Kashmir Wins Offshore Verve Cup

Karl Brummel, Steve Henderson and Mike Mayer’s J/111 Kashmir team won the overall Verve Cup Trophy of the 25th annual Verve Cup Offshore Regatta, hosted by the Chicago Yacht Club, on August 11-13 in Chicago, IL.

This year’s Verve Cup, which featured a three-day offshore course race from Friday through Sunday, a one-day distance race on Saturday and a CASRA casual distance race, included nine racing sections as well as the Beneteau 40.7 North American Championship.

“It feels great, we had an awesome weekend in the typical Chicago weather where it’s 75 degrees and clear the whole weekend that’s always the way it is here,” said Kashmir co-owner Mike Mayer. “Our class is really unbelievably great with people who love racing against each other so we are thrilled to have won the whole thing.”

(Luc Belaire) champagne conditions were present on Friday and Saturday and the wind gods seemed to sleep in on Sunday with a breeze coming in to raceable conditions one hour before cutoff time. Temperatures were in the upper 70s all weekend. The White Circle was able to pull off four races on Friday, three races on Saturday and one on Sunday. The Red Circle with the bigger boats pulled off three races on Friday and Saturday and one race on Sunday.

Verve Cup Chairman Ted Towey said, “We’ve had three wonderful days of sailing I would like to thank all of the volunteers, the Race Committee, the Verve Committee and all of our sponsors. I think the sailors who participated are very happy.”

Flash Gordon, won the Farr 40 class in the Verve. Fresh back from the Farr 40 World Championships where they placed third with Chicago Yacht Club members Taylor Canfield, Dave Gerber and Helmut Jahn. Dave Gerber, Crew Boss on Flash Gordon, said, “This was great practice for the North American Championships which will be be held on the same racetrack in September. Our crew work got better and better each race thanks to great teamwork with Taylor Canfield and helmsman Helmut Jahn. We sailed a pretty flawless regatta posting all firsts with the exception of the two and three in the first and last race of the series.”

First-place awards to each of the racing sections:
• Beneteau 36.7: Tequila Mockingbird, skippered by Chris Duhon, Columbia Yacht Club
• J/105: Vytis, skippered by Gyt Petkus, Columbia Yacht Club
• J/109: TOA, skippered by Jim Mitchell and Bruce Danly, Chicago Yacht Club
• J/111: Kashmir, skippered by Karl Brummel, Steve Henderson and Mike Mayer, Chicago Yacht Club
• Beneteau 40.7: Vayu, skippered by Ron Buzil, Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club & Storm Trysail Club
• Farr 40: Flash Gordon, skippered by Helmut and Evan Jahn, Chicago Yacht Club
• ORR 1: Bretwalda3, skippered by Bob Pethick, Waikiki Yacht Club
• ORR 2: Eagle, skippered by Chawn and Jerry O’Neill, Chicago Yacht Club
• Distance Race ORR 1: Free Radical, skippered by Anthony Bowker, Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club
• Distance Race ORR 2 & 8 Mile Trophy Winner: On Edge, skippered by Steve Dorfman, Chicago Yacht Club
• Distance Race PHRF: Jahazi, skippered by Frank Giampoli, Columbia Yacht Club
• CASRA Casual Distance Race: Jambo, skippered by Joe and Cindy Marciniak, Columbia Yacht Club
• CASRA Casual Distance Race Jib & Main: Just Jokes, skippered by Will Smith

Complete results for all Verve Cup Offshore Regatta sections are available here.
Complete results for Verve Cup Distance Race are available here.
Complete results for CASRA Casual Race are available here.

Source: Tracy Gladden, CYC