SILVER PANDA WINS 58TH WILSON
TROPHY
May, 2007
West Kirby, UK
Team Silver Panda (Clay Bischoff/Martha
Carleton, Colin Merrick/Amanda Callahan, Pete Levesque/Liz Hall) won the
2007 Wilson Trophy by defeating rival team Whishbone in a rematch of the
2006 Wilson Trophy Final.
Hosted by the West Kirby Sailing Club in
West Kirby, UK the 2007 Wilson Trophy was another huge success. 32 teams
from around the world returned to Team Racing’s Mecca for what the Brits
have dubbed the "Wimbledon" of Team Racing. This year’s field included
top teams from Australia, Canada, Ireland, Scotland and England as well as
five teams from the US. Representing the US were the US National Champion
Silver Panda team, the 2006 Wilson Trophy Champion Team Whishbone (Tim
Fallon/Karen Renzuli, Tim Wadlow/Ery Wadlow, Pat Rynne/Galen Largay), the
Larchmont Yacht Club (Danny Pletsch/Emily Whipple, Cardwell Potts/Caroline
Hall, Brian Bissell/Alexis Rubin), Route 3 Split (Nick Ewenson/ Meredith
Nordham, Joel Hanneman/Augusta Nadler, Frank Ustach/Caitlyn McCabe) and
the New York Yacht Club (Colin Gordon, Michelle Yu, Mason Woodworth, and
Chris Muesler).
Saturday morning the modified Swiss
League format began promptly at 8:00 AM under sunny skies and a nice
12-15kt breeze from the south. The hometown favorites West Kirby Hawks
and perennial British powerhouses Spinnaker and the New Forest Pirates
jumped out to an early lead over the pack with unbeaten records while the
Americans struggled with jet lag and early season mistakes. However it
was not long before the Americans lead by Team Whishbone started clawing
their way back into the action. After 144 races, competition was called
for the day with Whishbone atop the heap just ahead of the Pirates, Hawks,
Pandas and the Irish.
Following the historically wild and
formal dinner and dance party Saturday night, racing resumed early Sunday
morning under skies just as cloudy as many sailors’ heads. After 15
rounds and 240 races the top eight teams advanced to a quarterfinal
knock-out best of 3 series. The first round of the bracket saw top seeded
WHishbone sweep the 8th seeded British University All Star BUSA
team. The second seeded and hometown hero
West Kirby Hawks swept another local
team the 7th seeded Wirral Waders while the 3rd seed
Silver Panda swept the 6th
seeded Irish team of the
Royal St
Georges Knights. Rivals from the England’s south fought out the final
match as 4th seeded New Forest Pirates defeated and 5th
seeded Spinnaker.
In round two, Silver Panda bested the
Hawks in two close and hard fought races to reach the finals for the third
straight year. In the other series, it took three races for Whishbone to
defeat the talented and veteran Pirates team. Whishbone secured their
spot in the finals with a come from behind victory on the last beat
finishing 1,2,6.
The finals of the 2007 Wilson Trophy saw
only the second ever all American final as Silver Panda and Whishbone met
each other for the second year in a row. Defending Wilson Champion
Whishbone won the coin toss and opted for the yellow fleet of boats.
After a briefing by head umpire Peter Johnson both teams were aware that
rule 42 violations would not be tolerated in the dying breeze. In the
first race, the Pandas in the blue fleet of boats were able to take
advantage of a right shift along the sea wall on the last beat to convert
a 1-4-5 into a more stable 1-2 combination. In race two, it was the
Pandas again with a better start than Whishbone, enabling the team to hold
the lead for the entire race. Whishbone avoided the sweep by taking race
3 after a close leeward mark rounding sent one of their boats off to the
right to catch the favorable famous seawall shift. With the Whishbone
boat Catapulted from 3rd to first, Whishbone had comeback on
their minds. In the final race, the Pandas capitalized on a crippling
rule 42 call on team Whishbone and eventually finished with a 1-2 combo to
seal their first ever overall win at the Wilson Trophy.
For more information:
http://www.wilsontrophy.co.uk
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