Charlie Lavarello wins L.W.Triay Trophy

The qualifying race for the Louis W. Triay finals took place last Thursday in moderate Southerly winds and in the end the following 6 boats qualified for the final:

1st Micko Sheppard-Capurro in Andromeda (V16)
2nd Oliver Gongora in Emendek (deputising for John Bassadone) (V17)
3rd Hamish Risso in Fencer (V9)
4th Charlie Stagnetto in Fairdawn (V20)
5th Alex Dobbs in Zeus (V10)
6th Charlie Lavarello in Nemesis (V24)
The finals were held over two days (due to the wind running out on the first day) and consisted of 1 v 1 or “mano a mano” races between all the finalists in a similar format to the America’s Cup. This provides a very different spectacle to the normal fleet races with boats trying to get the advantage over their rival before the start of the race and maintain this to the end of the very short races.

The wind on the day was a light easterly and the results of this race were as follows:

Round 1
Race 1 - Charlie Lavarello (V24) v Micko Sheppard-Capurro (V16) – Winner Charlie Lavarello
Race 2 – Hamish Risso (V9) v Olivera Gongora (V17) – Winner Oliver Gongora
Race 3 – Alex Dobbs (V10) v Charlie Stagnetto (V20) – Winner Charlie Stagnetto

Round 2
Race 1 - Micko Sheppard-Capurro (V16) v Alex Dobbs (V10) – Winner Micko Sheppard-Capurro
Race 2 – Oliver Gongora (V17) v Charlie Stagnetto (V20) – Winner Oliver Gongora
Race 3 – Charlie Lavarello (V24) v Hamish Risso (V9) – Winner Hamish Risso

Round 3
Race 1 - Micko Sheppard-Capurro (V16) v Charlie Stagnetto (V20)– Winner Micko Sheppard-Capurro
Race 2 – Oliver Gongora (V17) v Charlie Lavarello (V24) – Winner Charlie Lavarello
Race 3 – Hamish Risso (V9) v Alex Dobbs (V10) – Winner Hamish Risso

At this stage the wind died down and it was decided to reschedule the last 2 rounds for the following Wednesday with the final very finely poised as follows:

Micko Sheppard-Capurro, Hamish Risso, Charlie Lavarello and Oliver Gongora - 2 wins out of 3 races
Charlie Stagnetto – 1 win out of 3 races
Alex Dobbs – 0 wins out of 3 races

By the time the boats reconvened on the Wednesday, the wind had changed to a very strong Westerly wind providing the skippers and crew with a very different set of circumstances to deal with including a much rougher sea. John Bassadone Jr also returned for these last two races (taking over from Oliver Gongora) and the results of the last two rounds were as follows:

Round 4
Race 1 - Hamish Risso (V9) v Micko Sheppard-Capurro (V16) – Winner Hamish Risso
Race 2 – John Bassadone (V17) v Alex Dobbs (V10)– Winner John Bassadone
Race 3 – Charlie Stagnetto (V20) v Charlie Lavarello (V24) – Winner Charlie Lavarello

This meant that with the last round of races to go, 3 skippers (Charlie Lavarello, John Bassadone and Hamish Risso) were in contention to win the cup and all 3 were aiming to get that last win whilst at the same time hoping that their rivals didn’t. In the end the results were as follows:

Round 5
Race 1 - Micko Sheppard-Capurro (V16) v John Bassadone (V17) – Winner Micko Sheppard-Capurro

This meant that John Bassadone could not win the cup and Hamish went into his race knowing that a win in his final race would result in him being champion. However, the result of his races was as follows:
Race 2 – Charlie Stagnetto (V20) v Hamish Risso (V9) – Winner Charlie Stagnetto

This meant that it was left to Charlie Lavarello to try and win his last race and be crowned the champion. The result of this race was as follows:
Race 3 – Alex Dobbs (V10) v Charlie Lavarello (V24) – Winner Charlie Lavarello

This meant that Charlie Lavarello took the cup with 4 wins out of 5 races, whilst behind him 3 skippers – John Bassadone, Hamish Risso and Micko Sheppard-Capurro all tied on 3 wins out of 5. Therefore, the tiebreaker came into effect, and since this was based on the results in the qualifying race, Micko took second place, John third and Hamish had to settle for fourth.

This result means that the Kings Cup gets even tighter than it already it was and the race for the championship continues this weekend with 2 more races – races 2 & 3 of the Forrestier Walker Series - as the Kings Cup once again heats up with all five contenders having realistic hopes of winning the 2021 Championship.