John Bassadone Wins Maiden King’s Cup
John Bassadone’s Emendek have won their first King’s Cup.
A statement follows below:
After another month with no sailing due to a lack of wind, the race for the King’s Cup came to life on Saturday in fresh Easterly winds.
In the end three races were sailed as follows:
- The fourth race of the Forrestier Walker series.
- The first race of the Patron Series.
- The second (and last) race of the Ocean Race Cup.
Forrestier Walker Race 4
The fourth race of the Forrestier Walker series was sailed in decent Easterly winds, and although John Bassadone’s Emendek had already won the series, the runners up spot was still up for grabs with Hamish Risso, Charlie Stagnetto and Charlie Lavarello all in contention.
The race started with those boats at the Northern end of the line getting the best start although they all soon tacked off to the South to join the rest of the fleet.
It was soon clear that Chris Keightly-Pugh in Temptress had not only got a good start, but was maintaining his position at the top of the fleet despite the challenges of John Bassadone in Emendek and Hamish Risso in Fencer.
As the boats reached the first mark, John’s Emendek managed to sail a good second half of the leg to overtake Chris and round in first place just ahead of Chris and Hamish.
As the boats headed on the run towards the RAF mark, the positions began to look less clear. Hamish seemed faster than John but could not use this advantage to pull ahead whilst Chris, benefiting from some good crew work from Tom Hillman and taking a more Northerly route, had managed to take advantage and put himself in the lead.
This lead was nevertheless slender, and whilst all three boats were battling it out, Charlie Lavarello (with some good spinnaker work from Nick Cruz) and Charlie Stagnetto, were quietly but quickly catching them up to further complicate matters at the head of the fleet.
It was actually Chris that managed to round in first place with Charlie Lavarello claiming water on several boats to round in second ahead of John Bassadone in third, Charlie Stagnetto in fourth and Hamish in fifth.
As the boats headed back to Western Beach it was clear that the stronger winds in the North were presenting the skippers with some complications and this resulted in the 5 leading boats criss-crossing across the course in search of an advantage over their rivals.
However, although the winds were variable, the one constant throughout the leg was Chris Keightly-Pugh in Temptress who was sailing the race of his life to stay at the front of the fleet and even pull away from his rivals to round the final mark with an increased gap over second placed John Bassadone and third placed Hamish.
On the final run, John Bassadone tried to put pressure on Chris but it was to no avail as Chris managed to win the race comfortably and take his first ever win in a King’s Cup race.
A big congratulations should go to Chris and his crew of Tom Hillman and Esther who sailed a faultless race to take the win despite the usual “big guns” desperately breathing down his neck for the entire race. An extraordinary performance which we hope will lead to a more consistent appearance at the top of the leader board in future seasons.
Forrestier Walker 4 Result
- Chris Keightly-Pugh in Temptress (Crew Tom Hillman & Esther)
- John Bassadone in Emendek
- Hamish Risso in Fencer
Although, as mentioned previously, John Bassadone had already won the Forrestier Walker series, this result confirmed Hamish Risso as the series runner up.
Patron 1
The first race of the Patron Series was the next one to be raced with the Northern end of the line once again proving to be the better end of the line and John Bassadone and Charlie Stagnetto both getting a good start.
At the same time Charlie Lavarello had got a poor start to windward of his rivals and decided to tack off to the South first in search of his fortune.
However, this move did not pay off and by the time they met again off the runway it was clear that the boats who had gone further North had gained an advantage and were now leading the fleet towards the first mark.
This advantage meant that John Bassadone led at the first mark followed closely by Hamish Risso in Fencer and Charlie Stagnetto in Fairdawn with Charlie Lavarello a bit further behind.
The run down to the RAF mark was relatively uneventful with John easily fending off Hamish’s attempts to overtake him by sailing a more Northerly course and by the time they had reached the RAF mark, Bassadone and his team had actually increased their lead over their rival.
On the beat up to Western Beach, the front 4 positions did not change much with Bassadone once again increasing his lead as the boats went round the final mark.
The final run was a formality for the Bassadone team and they took an easy victory with Hamish coming second and Charlie Stagnetto third.
