Governor’s Cup features elite competition

Last year, skipper Ryan Davidson delivered Balboa Yacht Club’s best finish in 32 years in the Governor’s Cup.

This year, he returns to the prestigious junior match-racing event, hoping to provide the event’s host club with its first Gov Cup since 1980. It definitely won’t be easy, as the 48th Gov Cup features the elite in junior match racing, including the cream-of-the-crop international teams.

Sam Gilmour and Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club of Australia returns to defend their championship. Gilmour directed Royal Freshwater Bay, which lost its first race in a best-of-five final and responded with three straight wins, to grab the Cup.

Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron had to settle for second. RNZYS returns, skippered by George Brasell, who was on bow for last year’s runner-up boat.

Racing, which takes place in the ocean near the Balboa Pier, begins Tuesday and ends Saturday. Festivities for the event begin Monday.

The Gov Cup features three local teams, as well as another former champion in Nevin Snow (2011) for San Diego Yacht Club.

Davidson will try to hold off another BYC team skippered by Christophe Killian. Skipper Sean Segerblom and Newport Harbor Yacht Club are also in the Gov Cup, which has 12 teams vying for the top prize.

Last year, Davidson held off Killian in a petit final of the Rose Cup to qualify for the Gov Cup. Killian helped Davidson train for last year’s Gov Cup. This year it’s a different story.

Killian won the Rose Cup this time around in Oyster Bay, N.Y. and appears determined to make this a special Gov Cup for BYC.

Nine of the teams were chosen and invited by a selection committee in late May. The remaining teams were chosen as a result of the fifth Rose Cup. The regatta is named after Andy Rose, the skipper who won Gov Cup titles for BYC in 1969 and 1070. Rose is also a former America’s Cup and Congressional Cup tactician.

Davidson and Killian will try to be the one to bring back the Gov Cup to the BYC.

Race information during the week can be found at https://www.balboayachtclub.com.