Top match racers descend on Bermuda

Colorcraft Gold Cup match racing commences 14 October

America's Cup skippers from the US, New Zealand and Europe make up the list of world class sailors named as seeded contenders for the Colorcraft Gold Cup to be raced in Bermuda on 14-21 October.

The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC) today announced the eight seeded skippers who will match race on Hamilton Harbor. Sixteen unseeded international skippers will be announced next week. Additional prominent America’s Cup names are expected in the unseeded ranks.

"With the preliminary competition for the America's Cup in New Zealand starting just over a year from now, the Colorcraft Gold Cup has attracted an outstanding field," said RBYC Commodore Somers Cooper. "It holds the promise of close and spectacular competition. Most of these major Cup players will go straight from Bermuda to Auckland to begin their summer practice season there. We’ll have a unique opportunity to view them in full match race mode."

The eight seeded skippers are: Ed Baird (United States), Dennis Conner (United States), Peter Gilmour (United States), Jes Gram-Hansen (Denmark), Andy Green (United Kingdom), Magnus Holmberg (Sweden), Peter Holmberg (US Virgin Islands) and Bertrand Pacé (New Zealand).

Dennis Conner, San Diego, CA, has won the America's Cup four times and lost it twice. Conner is heading the New York Yacht Club ’s 2003 challenge for the America's Cup and is one of the favorites to win the Louis Vuitton Cup.
Ed Baird, from St Petersburg, FL, was eliminated in Auckland in 2000 after his IACC racer Young America broke up and nearly sank. A five- time world champion in various classes, he is race crew coordinator for Norway's djuice dragons Volvo Race entry.

Australian Peter Gilmour is three-time World Match Racing Champion. He won the Gold Cup in 1995 and 1997. Gilmour is now sailing under the American flag and is the skipper and sailing director of the OneWorld Challenge from Seattle, Washington.

Jes Gram-Hansen is a 29-year-old Danish match racer who was fourth at the Colorcraft Gold Cup last year after winning entry to the event as an unseeded skipper. When he is not sailing, he is a physical education teacher.

Young British match racer Andy Green won the Gold Cup two years ago. He is now sailing for Britain's GBR Challenge as starting helmsman and, at the recent America's Cup Jubilee, won most of his starts against top Cup sailors from Italy and New Zealand.

Peter Holmberg, from the US Virgin Islands, is a regular Swedish Match Sailing Tour competitor. This year he won his third Congressional Cup in four years. Holmberg, signed with Larry Ellison's Oracle Racing Challenge for the next America's Cup.

Frenchman Bertrand Pacé, another tour regular, was the winner of the first year of the Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour, with one race in hand. He now makes his home in New Zealand where he is a helmsman for Cup defender Team New Zealand.

Magnus Holmberg, who represents Sweden's Victory Challenge for the America's Cup, has won back-to-back events on the Swedish Match Sailing Tour this summer - the Trofeo Roberto Trombini in Italy, followed by the Danish Open on Skovshoved Harbor.

To be sailed this year for 53rd time, the Colorcraft Gold Cup is raced in 33-foot International One Design sloops on short windward-leeward courses inside Hamilton Harbour, within view of spectators ashore. It is the third event on this year's Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour. The event gets under way on October 14, with qualifying rounds for the 16 unseeded teams. The finals will be sailed on Sunday October 21, followed immediately by the official Colorcraft Gold Cup prizegiving.

Altogether, the club is inviting 24 skippers, comprising the eight seeded and 16 unseeded entries. The latter group will include the top two Bermudian skippers from the Bacardi National Match Race Championship, and the winner of the York Cup match race event sailed in Toronto, Canada. The eight best unseeded skippers will go forward to race against the eight seeded skippers in Round One of the Colorcraft Gold Cup.