Balboa Yacht Club’s Jeffrey Petersen rings the bell again in Governor’s Cup
For the second time in three years, the bell behind the bar rang in victory at the Balboa Yacht Club.
Behind a near-perfect performance, skipper Jeffrey Petersen became the 13th two-time winner of the Governor’s Cup international youth match racing championship on Saturday.
Petersen, who sailed with Max Brennan (main and spinnaker trimmer) and Enzo Menditto (bowman and jib trimmer), swept Australia’s Cole Tapper in the best-of-five finals. The winner of the regatta in 2021, Petersen bounced back after being denied in his bid to repeat against Jordan Stevenson last year.
The veterans of that trio recalled struggling in light-wind conditions the year before. Sailing in similar conditions this week, it was a source of pride.
“We knew that was a weakness coming into this year, and we put a lot of time and effort into focusing on mirror sailing and really improving our game, kind of almost copying a little bit of how Jordan Stevenson sailed the boat last year,” Petersen said. “We’re just really proud to have come out in what we think is our biggest weakness and come out and win in our tougher conditions, so we’re really happy with that one.”
Rules regarding eligibility for the Governor’s Cup dictate that a competitor must not turn 23 before the end of the regatta. Petersen, 21, could have one opportunity left to go after his third title in the prestigious match racing event.
In what had been a mostly drama-free regatta, Petersen’s team faced its first moment of pressure in the semifinals. Justin Callahan, a Miami native, evened up the best-of-five semifinal at 1-1 in the last race of Friday’s action, leaving the host club entry to sleep on its first defeat of the event.
It was the last year of eligibility for Brennan, who would not let nerves get in the way of his final act. It was simply a matter of execution.
“In the morning, I came down and I was thinking, ‘It’s my last day ever in a Gov Cup, my last day sailing the boats, my last day at this event,’ and I refused to do anything but enjoy it,” Brennan said. “I wasn’t going to let it get to me, and I felt very relaxed. I think Enzo and Jeffrey were feeling that, as well.”
Menditto, a teammate of Petersen’s in the sailing program at Georgetown, was in uncharted waters. Petersen gave him high marks in his first match racing event.
“He has never sailed a match racing regatta before the start of this regatta,” Petersen said of Menditto. “He wasn’t a keelboat sailor. He was a dinghy sailor. We only had about two weeks of prep time. We knew we wanted to come with Enzo. … We came out, and we sailed every single day for two weeks in a row before the event to get ourselves ready. … Enzo and Max were on a whole new level that I’ve never seen either one of them sail at before, and it really showed this week.”
Tapper did not sail the full course in the last race of the finals, a mistake he addressed in a press conference with Tom Ehman and two-time Governor’s Cup winner Andy Rose.
“We had a bit of a shock of it, to be honest,” Tapper said. “We finished [the race], and we looked at Jeffrey, and we said, ‘Oh, good race, man.’ He had sort of a wry smile on his face, and he said, ‘No, good regatta.’”
The 56th Governor’s Cup saw eight nations sail in it. All three American boats made the semifinals. Morgan Pinckney, of Newport Harbor Yacht Club, defeated Callahan in the third-place series.
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