Read, returning to competition following a brief hiatus after leading Team Dennis Conner’s challenge for America’s Cup 2003, frequently refers to the racing on the Swedish Match Tour as “hand-to-hand combat” and he proved himself to be the heavyweight champion today, outpunching and outlasting his opponent, New Zealand’s Gavin Brady of Team Beau Geste, who was part of the Prada Challenge’s afterguard.  Brady entered the championship round as the favorite, having won 18 of his 20 matches this week.

“It was some exciting racing out there,” said Read in a bit of an understatement.  “Three tight, close matches and we sailed well in two of them.  The six of us have sailed together for a year and a half and we know each other really well and that definitely played a big part.”

The win brought some peace of mind to Read and his crew, comprised of members of the Stars & Stripes challenge.

“Its fun to win a Swedish Match Tour event, especially after our experience at the America’s Cup challenger series.  We never lost confidence in ourselves even though there were a lot of doubters in our ability after the challenger series,” said Read.  “Hopefully this sends a message that the Stars & Stripes team are a good bunch of sailors.  They don’t get any better than these guys.”

Read began the 39th Congressional Cup with a 1-4 record on the first day but continuously improved during the week, compiling victories and moving up the leaderboard, advancing to the semifinals as the last qualifier.

In his semifinal he dispatched of his opponent, Australia James Spithill, former helmsman for the OneWorld Challenge, 2-0, to gain momentum heading into his clash with Brady, who likewise shed his opponent, Italy’s Paolo Cian, former helmsmans for the Mascalzone Latino Challenge, now sailing for the Riviera di Rimini Sailing Team.

In the first match of the first-to-two wins final Brady entered on starboard side, above the race committee, and immediately dialed up Read in the middle of the start line.  A game of cat-and-mouse amidst the spectator craft ensued, with the competitors settling for a split tack start, Read off to the right and Brady heading left.

At the first cross, Read threw a dummy tack at Brady, drawing Brady off the layline, and moving onto starboard and taking the lead. As the boats approached the windward mark, Read forced Brady into a penalty when Brady responded too late to a port-starboard situation.  Brady then chased Read down the windward leg, the two engaging in a gybing duel down the entire beat.

At the leeward mark rounding Read instigated another port-starboard incident, hanging another penalty on Brady and forcing the Kiwi skipper to execute one of his penalty turns immediately, resulting in a five boat length deficit from which Brady would not recover.

Race commentator Tucker Thompson, a skipper and crew member with intimate knowledge of racing on the Swedish Match Tour, observed at the time, “When you’re on your back foot in match racing you need to sail aggressively and when you sail aggressively, the odds are against you.”

The second match of the finals saw another split tack start with Brady heading to the right and Read going left.  Read won the first cross, proving the choice of his tactician Terry Hutchinson, a former Congressional Cup winner (1992), correct.

After the windward mark rounding Brady went low to try and block the wind into Read’s spinnaker with the two engaging in another gybing duel as they closed on the leeward mark.

Near the bottom mark, Brady and Read again mixed it up with two port starboard penalties being called on Read and then, when Read forced Brady into the mark, a third penalty was called against Read, resulting in a black flag and the match being awarded to Brady.

It wasn’t over there however, as Brady’s Catalina 37 became entangled in the mark and for several minutes questions lingered as to whether Brady would have to sail the rest of match in order to be awarded the point.  All the while, Brady’s bowman, Brad Webb, worked feverishly to free them from the mark but finally the race committee called the match, cut the mark and the competitors prepared themselves for a third and final, win-take-all match.

In the third match, Read led Brady into the lower right hand corner of the spectator fleet, within feet of the Belmont Pier, burning time off the clock.  As they approached the line, Read saw that Brady was a bit early, causing the Kiwi to execute a downwind tack.  At that point Read pounced and immediately tacked over his opponent. 

About half way up the beat Brady tacked to set up the second cross, however instead of crossing Read took advantage of a three-boat length lead to tack on the face of his opponent.

