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Photo by Asia Morris, taken at the 51st Congressional Cup.<\/em><\/p>\n Taylor Canfield and his USOne Sailing Team became the first skipper to win three consecutive Crimson Blazers in the 52-year history of the coveted Congressional Cup regatta. Canfield defended his title last spring by mere meters<\/a>, in a sport where the smallest distance or infraction can cost its participants dearly. Hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club (LBYC), the regatta served as Stage Two of the World Match Racing Tour and provided five days of unpredictable match racing in unpredictable weather.<\/p>\n RELATED<\/small> <\/p>\n Unseasonable breezes, showers and calms rattled the first four days of racing, with the repechage abandoned and a series shortened to first-to-two, but Long Beach finally came through with a usable breeze and summer-like sunshine just in time for the Semifinals and Finals on Sunday.<\/p>\n It was nothing short of a miracle that PRO Randy Smith and WMRT Racing Director Craig Mitchell were able to pull off the series, according to LBYC\u2019s post-race report.<\/p>\n Canfield beat Semifinalist Scott Dickson in three matches, one after the other, with Dickson\u2019s spinnaker grazing the spectator-filled Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier, earning him a penalty the American couldn\u2019t shake, while Nicolai Sehested of Denmark and Australian Sam Gilmore duelled it out for five matches. Later, Gilmour defeated Dickson to take third place, after a series of short-legged, excitement-filled races, shortened to ensure the completion of the series.<\/p>\n Canfield defeated Sehested during the first of the Finals with a 30-second lead, when Sehested retaliated in the second match, beating Canfield by three seconds. In the final sudden-death match, Canfield trailed Sehested by seconds, when he hit the leeward gate and was flagged, according to the post-race report.<\/p>\n \u201cI was definitely a little worried at that point,\u201d Canfield stated. \u201cI made a simple mistake, a stupid error. But the boys were calm. We had nothing to lose, so we parked it up at the top mark. The execution was spot on, and Nicolai made a small mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n Resuming control, Canfield shut the door on Sehested by keeping him pinned until the end. USOne Sailing Team took the match, and the cup, logging the seventh Congressional Cup win for St. Thomas Yacht Club, trailing Member Peter Holmberg\u2019s four, albeit not consecutive, Crimson Blazer wins.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re closing in on Peter\u2019s record,” said Canfield in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a couple more in us, we\u2019ll be back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe had one hand on the trophy,\u201d said Sehested. \u201cIt\u2019s the closest match racing I\u2019ve done in a long time, but we\u2019ve had a fantastic week. It\u2019s our first Congressional Cup, but definitely not our last. We feel so welcome here.\u201d<\/p>\n Regarded as the \u201cgranddaddy of match racing,\u201d the Congressional Cup was founded by LBYC in 1965. Racing is held in a fleet of identical 37-foot Catalina keelboats, designed and maintained specifically for the event. The world\u2019s top-ranked skippers go head-to-head for the esteemed cup and the Crimson Blazer each spring, an honor bestowed to sailing icons like Dennis Conner, Dean Barker, Ken Read, Ted Turner, Taylor Canfield and more, according to the release.<\/p>\n For more information about the Congressional Cup, click here<\/a>,\u00a0or the WMRT, click here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Taylor Canfield and his USOne Sailing Team became the first skipper to win three consecutive Crimson Blazers in the 52-year history of the coveted Congressional Cup regatta, hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club (LBYC).\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":16504,"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":[17],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-congressional-cup","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182","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\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=182"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\n\u00a0<\/div>\nTaylor Canfield Defends Congressional Cup Championship by Mere Meters<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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