NHYC comes up short

BY TONY LEE

The word regatta is associated with admiral’s caps, blue blazers, white pants and drinks at the yacht club, but the 43rd annual Governor’s Cup was much more than that.

The eclectic mix of 12 teams from all over the world participated in a top-notch sailing tournament and enjoyed tons of social activities provided by the host Balboa Yacht Club.

But as the saying goes, all good things have to come to an end, and after the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron defeated the two-time Gov Cup champions Newport Harbor Yacht Club Sunday, the regatta was over.

“I’ve sailed a lot of regattas, but this was one of the most memorable ones I’ve ever sailed,” NHYC skipper Andrew Mason said.

Royal New Zealand, led by skipper William Tiller, middleman Harry Thurston and bowman Shaun Mason, had the highest point total (21) going into Sunday’s semifinals.

The Gov Cup rules state the highest point total team could pick any team in the final four to compete against on Sunday and Royal New Zealand picked and defeated King Harbor Yacht Club to advance to the finals.

NHYC, led by skipper Andrew Mason, middleman Peter Kinney and bowman Brooks Clark, raced against arguably the hottest team going into Sunday by default — Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, who went undefeated in the second round robin.

“I think we had the mindset, ‘Hey, if we want to win this thing, we got to turn it up now,’ ” Clark said. “And we did.”

NHYC responded and held a lead in the semifinals, but a foul at the pre-start proved costly.

“We led the entire race but had to do a penalty turn at the end, which cost us the race by about a boat length,” Andrew Mason said. “But that race showed we had better boat speed and control than them on the course.”

NHYC won the next two races and moved on to the finals despite losing both the matches to Cruising Yacht Club in the round robins.

“I think the reason we beat the Australians was that our light-air boat speed was a lot better,” Clark said. “Because it’s never really windy here in Newport and we had a lot of practice in that light stuff.”

However, the win wasn’t as fulfilling since Andrew Mason said he defeated one of his friends at the Gov Cup.

“Even in the semis, it was so much fun sailing against them,” he said. “We had breakfast with them every morning. It was tough racing against our friends but when we got in the water, it was great competition.”

The finals proved to be much the same as NHYC became another spectator to Royal New Zealand crossing the finish line before them in the first race.

But in the second race, NHYC took on the early lead and maintained it, giving Royal New Zealand only its second loss of the tournament.

“They tried to match us jibe for jibe, tact for tact on the next two legs, but we were just able to hold on,” Andrew Mason said.

Clark added this win gave the team a huge advantage.

“We knew we had a mental edge,” he said. “They were expecting to go undefeated and crush us like they did in the round robins, but I think we just got in their head a little bit after the second win.”

The advantage proved to be irrelevant as Royal New Zealand won the final race and ended NHYC’s bid to win three straight Gov Cups.

“When we crossed that finish line in the last race, we thought we sailed as well as we probably could,” Andrew Mason said. “We just got beat by a very deserving opponent.”

King Harbor and NHYC will have another opportunity to race against Royal New Zealand in February, as the top two U.S. teams from the Gov Cup are invited to New Zealand for the International Youth Match Racing Series.

The second-place finish for NHYC is somewhat surprising for spectators because of a disappointing Day One, but coach Zander Kirkland knew the team would be fine.

“It’s really cool to see what a good month of preparation can do,” he said. “They got back from college and teamed up ... They went from not being experienced at all to almost winning a major event.”

Kirkland added Kinney will be a freshman at University of Redlands to play football and the others will go east to continue their sailing careers.

“Andrew is going to be a sophomore at Georgetown University and has a lot of sailing ahead of him,” he said. “Brooks is going to be a freshman at College of Charleston [in South Carolina] and he’s going to sail there. It’ll be fun to watch the college results through the year and see their names in the different events.”

Even though Andrew Mason will be ineligible to compete in next year’s Gov Cup due to his age, he leaves this regatta with more valuable things than a trophy.

“The way I’ve progressed and the guys on the team progressed ... we’ve matured as sailors and individuals,” he said of the Gov Cup experience.