<\/p>\n
Written by Rick Roberts<\/em><\/p>\n Heading into the second and final weekend of the 2010 Butler Cup Series Saturday and Sunday, defending champion Chris Nesbitt of Balboa Yacht Club currently leads the series. But he may have his work cut out for him with the addition of two new skippers in this Grade 5 ISAF match race event hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club.<\/p>\n David Storrs, representing the Pequot Yacht Club of Southport, Conn., was encouraged by fellow club member Dave Perry—two-time Congressional Cup winner (1983, 1984)—to fly out and develop his match racing skills on the waters of Long Beach in the same Catalina 37s used in the Congressional Cup.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u201cDave has been talking to me,\u201d said Storrs, \u201cmentoring me on my match racing. I hope to compete in the [US Match Race Championship] Prince of Wales in September.\u201d<\/p>\n His tactician will be Sally Barkow, Nashotah, Wis., who skippered the 2008 US Sailing Alphagraphics, Team 7 Sailing\u2019s Yngling campaign in Qingdao, China. Barkow also was the first woman to sail her way into the Congressional Cup in 2009 when she won the Ficker Cup and received an invitation to compete in that Grade 1 premier event.<\/p>\n Storrs said, \u201cI was really fortunate to get Sally. I\u2019ve never raced on these boats and she has done really well. Sally\u2019s going to be a big help to us.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Payson Infelise is the other new addition to this year\u2019s event. Having grown up locally, learning to race with his dad Phillip an accomplished sailor in his own right, Infelise races on Brian Angel\u2019s Team King Harbor Match Racing team. They won the US Match Race Championship twice (2005, 2007) and the Ficker Cup twice (2005, 2008).<\/p>\n So, what does defending champ Nesbitt think of the new guys?<\/p>\n <\/span>\u201cWell, it should be fun,\u201d said Nesbitt. \u201cI got a new guy, Jack Franco, who will be my tactician and he\u2019s an aggressive sailor. I think we\u2019ll be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n Local skippers Dustin Durant and Dave Hood will be returning for the second round. Durant finished only one point behind Nesbitt in the first round in April, making a big comeback on the second day.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u201cOur team has really improved overall in boat handling,\u201d Durant said, \u201cand I\u2019ve learned to sail more conservatively which has made a big difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Hood finished third behind Durant and, being new to match racing, is hoping to hold his own against his peers this weekend.<\/p>\n <\/span>\u201cMost of my experience in the [Catalina] 37s has been in fleet races,\u201d Hood said, \u201cbut in the first round we made a lot of improvements and are looking forward to this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n The event is named for Frank Butler, founder of Catalina Yachts, who in 1990 designed, built and donated the 11 Catalina 37s used for all the match races held at LBYC. These same boats are also used for fleet race events and are available for charter through the Long Beach Sailing Foundation.<\/p>\n Event information available at www.lbyc.org .<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New players join the second round to challenge Nesbitt for trophy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1076"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1076"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}