Swedish skipper Johnie Berntsson today won the King Edward VII Gold Cup, the championship trophy of the Bermuda Gold Cup match racing tournament, for the third time since 2008.
Hosted by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, the Bermuda Gold Cup is a World Championship event of the World Match Racing Tour.
The Berntsson Racing Team—including Herman Andersson on tactics, Björn Lundgren on mainsail trim and Patrik Sturesson on headsail trim—finished the regatta with a perfect score of 11-0 and won $25,000 of the $75,000 prize purse.
“I can recall being over the moon the first time I won this trophy. I never thought it would happen. Now it’s happened a third time, and I’m super grateful,” said the 51-year-old Berntsson from Stenungsund, Sweden, a medical IT consultant. “Sailing with Patrik, Herman and Björn, they pushed me all around the course. The tactics were excellent, the trimming was excellent, and it all helped me grow as a helmsman and build our confidence.”
For Berntsson it is the third time that he has won the coveted gold trophy that was first awarded in 1907, having previously captured it in 2008 and ’14. He also finished runner-up four times (2011, ’12, ’18, ’19) and has the second-most finals appearances behind the event’s all-time winner Russell Coutts of New Zealand, who won the trophy seven times between 1990 and 2004 and finished runner-up twice.
“I’m so proud to be part of the history of the King Edward VII Gold Cup,” said Berntsson. “There have been so many great sailors racing and winning here. I’m really proud to be part of that nice, successful group of sailors. It’s very good feelings.”
The King Edward VII Gold Cup dates to 1907 and is the oldest match racing trophy in the world for a competition involving one-design yachts. It is one of the most coveted championships in match racing. The regatta has been run in its current format, as a ladder-style tournament on the confines of Hamilton Harbour, since 1985.
The Berntsson Racing Team won the title as much for their work in the Qualifying Round as for the Knockout Rounds. After two days of racing on Tuesday (Oct. 3) and Wednesday (Oct. 4), which saw the completion of the Qualifying and Quarterfinal rounds, the regatta was postponed Thursday (Oct. 5) and Friday (Oct. 6) due to the passage of Tropical Storm Philippe. Saturday's strong winds of 25 to 35 knots in Hamilton Harbour (below) forced the cancellation of the Semifinal and Final rounds.
