Petersen seeks to regain Governor’s Cup

The 56th Governor’s Cup International Youth Match Racing Championship in 2023 will be on July 24-29 in Newport Beach, CA.

Governor’s Cup 2021 winner and reigning Youth Match Racing World Champion Jeffrey Petersen will be back to try to get his second title, after a runner-up finish to New Zealand’s Jordan Stevenson last year.

Petersen, now ranked 6th in the World Open Match Racing rankings is one of a contingent of young U.S. Match Racing skippers and teams who have emerged in recent years to challenge the international teams that have won seven of the last ten Governor’s Cup.

The Governor’s Cup is an invitational event for sailors that have not reached their 23rd birthday by the last day of the regatta. It is the world’s oldest international youth match racing regatta and alumni have competed in, and won the America’s Cup, the Congressional Cup, Olympic medals, the World Match Racing Tour Championship.

The event will be a Grade 3 event, but after the selection of teams, the Club may reapply for retroactive regrading if the quality of the sailors continues to be excellent. Grading of events by World Sailing is based primarily on the Open (non-age-limited) rankings of the skippers. In 2018, the Governor’s Cup was retroactively regraded to Grade 1, the first youth match racing regatta to achieve that level, normally reserved for events with mostly or all professional sailors.

The Cup is sailed in identical Governor’s Cup 22 sloops provided to the competitors by the Newport Balboa Sailing & Seamanship Association and Balboa Yacht Club. Designed by BYC Staff Commodore Alan Andrews, they feature fractional rigs, flat top mains, and masthead spinnakers.

Details: https://www.govcupracing.com/