans to complete three round robins before advancing to Semi-Finals and Finals over the weekend.

Racing concludes on Sunday (Aug. 28) in this final event on the 2016 USA GRANDSLAM Series, where Price has a 10-point lead over Koo.

Results summary, Round Robin 1:
1. Harry Price (AUS) 7-1
2. Jeremy Koo (MAY) 7-1
3. Nathan Hollerbach (USA) 6-2
4. Ryan Seago (USA) 5-3
5. Clinton Hayes (USA) 4-4
6. Landon Gardner (CAN) 3-5
7. Connor Miller (GBR) 3-5
8. Chantal Hearst (CAN) 1-7
9. Andres Guerra (ESP) 0-8

For full results and more information on the 2016 Detroit Cup, visit www.detroitcup.com.

2016 Schedule*
Oakcliff International – August 11-14
Chicago Grand Slam – August 19-21
Detroit Cup – August 25-28

*The crew size for all events except Oakcliff International is 3 or 4 people at a maximum weight of 262.5 kg. For Oakcliff International, teams can sail with 5 or 6 people at a maximum weight of 437.5 kg.

For more information visit www.usamatchracing.com and the Notice of Series can be found here.

PREVIOUS GRAND SLAM WINNERS
2011 – Laurie Jury, NZL
2012 – Taylor Canfield, ISV
2013 – Nicolai Sehested, DEN
2014 – Pierre Antoine Morvan, FRA
2015 – Sam Gilmour, AUS

Report by Event Media

US GRAND SLAM EVENT CONTACT INFO
www.usamatchracing.com
Oakcliff International – bsimon@oakcliffsailing.org
Chicago Grand Slam – info@chicagomatchrace.com
Detroit Cup – thedetroitcup@byc.com