Kenwood Cup Day 1 Press Release
Henry Stewart
Press Release R/01
Date/Time AUG. 3, 2000 HST
Australia Looking Good To Retain The Kenwood Cup;
Drama In The 1D48 Fleet
Defending Australia served notice it will be tough to beat as
itsthree-boat team finished the first day of the eleventh running of the
Royal Hawaiian Ocean Racing Club's biennial Hawaii International
Offshore Series for the Kenwood Cup. The regatta is celebrating its 20th
Anniversary. Australia's traditional rival New Zealand was a close
second - just three points out of first place -- as teams from Australia
and New Zealand, plus Japan and USA raced under the shadow of Diamond
Head in classic tradewind conditions.
Sailing conditions were superb as the trades blasted in at 20-25 knots,
with occasional puffs to 28 knots, building white-crested five-foot seas
in the bright blue ocean off Honolulu. The world's best ocean racers
completed two races - a 12-nautical mile triangle plus windward-leeward
legs, followed by a twice-around windward leeward race.
G-SHOCK Nippon Challenge, the One Design 48 campaigned by Japan's Nippon
Ocean Racing Club challenger for the America's Cup, logged a two-point
lead over an extremely competitive 1D48 Class. She's the newcomer in a
classthat is becoming famous for its America's Cup contenders. At least
four challenging skippers are racing here. Skipper Peter Gilmour said
afterwards: "That was sensational racing. At times we were logging 17 to
18 knots on the spinnaker reaches."
The hard-running conditions made for electrifying bursts of speed as the
boats got up and surfed on the wave fronts. But the high speeds took
their toll. In the most spectacular incident of the day, Germany's
Illbruck-PINTA, the favorite to win the 1D48 Class was overhauling
Starlight, the first-placed boat in the first race, when she rounded-up
suddenly while approaching the leeward mark. The rudder had broken,
knocking her out of competition for the day. Skipper John Kostecki said
he was disappointed to break the rudder but pleased with his boat's
speed against the competition. "Missing two races will make it difficult
for us to win the regatta but we know we can win some races during the
coming week." he said.
Veteran Australian racer Syd Fischer won both races in IMS Class A, in
his Farr 50 Ragamuffin, helping to boost his national team's total to 66
points, just three-points ahead of New Zealand, whose top racer Big
Apple III boosted the Kiwi team's points by winning Class C. Big Apple
III is Hideo Matsuda's Farr 45 with a top level crew of New Zealanders.
The USA Red Team is in third place with 51 points.
Another Japanese boat sailing for New Zealand in the Kenwood Cup team
competition, Shizue Kanbe's Farr 41 G-Net, skippered by Ken Davern,
topped the points table in IMS Class D. In Class E, the top placer was
Fumikazu Kasahara's Mumm 36 Santa Red.
