Gifford and crew win prestigious US sailing series

Marlborough sailor Alastair Gifford and his team have taken out the United States Match Racing Grand Slam series, making it a hat-trick of wins for Kiwi sailors in the prestigious event.

The Grand Slam is a match racing series staged entirely in the United States and comprising four events – The Chicago Cup, The Detroit Cup, Oakcliff International and The Thompson Cup, sailed in a variety of different craft.

Alastair’s Grand Slam win, by accruing the most accumulated points in three of the four events, earned him an invitation to the 2022 Congressional Cup. Known as the ‘grandfather of match racing’, the cup attracts the world’s best match racers.

A rising star on the New Zealand and international sailing scene, Alastair and his Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron crew mate Frankie Dair made a flying start to the four-event Grand Slam series in early August. First-up they took out the Chicago Cup, where they sailed in Thompson 28s, then backed that up with another victory in the Detroit Cup, sailing Ultimate 20s.

A sixth placing in the Oakcliff International, this time competing in Swedish Match 40s, saw Alastair maintain his series lead while a third placing in the final event, also sailed in Match 40s, was enough to see him take the championship.

During the Chicago event, on August 6-8, they were joined by Gavin Brady and his daughter Rye, combining superbly to beat American Peter Holz in the final.

In the Detroit Cup, Alastair and Frankie, plus Devon Baker, maintained a winning streak for New Zealand teams. In 2018, RNZYS’s Nick Egnot-Johnson and KNOTS won the event, followed by Jordan Stevenson’s Vento Racing win in 2019. Both went on to win the series.

Teams from USA, NZ, Great Britain and Ireland were in attendance in Detroit this year. Alastair’s crew managed to snatch the lead from local favorite Ryan Seago, a previous winner of the series who continues to be a top competitor at these events. Ryan sat atop the standings after the round robins with an almost perfect score.

In the semi-finals, Ryan beat Ruairi Finnegan and Gifford beat James Pinder to move onto the final. The championship came down to the last race of the final after Alastair won race one and Ryan prevailed in the second race. Then, with and a little bit more breeze to work with, Alastair’s crew stepped up their game to win the starts, take control of each first beat, defend their lead, and then extend to win each of the remaining two matches.

“We want to thank our rivals who provided excellent competition for us all week and all at Bayview [Yacht Club] who made this possible,” said Alastair, who learned to sail at Marlborough’s Queen Charlotte Yacht Club.

“We also want to thank our supporters at home from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Performance Programme,” he added.

Prior to leaving for the States, Alastair said, “In terms of the Grand Slam we want to really hold up the reputation that has been set by our two teams going over and winning the previous two events.

“The Squadron is held in high esteem around the world and within the sailing community, especially after defending the America’s Cup this year, so we want to uphold that and keep pushing the boundaries.

“Our team is quite widespread, with our three sailors from Dunedin, Blenheim and Keri Keri which shows you can come from anywhere in the country and do the RNZYS Youth Training Programme and go on to represent your country overseas.

“Obviously something is working really well at the club, so we want to uphold that and do the club proud.”