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Oct 31, 2008, 2:23 PM
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Carlos Aguilar Memorial Match Race Championship 2008
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1st ANNUAL CARLOS AGUILAR MEMORIAL MATCH RACE CHAMPIONSHIP SETS SAIL DECEMBER 5-7, 2008
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Six of the top women match racers in the world along with eight of the best male sailors in the Caribbean will put their sailing skills to the ultimate test in Charlotte Amalie’s harbor, December 5 to 7, 2008, for the 1st Annual Carlos Aguilar Memorial Match Race Championship.
Anna Tunnicliffe, 2008 Olympic Gold medal winner in the Laser Radial Class; Liz Baylis, ranked 4th in the world’s women’s match racing rankings; and Sandy Hayes, 2008 Rolex Women’s Match winner, will be headlining the talent in the Invitational Women’s Division.
Meanwhile, in the Men’s Open Division, skippers will be St. Thomas’ Taylor Canfield, St. Croix’s Peter Stanton, the British Virgin Islands’ Alec Anderson, Puerto Rico’s Efrain ‘Fraito’ Lugo, St. Maarten’s Frits Bus, St. Lucia’s Mike Green, Trinidad’s Paul Amon, and St. Thomas’ Chris Curreri helming a team of sailors from El Salvador, Aguilar’s native country.
“We’re committed to leading match racing in the Caribbean,” says regatta organizer and host St. Thomas Yacht Club (STYC) manager, Bill Canfield, of this Caribbean Sailing Association-sanctioned event. “We intend to make this event an annual affair, make it more international and model it after U.S. Sailing’s Bermuda Gold Cup.”
St. Thomas’ own Henry Menin was instrumental in getting ISAF (International Sailing Federation) to accept match racing. The event’s namesake, Carlos Aguilar, who was killed in 2007, was an avid match racer himself and used every opportunity to encourage others, especially young sailors, to follow in the sport. Match racing has come so far since that come 2012, Women’s Match Racing will be included for the first time as an Olympic event.
“Hopefully in years to come,” says Canfield, “we’ll have plenty of representation from the Caribbean in international match racing events around the globe.”
America’s Cup Sailor, Olympic Silver Medallist, former number one ranked match racer, and U.S. Virgin Islands’ native son, Peter Holmberg, will be running clinics prior to the event to boost skill levels.
The event will be sailed in IC24s. The IC24, which stands for Inter-Club 24 and was conceived by two STYC members, is a converted J24 equipped with a Melges 24-style deck mold that is wider than the original design and has no traveler.
The event’s NOR (Notice of Race) is available on the STYC website (www.styc.net).
The STYC is not new to hosting world-class match racing events. The Club organized the Marriott Frenchman's Reef International Match Race – the first Grade One international match race to be held within the Caribbean – in 1997 and again in 1998. More recently, in 2006, the Club hosted the TAG-Heuer Nation’s Cup Regional Final. In 2009, the Club will host the U.S. Women’s Match Racing Championships.
Housing and on-the-water accessibility is available for media. For more information about attending this event, contact Bill Canfield at styc@vipowernet.net or 340-775-6320.
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