Finnish squad still leads local regatta

Natalie Venegas

The Governor’s Cup round robin was completed Friday, giving Nylandska

Jaktklubben, the top finishing team with 10 wins, a chance to compete

in the finals today.

A two-way tie at second and fourth place left South of Perth Yacht

Club from Australia in second place and Southern Yacht Club from New

Orleans in third.

Balboa Yacht Club and Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club had six wins

each, but in a tiebreaker, the last position in the top four was

given to defending champion Royal Prince Alfred, which defeated host

Balboa in the second day of competition.

Nylandska Jaktklubben defeated Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and

fourth place Royal Prince Alfred to complete the round robin.

Since the team finished first, the skipper, Silja Lehtinen was

required by event format to choose her opponent from the top four

finishers to compete against.

Lehtinen, who is drawing attention as the only female in the

competition, defeated South of Perth and will compete against Royal

Price Albert, which defeated Southern in the semifinals.

“They are in awe of her,” Governor’s Cup publicist Nancy Mellon

said of Lehtinen. “It’s exciting because the kids seemed to maintain

their camaraderie. They have made a lot of progress.”

Fifth-place Balboa faces Charlie Buckingham, Michael Menninger and

Charlie Ramser from Newport Harbor Yacht Club today.

“It’s nice to see two partners coming out of the system,” said

Balboa Coach Mike Pinckney. “We’re excited because we didn’t get our

first goal of making the top four, but we still have a chance to be

one of the top two U.S. finishers.”

Balboa defeated Seattle Yacht Club in its first race of the day,

but fell to Cruising Yacht Club in a race that Pinckney said was “one

of our closest races.”

Newport Harbor, which won its last two races against 10th place

King Harbor Yacht Club and seventh place Royal New Zealand Yacht

Squadron, will now compete against its training partner.

The winner will join Southern as the top two U.S. finishers, and

will compete in the International Youth Match Race Series at the

Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in Auckland, New Zealand in

February, along with the Cowes Youth Week Match Race Regatta in

Cowes, Isle of Wight, England next year.