Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club is excited to announce Daniel Kemp has been successful in gaining an entry for the 57th Governors Cup! The ‘Gov Cup’ is one of the worlds most reknowned Youth Match Racing events, run by the Balboa Yacht Club in California (USA).
RPAYC has a rich history of competition at the Governors Cup, with the club proudly winning the trophy three times – Anthony Merrington in 1992, followed by back-to-back victories with Murray Gordon at the helm in 2004 and 2005. In recent years, RPAYC has been well represented by leading members, including Clare Costanzo and Will Dargaville. The club is proud to see Daniel Kemp added to the list of skippers representing RPAYC, to mark a highly anticipated return of our club’s involvement and support of this prestigious event.
Kemp, and his team, has enjoyed a very successful summer of racing, including 3rd place at both the HARKEN International Youth Match Racing Championship (RPAYC) and the RSYS Hardy Cup, and 2nd place at the RNZYS Youth International Match Racing Cup (Auckland) in March. Since the end of the last event in March, the team has put their complete focus into training for the ‘Gov Cup’ whilst waiting in anticipation for a regatta invitation!
The Governors Cup will take place from July 22-27, 2024.
Daniel Kemp and team placed 2nd at the RNZYS Youth International MR Cup (March 2024) – Photo Credit: Live Sail Die
57th Governor’s Cup International Youth Match Racing Championship announces 2024 invitees
PRESS RELEASE – 29 APRIL 2024 – By Susan Kenney
Fourteen skippers from five countries have been invited to the 57th Governor’s Cup International Youth Match Racing Championship hosted by the Balboa Yacht Club, Newport Beach, California. The “GovCup” Selection Committee received more than three times the number of Requests for Invitation (RFIs) this year than there were places in the event.
The Cup, presented by Terry Causey and the Call of the Sea Foundation and co-presented by the Croul Family and DISC Sports and Spine Center, will feature all four of last year’s semi-finalists led by returning champion, Jeffrey Petersen, 22, (USA) from the host club. 2023 runner-up Cole Tapper, 21, (AUS) will also return as will third place finisher, Morgan Pinckney, 19, (USA), and Justin Callahan, 21, (USA) who placed fourth.
“This year was the toughest we’ve ever had in the Selection Committee,” said Christine Gribben, Regatta Chair. “We would have loved to invite everyone but that wasn’t possible.” The Committee did decide, however, to invite fourteen, rather than the usual twelve, given the quality of the RFIs.
In addition to Tapper, two other Australian skippers and three skippers from New Zealand will compete. Marcello Torre, 22, another returning veteran from Western Australia will be joined by Daniel Kemp, 20, from Sydney in representing the Aussies. For New Zealand, 2022 veteran Robbie McCutcheon, 22, will return this year along with Jack Frewin, 21, and Josh Hyde, 20. The latter two, plus four of the six Australian and New Zealand teams represent something of a “changing of the guard” as they all have at least one year of eligibility in the event after this year contestants must be under 23 as of the last day of the regatta.
A Danish team returns to the event after historical success with the invitation of Matias Rossing, 20. Nicolas Bernal, 22, (BRA) will return for his second and last year, after an impressive year of match racing since the last Cup.
The U.S. skippers will be led by Petersen who will be trying to make history by being the first skipper to win three Governor’s Cups, having won in 2021 and 2023. BYC Governor’s Cup Steering Committee Chair, Andy Rose, won two GovCups back in the day. He said, “It was tough enough to win one or two in the early days of GovCup, and much more difficult today. Only thirteen of us have won two, but Jeffrey has every chance to win his third this year making the rest of us minor footnotes in GovCup history.” Petersen was also the Youth Match Racing World Champion in 2022. He and Callahan will be joined by Floridian and first-time competitor Liam O’Keefe, 21, (USA) who received his invitation by winning the U.S. Intercollegiate MR Championship in 2023 for Brown University — beating Petersen’s Georgetown University in the process. The youngest-ever competitor, Siena Nichols, 15, (USA) received an invitation based on her already distinguished match racing record, including a win in the women’s Mayor’s Cup, in Long Beach, California. In that event she beat the fourth-ranked female match racer in the world, among others.
The fourteenth competitor will be the winner of the U.S. Youth Match Racing Championship for the Rose Cup which will be held in Marblehead, Massachusetts in late June. Since former Rose Cup champ Morgan Pinckney has already been invited to the GovCup, if he wins Rose Cup, the Selection Committee will pick an alternate.
