2009 Alter Cup Results and Wrapup

CLEARWATER, FL – The 2009 Alter Cup wrapped up yesterday with some incredibly close results. John Casey and John Williams managed to pull of victory with a total of 13 points, but second place team Michael Easton and Tripp Burd were hot on their heels with 16 points.

The winning team managed four bullets. Their automatic drop after five races was a fourth place finish.

The wind on the last day was more of the same: perfect sailing weather. Although forecasts mistakenly /called for light breeze, it came out of the East at around 15 knots all day. The heavier teams were relieved that they would be able to focus on boat speed rather than fight a losing battle against the many light teams registered this year.

In third place were John Tomko and Paige Railey; they were tied with the fourth place team of Leandro Spina and Jamie Livingston. The two teams were vying for third until the very last race. The decision wasn’t made until Tomko managed a bullet to cap the event.

All the way down the list, the scores were very tight. In addition to the third and fourth place tie, there were ties between sixth and seventh, ninth and tenth, and 11th and 12th. Other close spreads existed between 14th and 15th, which were separated by only six tenths of a point, and eighth and ninth, which were separated by only one point.

The Newberry sisters finished 13th after a disappointing flush to B Fleet in the final A Fleet race. They were bested by female skipper Sandra Tartaglino and her crew Glenn Holmes.

Lizzy Newberry was happy to report that she had fun and learned a lot. Sarah’s mood was a less cheerful, but it reflected her competitive spirit. The flush occurred as Tomko beat the sisters around the windward mark.

“It was our best race in terms of upwind speed and upwind strategy. But it wasn’t a conservative call on my part,” said Sarah. “And conservative and smart was the goal of the regatta. We jibed too high and Tomko got his bows under us. We weren’t able to power up in time, got covered, and ended up pointing at his sterns as he completed his jibe.”

Other youth at this year’s Alter Cup made themselves known at the top of the results. 15-year-old crew Taylor Reiss and his skipper Chris Batchelor ended up fifth overall, followed by the youth team of Julian Roots and Taylor Palmer in sixth. Nigel Pitt and his 11-year-old daughter Emilee came up just behind in seventh place.

As the results were read at the awards ceremony, it was evident that all sailors involved were proud of the representatives of the future of sailing. No matter where they finished in the fleet, it seemed like everyone cheered as the young teams’ names were called.

Further acknowledgement of the importance of growing cat sailing and promoting youth programs was made when John Casey and John Williams came forward to claim their medals; they asked Gordon Isco to help them hoist the trophy. Among his many other contributions to multihull sailing, Isco found the Golden Anchor program, which provides discounted memberships to new members of US Sailing. Since its inception, the Golden Anchor program has been responsible for the membership of over 400 sailors.

Casey also thanked his crew not just for “pulling the strings” on the Viper F16, but for “all the stuff he does behind the scenes. He does a lot that people don’t know about.”

Turning to the second place finishers Easton and Burd, Casey made a show of good sportsmanship.

“The stars have to fall in line to win this regatta,” said Casey. “We’ve seen it happen over and over again. You guys will definitely be here a bunch more times.”
At the end of the ceremony, Williams made reference to the fact that next year’s Alter Cup is already in the works, despite some setbacks represented by US Sailing’s historically tenuous support of the event. He started to say more, but Casey covered Williams’ mouth.

We will have to see what is in store for the future of the Alter Cup, but this year it was clear that there is a lot of attention being paid to the future of catamaran sailing at large. It was proven that those youths who could “catch fire,” as Williams put it, will be the sport’s ambassadors moving forward. And they will continue to be major threats on the race course, as they proved to be all week long.