Forrestier Walker 4 Result
- John Bassadone in Emendek (Crew Pablo Villar and German Panei)
- Hamish Risso in Fencer
- Charlie Stagnetto in Fairdawn
Ocean Race 2
The second, and final, race of the Ocean Race was the third race of the day and one in which all four leading boats – John Bassadone, Hamish Risso, Charlie Lavarello and Charlie Stagnetto – had the possibility of winning the series.
Usually, the Ocean Race is raced over longer distances than a normal King’s Cup race, but on this occasion a decision had been made to race it over the usual course distance with the aim of completing the season before December.
Once again, the best start was made at the Northern end of the line with John Bassadone, Charlie Stagnetto and Charlie Lavarello at the head of the field whilst Hamish had managed to get a terrible start and was languishing in last place.
It was Bassadone’ Emendek that tacked off first followed by Charlie Stagnetto and then Charlie Lavarello. This favoured Lavarello and he soon found himself overtaking his rivals and leading the field just ahead of John Bassadone as they approached the runway.
However, Lavarello’s lead was short lived and after some tacks off the runway, Bassadone managed to catch him on starboard forcing Lavarello to take his stern.
Meanwhile Hamish, who had stayed in the North a lot longer than his rivals, had been blessed with a nice Northerly puff which managed to lift him from last place into a position where he too could threaten Bassadone’s lead.
As the boats approached the first mark it was Bassadone who rounded in first place closely followed by Charlie Lavarello, Charlie Stagnetto, Hamish Risso and Chris Keightly-Pugh in that order.
The run to the RAF was an interesting one with Charlie Lavarello overtaking John Bassadone to round the RAF mark just ahead of his rival whilst behind them the other three boats were close by battling it out for 3rd place.
At the start of the beat back to Western Beach, Charlie Lavarello tried to not point too high so as to maintain his speed over Bassadone who was below him, but this did not work and John was able pull away from him to leeward and then catch him on starboard after completing his tack.
Hamish Risso, Charlie Stagnetto and Chris Keightly-Pugh all decided not to follow the two leading boats and instead tack off towards the North in an attempt to catch up.
This forced the leading two boats to follow them and soon all 5 boats were close to each other once again criss-crossing across the course and with several positions changing various times.
However, one position that did not change was John Bassadone at the front of the fleet and it was his boat, Emendek, that managed to round the mark at Western Beach in first position.
Of the following boats, it was Hamish Risso who managed to pull ahead of his rivals to round in second place with Charlie Lavarello in third.
In the run back to the RAF, Hamish decided to head further South than John Bassadone, in an attempt to stay in a slightly stronger breeze.
However, despite certain moments when it seemed that he may be able to reduce John’s lead, ultimately he was not able to do so and John once again rounded the final mark in the lead.
The short, final leg was fairly uneventful with John very much in control and Hamish not managing to make any inroads into his lead meaning that John had won his second race of the day.
Ocean Race 2 Result
- John Bassadone in Emendek (Crew Pablo Villar and German Panei)
- Hamish Risso in Fencer
- Charlie Lavarello in Nemesis
This result means that Hamish wins the Ocean Race Cup with 3 points (1 x 1st and 1 x 2nd) from John Bassadone on 4 points (1 x 1st and 1 x 3rd).
Overall Kings Cup
So with 3 races remaining, John Bassadone has managed to build an unassailable lead and win his maiden Kings Cup.
This win has been well deserved with the Bassadone team having won 7 of the 16 races contested so far and the Brinton and Forrestier Walker series plus the Charles Cruz Cup (for most wins in the season) so far.
To highlight this consistency, the Bassadone team have only been outside the top 3 in 2 of the 16 races and have ended up in first or second place in 11 of the 16 races contested which is a remarkable achievement
Well done John and his team!!
Behind him, it looks almost certain that Charlie Lavarello will take the runners up sport whilst 3rd place is still up for grabs with Hamish and Charlie Stagnetto tied on points with the last 3 races remaining.
Finally, the last 3 races of the season – races 2, 3 and 4 of the Patron series – will be raced next weekend to finally put to bed the longest season in living memory!
