Reports From Rich Roberts
 

The Long Beach breeze would seldom be called fickle, but it took a freak turn Tuesday that settled a battle of unbeatens and left defending champion Johnie Berntsson ofSweden in first place after Day 1 of the 46th Congressional Cup.

 

Late in the fourth of five flights, the wind shifted 70 degrees to northwest directly out of downtown Long Beach and dropped from a peak of 16 knots to 3, sending Berntsson home free.

 

Then, with the course re-set in the new direction, Berntsson (5-0) made all the right plays to beat four-time winner Gavin Brady (4-1) by 1 minute 25 seconds in the last flight of the day.

 

“We were lucky to have the right shift,” Berntsson said. “It was a matter of timing the wind and not doing more tacking than you needed to do.”

 

Halfway up the first beat he broke off a tacking duel and went toward the beach as Brady went the opposite way. When Berntsson returned to round the windward mark he had an unbeatable led in the drifting breeze.

 

“All the tacking was very expensive,” he said.

 

Not so lucky was Bill Hardesty, a first-time Congressional Cup skipper who in the previous flight was swapping leads with Berntsson in a bow to bow battle near the end of their race.

 

“We were two boats left of him, and that was enough to put 20 boat lengths on us,” Hardesty (2-3) said.

 

At day’s end, then, Brady shared second place with Italy‘s Francesco Bruni, last year’s runnerup, and two-time winner Dave Perry, whose only stumble was against Berntsson, who made the noted rules guru pay hard with penalties for two tactical miscues to win by 1 minute 24 seconds.

 

It was not so nice a day for Sally Barkow, a two-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year and the event’s first woman skipper since 1996 who sits at 0-5 after what she described as a learning experience. 

 

“We had a tough day,” she said, “but racing against some of the best professionals here is fun. It takes some time to get used to the boats, and that’s what today was about.”

 

Brady offered the same tone that “first you get a feel for the conditions and try to get faster every day so at the end of the week you’re ready for the semifinals.”  

 

Racing will continue starting at 11:30 each day, conditions permitting. Each boat will race every other boat twice in a double round robin. The top four will advance to best-of-three semifinals and finals Saturday. The non-qualifiers will run a fleet race.

 

The racing is in the Long Beach outer harbor off Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier, with free grandstand seating and parking for spectators.

 

Notes

 

Monday night’s dressy/casual Skippers Dinner was standing room only, with the sailors setting the tone for the week by firing off a few zingers. Gavin Brady, assessing veteran Dave Perry, said, “I see that Dave was ranked number 39 [in the world]. I think that was on the Senior Tour.” . . . Russia‘s Evgeniy Neugodnikov told the audience, “There are many jokes I do not understand, but I’m glad you’re smiling, anyway.” . . . By the way, his names are pronounced ev-gen-yee and nay-oo-godnikov.

. . . As for Simone Ferrarese of Italy, it’s see-mone and fur-are-essy—or close.

 

The Congressional Cup has maintained a high level of organization over the years with a volunteer force of some 300 club members and their families. Each crew is assigned boat hostesses and a housing team to deliver the outstanding local hospitality the Congressional Cup has offered now for 45 years. 

 

Spinnaker sponsors are F&M Bank, the Press-Telegram and Oceanaut Watches. Sails sponsors are MCA Logistics, Gladstone‘s Restaurant, Newmeyer & Dillion and Union Bank.  Hospitality sponsors are The Port of Long Beach, St. Mary Medical Center, City National Bank, The Breakers of Long Beach and Mount Gay Rum.  An Honorary sponsor is Catalina Yachts. 

 

Results

 

FLIGHT 1

Johnie Berntsson, Sweden, def. Sally Barkow, USA, 29 seconds. 
Gavin Brady, New Zealand, def. Simone Ferrarese, Italy, 0:58.

Francesco Bruni, Italy, def. Evgeniy Neugodnikov, Russia, 0:35.

Damien Iehl, France, def. Eric Monnin, Switzerland, 0:30.

Dave Perry, USA, def. Bill Hardesty, USA, 0:39.

 

FLIGHT 2

Brady d. Neugodnikov, 0:10.  

Morrin d. Bruni, 0:18.

Iehl d. Barkow, 0:15,

Berntsson d. Perry, 1:24.

Hardesty d. Ferrarese, 0:26.

 

FLIGHT 3

Bruni d. Barkow, 0:31.

Perry d. Iehl, 1:00.

Berntsson d. Ferrarese, 0:21.

Brady d. Hardesty, 0:42.

Neugodnikov d. Monnin, 0:10.

 

FLIGHT 4

Iehl d. Ferrarese, 0:20.

Berntsson d. Hardesty, 0:31.

Brady d. Monnin, 0:58.

Neugodnikov d. Barkow, 0:38.

Perry d. Bruni, 0:16.

 

FLIGHT 5

Berntsson d. Brady, 1:25.

Monnin d. Barkow, 0:10.

Perry d. Neugodnikov, 0:16.

Bruni d. Ferrarese, 1:20.

Hardesty d. Iehl, 0:45.

 

STANDINGS

(after 5 of 18 flights)

 

Berntsson, 5-0; Brady, Bruni and Perry, 4-1; Iehl, 3-2; Hardesty and Neugodnikov, 2-3; Monnin, 1-4; Barkow and Ferrarese, 0-5.

 

MORE INFORMATION

 

Daily video shows by www.t2p.tv

 

Official Congressional Cup website

 

2010 photo gallery