1998 Kenwood Cup Provisional Results Summary. Race 1 Class A: 1
Ragamuffin (Farr 50, Syd Fischer, Australia), 2 Flash Gordon 3 (Farr 49,
Helmut Jahn, USA),3 Beau Geste (Farr 49, Karl Kwok, USA), 4 Starlight
Express (Dav 55, Chris Packer, NZ), 5 Casseiopeia (Davidson 72, Charles
Burnett III, USA), 6 Learjet (NM 56, Tatsuya Iwamoto, Japan), 7 Yume
Hyotan (NM 68, Yasuo Sano, Japan) DNS Infinity (Nelson Marek 50, Vic
Bishop, Canada), Class B: 3, Abracadabra (1D48, James Andrews, USA), 3,
G-Shock Nippon Challenge (1D48, Kazuaki Shibagami, Japan), 4, Starlight
(1D48, Jay Ecklund, USA), 4, Windquest (1D48, Doug VeVos, USA), 5,
America True (1D48, Dawn Riley, USA), 6, illbruck-PINTA (1D48, illbruck
Round The World Challenge, Germany), Class C: 2 Big Apple III (Farr 45,
Hideo Matsuda, NZ), 2 Quest (NM 46, Bob Steel, Australia) 3, Abn Amro
Challenge (Sydney 46, Raymond Roberts, Australia), 4 Aoba Express (Farr
46, Yoshiki Jinno, Japan), 5, Ain't Misbehavin (Lavronas 47, Michael
Roche, South Africa), Class D: 1, Karasu (J/V 43, Yasuo Nanamori,
Japan), 2, G'Net (Farr 41, Shizue Kanbe, NZ), 3, White Cloud (Farr 39,
Brett Neill, NZ), 4, Blue Chip (Farr 40, Walton Logan, USA), 5, Zamboni
(Farr 40, Doug Taylor, USA) 6, Mario Express (Farr 40, Mario Ikeda,
Japan), Class E: 1, Jubilee (Jeppeson 39, William Burnett, USA), 2,
Santa Red (Mumm 36, Fumikazu Kasahara, Japan), 3, Urban Renewal (J35,
Yuichiro Kametani, Japan), 4, Liberte Expres (Farr 40, Yasamasa
Kawamura, Japan), 5, Desperado (Lidgard 35, Shinichi Haramaki, Japan),
Race 2 Class A: 1, Ragamuffin (Farr 50, Syd Fischer, Australia), 2, Beau
Geste (Farr 49, Karl Kwok, USA), 3, Flash Gordon 3 (Farr 49, Helmut
Jahn, USA), 4, Starlight Express (Dav 55, Chris Packer, NZ), 5,
Casseiopeia (Davidson 72, Charles Burnett III, USA), 6, Learjet (NM 56,
Tatsuya Iwamoto, Japan), 7, Yume Hyotan (NM 68, Yasuo Sano, Japan) DNS
Infinity (Nelson Marek 50, Vic Bishop, Canada), Class B: 1, G-Shock
Nippon Challenge (1D48, Kazuaki Shibagami, Japan), 2, Windquest (1D48,
Doug VeVos, USA) 3, Abracadabra (1D48, James Andrews, USA), 4, Starlight
(1D48, Jay Ecklund, USA), 5, America True (1D48, Dawn Riley, USA), 5,
illbruck-PINTA (1D48, illbruck Round The World Challenge, Germany),
Class C: 1, Big Apple III (Farr 45, Hideo Matsuda, NZ), 2, Quest (NM 46,
Bob Steel, Australia) 3, Aoba Express (Farr 46, Yoshiki Jinno, Japan),
4, Abn Amro Challenge (Sydney 46, Raymond Roberts, Australia), 5, Ain't
Misbehavin (Lavronas 47, Michael Roche, South Africa), Class D: 1, G'Net
(Farr 41, Shizue Kanbe, NZ), 2, White Cloud (Farr 39, Brett Neill, NZ),
3, Blue Chip (Farr 40, Walton Logan, USA), 4, Zamboni (Farr 40, Doug
Taylor, USA) 5, Mario Express (Farr 40, Mario Ikeda, Japan), DNF Karasu
(J/V 43, Yasuo Nanamori, Japan), Class E: 1, Santa Red (Mumm 36,
Fumikazu Kasahara, Japan), 2, Liberte Expres (Farr 40, Yasamasa
Kawamura, Japan), 3, Jubilee (Jeppeson 39, William Burnett, USA), 4,
Urban Renewal (J35, Yuichiro Kametani, Japan) 5, Desperado (Lidgard 35,
Shinichi Haramaki, Japan),
For more information contact Champagne Mumm Media Center for the 1998
Kenwood Cup, Honolulu, Hawaii
Telephone + 1 808 946 0190 Fax + 1 808 946 1110 Email smc...@rhorc.org
Full results service on the Kenwood Cup website:
http://www.kenwoodcorp.com/kenwoodcup
--
Henry Stewart
1998 Kenwood Cup Official Website Team
http://www.kenwoodcorp.com/kenwoodcup
webm...@netxpose.com