The strategy worked as Read rounded the windward mark 10 seconds head of Brady.  Brady again took the lower course, waiting for Read to gybe.  Unfortunately for Brady, he went a little too low and was forced to gybe twice to get back to the layline.  Approaching the leeward mark Brady copped a penalty for a port-starboard incident and in spite of a tacking duel on the leeward leg and his best efforts to block Read’s air on the final beat, Brady ran out of racetrack.

The Congressional Cup title was the first Swedish Match Tour victory for Read and, unfortunately for his valiant opponent, the sixth time Brady has finished as a runner-up.

During the battle between the two leaders of the Swedish Match Tour in the final flight of the round robin, earlier in the day, Denmark’s Jes Gra-Hansen and Jesper Radich, first and second, respectively, Gram-Hansen was able to reaffirm his ranking. 

In the pre-start, Gram-Hansen turned away several aggressive maneuvers by his countryman to avoid any trouble and sail clear to the start with good boat speed.  The clean start was too much for Radich to overcome and Gram-Hansen, while disappointed in not qualifying for the semifinals, gained a measure of satisfaction in shutting Radich out of any Swedish Match Tour points, while adding to his own total.

“It was important for us to go out today and extend our lead over Jesper,” said Gram-Hansen.  “Looking forward on the Swedish Match Tour, we feel good with how we’re sailing especially going to the big boats (IMX 40s) that they use at the Elba Cup.”

With his petit finals victory over Cian, James Spithill broke out of tie for third place on the Swedish Match Tour rankings with Chris Law and “The Outlaws” and now sits alone in third, eight points behind Radich.  Read’s victory moves him into a tie for fourth with Law.

Hi-resolution photos for media purposes are available by contacting Shawn McBride at shawn.mcbride@octagon.com.

The Swedish Match Tour’s next event is the Toscana Elbea Cup – Trofeo Locman off the island of Elba, Italy.  For all the latest news from the Swedish Match Tour visit www.swedishmatchtour.com.

CONGRESSIONAL CUP FINAL STANDINGS

Skipper                                                                       Prize Money                                   

1. Ken Read, USA/Saucony Racing Team                   $6,000

2. Gavin Brady, NZ/Team Beau Geste                         $4,500

3. James Spithill, AUS/Team Spithill                          $3,000

4. Paolo Cian, ITA/Riviera di Rimini Sailing Team   $2,500

5.Magnus Holmberg, SWE/Team Holmberg                 $2,000

6.Jes Gram-Hansen, DEN/Team Victory Lane            $1,800

7.Scott Dickson, USA/Dickson Racing Team              $1,600

8.Chris Law, GBR/ “The Outlaws”                              $1,400

9.Jesper Radich, DEN/Team Radich                         $1,200

10. Luc Pillot, FRA/Team Luc Pillot                            $1,000

SWEDISH MATCH TOUR 2002/2003 RANKINGS

Skipper                                                                       Points
1.Jes Gram-Hansen, DEN/Team Victory Lane               72

2.Jesper Radich, DEN/Team Radich                             53

3. James Spithill, OneWorld Challenge                        45

4. Chris Law, GBR/”The Outlaws”                               35

    Ken Read, USA/Saucony Racing                               35
6. Ed Baird, USA/Team Musto                                      30

6. Gavin Brady, NZ/Team Beau Geste                           28

7. Karol Jablonski, POL/Team MK Café                       24

    Paolo Cian, ITA/Riviera di Rimini Sailing Team     24

Congressional Cup Finals

Flight 1

Read def. Brady

Flight 2

Brady def. Read – DSQ

Flight 3

Read def. Brady

Petit-finals

Flight 1

Spithill def. Cian

Flight 2

Spithill def. Cian

Semifinals

Flight 1

Read def. Spithill

Brady def. Cian

Flight 2

Read def. Spithill

Brady def. Cian

Round Robin Racing

Flight 18

Dickson def. Pillot

Spithill def. Law

Holmberg def. Read

Brady def. Cian

Gram-Hansen def. Radich

Source: Shawn McBride