Match Racing
Team Barnash wins 2014 Stolze Cup
Rochester Yacht Club’s Jimmy Barnash with trimmer Peter Wickwire and bowman Emory Williams won a close contest with Magnus Sanberg’s team from National Yacht Club to claim the 2014 Stolze Cup and the Great Lakes International Match Race hosted by Rochester Yacht Club on June 14-15. With the Stolze Cup victory went an automatic invitation to the Richardson Cup Match Racing Championship of the Great Lakes (which was also to be hosted by Rochester Yacht Club in October, but which unfortunately was cancelled).
In winds gusting to 20 knots, the two teams were tied with eight points apiece at the end of the first round robin on Saturday, June 20. An extremely light wind forecast for Sunday forced the organizers to split the field into two groups for an abbreviated second round robin in which Barnash took four out of five points, while Team Sanberg won three out of their five matches, resulting in a one point overall victory for Team Barnash.
The racing was close and fiercely contested by all ten teams throughout the event. Besides Barnash and Sanberg, there were five other LYRA skippers: Nick Kroeger from Brittania Yacht Club in Ottawa; Chantel Hearst from National Yacht Club in Toronto; Eric Voss from Rochester Yacht Club; Danny Lawless from RYC; and Nicholas Sertl from RYC.
Additional competitors in the Great Lakes International field included Team Barbuto from St. Thomas Yacht Club in the U.S. Virgin Islands; Team Benvenue from Southern Yacht Club in New Orleans ; and Team Dave Perry from Pequot Yacht Club in Southport , CT ;
Great Lakes International Match Race event chairman Dr. Richard Sullivan, right, presents the Stolze Cup to Jimmy Barnash , Rochester Yacht Club, 2014 LYRA Match Racing Champion.