In an exciting display of close racing and match race sailing combat, Bill Hardesty and his team of Dave Gerber and Jack Jennings from the Chicago Match Racing Center (CMRC) won a hard-fought 3-2 Final round to win the 2009 US Match Racing Championship for the Prince of Wales Bowl. Team Hardesty prevailed over nine other teams from around the US in an event sailed in Sonar class yachts over November 18-22 at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club.

“This was a very competitive field and a fantastic Final,” said Hardesty. “Every race came down to the wire today, and Dave Perry and his team really pushed us hard in those last two races.”

Down 2-1 in the first-to-three point Final round, Perry and his team of Chris Museler and Doug Clark managed to even the score in what many said was probably the most exciting match of the week. Hardesty led first around the top mark, with Perry close behind. But on the approach to the bottom mark, Hardesty pushed it too hard and earned a double flag penalty. After doing his obligatory first penalty turn right away, Hardesty then went into a tacking duel up the second windward leg, allowing Perry to extend his lead. But near the top they started splitting tacks, allowing room for Hardesty to regain the lead at the second windward mark.

Now back in the lead, but with a penalty turn to perform before the finish, Team Hardesty did not set their spinnaker in the hopes of setting a trap for Perry. But Perry’s eventual kite set was enough clear to allow him to vault ahead to take the match, even the score, and make the outcome come down to the final showdown.

In this deciding match, Perry got flagged early but had enough of a lead to try to do his penalty turn near the weather mark. It was not quite enough, however, and he fouled Hardesty while at the mark to receive his own double flag penalty, allowing Hardesty to surge ahead for the exciting win.

“Our final windward move really made the difference in the final race,” said Hardesty. “This was something we’ve worked on as a team.”

Asked if he thought the racing and training at CMRC contributed to his team’s success, Hardesty said “Definitely. But its ironic, because while the racing and training we did at CMRC definitely helped us, it also helped many of our competitors as well, since half the field competed at our various CMRC events over this past season.

 “So in this sense CMRC is helping to up the game for everyone in the US, which is really one of our goals. It may be hard for us on the race course, but great to see this working for the broader field of Open match race sailing.”

CMRC is the only center of its kind in the US founded to promote and grow the sport of match race sailing. Besides being used in the America’s Cup, match race sailing has recently also been adapted as a Women’s discipline in the 2012 Olympic Games. As part of its mission, CMRC has ordered for delivery next year 4 Elliott 6M class yachts, the type that will be used in the Games, and will use them to train and race teams with Olympic aspirations.

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Last Updated ( Monday, 23 November 2009 )