Tapper and Petersen are 2-0 up in their respective semi-finals

57th Governor’s Cup Day 4: Tapper and Petersen lead 2-0 in their respective semifinals

by Susan Kenney Jul 27 04:19 UTC
July 22-27, 2024

Tapper leads 2-0 in his best-of-five semifinal against Callahan; Petersen leads 2-0 against Hyde.

As the round-robin stage of the 57th Governors Cup concluded today, 2023 GovCup runner-up Cole Tapper (AUS) and his team of Jack Frewin and Hamish Vass of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia were tied with 2021 and 2023 winner Jeffrey Petersen (USA) of Balboa Yacht Club on 17 wins and 2 losses. The tie-breaker went in favor of Tapper, who defeated Team Petersen in the thrilling round-robin final.

As is customary in match racing, the round-robin winner gets to choose his semifinal opponent from the other three semifinalists. Tapper, as is often but not always the case, chose the fourth-place finisher — Justin Callahan (USA) and his team of Trevor Davis, Michaela O’Brien and Spencer Kreigstein.

That left Petersen and his team of Daniel Pegg and Enzo Menditto to race their semi-final against number three — Josh Hyde (NZL) with his team Tom Pilkington, Zach Fong and Cody Coughlan.

The semi-finals got underway on Friday afternoon in a light 5-7 knots. Petersen and Tapper won their respective matches easily, both leading 2-0. This came as no surprise to most seasoned observers, given the superior speed and tactics displayed by teams Petersen and Tapper this week.

For the remaining three round robin flights today, there were three crews in contention for the other two semi-final spots — Hyde, Callahan and Morgan Pinckney (USA) with crews Nick Drummond, Mark Murray and Colleen O’Brien for Newport Harbor Yacht Club. However, and perhaps a sign of the overall strength of the field, those three crews suffered multiple losses today at this crucial stage of the regatta. Hyde ultimately advanced to the semi-finals with ease, while Callahan edged out Pinckney by a single point.

The “GovCup” is the oldest and most prestigious junior competitive racing championship in the world and is again sponsored this year by Terry Causey / Call of The Sea, Dr. Rob Bray / DISC Sports and Spine Center and the Croul Family.

Results will be updated live during the race on MatchRacingResults.com.

Tonight (Friday), GovCup Steering Committee Chairman Andy Rose will be back on land and will hold a press conference, broadcast live on GovCupTV, with the four semi-finalists at 7pm PDT / 02:00+1 UTC.

GovCupTV streams to the Balboa Yacht Club YouTube channel and the BYCGovCup Facebook page.

Tomorrow (Saturday) is the final live “Pre-Race Morning Show” at 09:00 PDT / 16:00 UTC. The live broadcast of the race continues at 11:30 PDT / 18:30 UTC, with the final press conference and awards ceremony also airing live back on Balboa YC at 17:00 PDT / 00:00+1 UTC (or watch an on-demand replay afterwards).