April 29-May 3 Presented by Acura
|
A new American hope in match racing Now they’ve won 13 of the last 22 – plus Coronado,
Calif.-born Rod Davis’ last three of four since he moved to Meet Chris VanTol from Racing will be near the end of Belmont Pier in the
protected outer harbor. There will be free seating for spectators, with
snacks available. Competition, starting at 11 a.m. daily, conditions
permitting, will feature a double round-robin running through Friday, with
the best-of-three semifinals and finals Saturday scheduled aroiund a fleet
race for non-qualifiers. The 10 six-man crews will
sail Catalina 37s owned by the Long Beach Yacht Club Sailing Foundation,
rotating boats daily. VanTol, 26, is currently the top-ranked American match
racer at No. 38 (Perry is No. 48), but significant ISAF ranking points are
hard to come by for Americans when there’s only one Grade 1 match racing
event in the U.S.---the Congressional Cup---and Europeans can find a Grade 2
or 3 event close to home almost any week of the sailing season. “They do it a lot more than we do,” VanTol said, “so
we’re just trying to catch up to them and sail as much we as we can. Most of
those guys are doing it for a living, and they’re very professional on and
off the water. We’ve had some good races against them.” VanTol’s team has won six events---all Grade 2 or
3---over the past two years. When they won the Grade 2 Knickerbocker Cup at “The Knickerbocker was a pretty cool thing, winning it
with my brother John and Mike Hoey [as crew],” VanTol said. “We felt like we
had reached somewhat of a goal. It also got my insurance agency a lot of
recognition, so they liked that, and it gave us good local street cred among
the sailing community.” Most of “It worked out nicely because I was doing marine
insurance for the first two years,” he said, “so they were giving me time off
to sail whenever I wanted because I was networking among the boaters. But
I’ve recently moved to commercial insurance, so the million-dollar question
for the last 12 months has been to decide whether sailing is something I want
to do fulltime or if I need to cut back.” VanTol started match racing seriously only two years
ago and earned his ranking the hard way in low-point events. This will be
only his second Grade 1 event, which could provide a major springboard in the
world rankings. “I didn’t do any sailing in college at Purdue, and when
I moved back to The on-water umpires are forewarned. This marks the
20th anniversary of the game’s standard officiating system that started in
the 1988 Congressional Cup. Other competitors are Event sponsors are the Port of Long Beach, Farmers
& Merchants Bank, Catalina Adventure Tours, the Long Beach Press-Telegram,
West Marine, Long Beach Memorial Hospital, Union Bank of California, Newmeyer
& Dillion attorneys at Law, Mount Gay Rum and Gladstone’s Restaurant of
Long Beach. A high level of organization has been
maintained over the years by a volunteer force of some 300 club members and
their families. The Long Beach Yacht Club, founded in 1929,
has from its beginning sought to encourage future generations of sailors and
power boaters. Located on a promontory of Last year's video highlights produced by t2p.tv
and 2007 photo gallery available for
viewing. MORE INFORMATION Official Congressional Cup website (562) 598-9401 CHAIRMAN Merle Asper PRESS OFFICER 310.835.2526 cell 310.766.6547 |
VanTol
Match Racing Team in the 2007
2007
Knickerbocker Cup winners (from left, skipper Chris VanTol, Mike Hoey, John
VanTol, Mike Rehe VanTol Match Racing photos
Congressional Cup Winners 1965 Gerry Driscoll 1966 Gerry Driscoll 1967 Scott Allan 1968 Skip Allan 1969 Henry Sprague III 1970 Argyle 1971 Tom Pickard 1972 Argyle 1973 Dennis Conner 1974 Bill Ficker 1975 Dennis Conner 1976 Dick Deaver 1977 Ted Turner 1978 Dick Deaver 1979 Dennis Durgan 1980 Dennis Durgan 1981 1982 Scott Perry 1983 Dave Perry 1984 Dave Perry 1985 1986 Harold Cudmore 1987 Eddie Warden-Owen 1988 Peter Gilmour 1989 1990 Chris Dickson 1991 Chris Dickson 1992 1993 1994 Chris Law 1995* Harold Cudmore 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
2002 |
