Nevin Snow wins U.S. Match Racing Champs

San Diego, CA (October 9, 2016) – The #3 ranked match racer in the country, Nevin Snow (San Diego, CA) may be moving up the rankings following this weekend’s triumphant performance in San Diego at the 2016 U.S. Match Racing Championship, hosted by San Diego Yacht Club. The San Diego native earned his first Prince of Wales Bowl in impressive fashion by winning 17 of 18 races, including a 3-0 win over three-time champion, Dave Dellenbaugh (Easton, CT) in Sunday’s Final series. Crewing for Snow was Nick Kaschak (San Diego, CA) Alex Curtiss (Lake Bluff, IL) and Peter Busch (San Diego, CA).

The eight skippers that progressed from the round robin to the quarter final were Snow, Dellenbaugh, Merrick, Darden, Durant, Lalumiere, Breault and Natvig. The match-ups for the quarter final were Snow vs Natvig, Dellenbaugh vs Breault, Lalumiere vs Darden and Durant vs Merrick. The first skippers to get three wins progress to Sunday’s semi-finals.

On Saturday, Snow and Dellenbaugh both won their first three races and Lalumiere won during the fourth. Durant and Merrick were the only pair left to race a fifth race which Merrick won. Durant carried two penalties, burning one during the race without a chance to burn the second penalty.

Snow was undefeated going into Sunday, winning 12 races. Dellenbaugh had only lost one race to Snow. For Sunday’s racing, Nevin Snow chose Colin Merrick to sail against in the Semi-Final round. David Dellenbaugh would sail against Charles Lalumiere.

On Sunday, the wind was slow, but picked about around noon to start racing, remaining patchy throughout the semi-final. All day the racing was tight and competitive with good exchanges in the semi-finals. As always in match racing, pre-starts and starts were important.

Snow, Dellenbaugh, Merrick and Lalumiere raced in the semi-finals with Snow and Dellenbough advancing to the final and Merrick and Lalumiere racing in the petite final. Competitors in the petite final needed two races to claim third place and competitors in the final needed three races to win.

Merrick and Lalumiere each won one race, so it came down to race 3 where Lalumiere finished first, winning third place in the overall championship. Snow won the first three consecutive races making Dellenbaugh the second place finisher and Nevin Snow the winner of the Prince of Wales Bowl.

Throughout the final, Snow was slow at start with a late tack and he was then able to find more pressure on the right. Even though his starts weren’t as fast as Dellenbaugh’s, he was able to come back and win each race.

Within the top three places, there was quite a range of experience. Lalumierie is a current college student, Snow is a recent college graduate, and Dellenbaugh is a seasoned sailor having won the Prince of Wales trophy three times in his sailing career.

Event Website – Results

Report by Emily Willhoft, SDYC