Steady breezes greeted Terry Hutchinson’s Team Annapolis Volvo as they began the second day of racing at the 40th annual Congressional Cup invitational match racing regatta yesterday, hosted by the Long Beach Yacht Club and part of the 2004 Swedish Match Tour.

Hutchinson, helming for Team Annapolis Volvo, is competing with a team primarily from Annapolis, Maryland – Chris Larson, who is calling tactics, and Andrew Scott, Greg Gendell, and Skip Baxter. Morgan Trubovich, has joined the team from San Diego, California.

With all teams sailing 18 races each in the four days prior to Saturday’s semi-finals and finals; Team Annapolis Volvo finished 5-4 in the second day of competition. The first race on Wednesday’s Flight six Match one, saw them competing against Scott Dickson, who is representing the Long Beach Yacht Club. Hutchinson’s team led the entire way around the race course by a small margin but after ripping their spinnaker in a foul-up with boats in other matches at the last windward mark, they were overtaken prior to the finish and lost the race by four seconds.

It was a different story in Flight seven Match two with Hutchinson and Team Annapolis Volvo dominating Sweden’s Mattias Rahm and his team from beginning to end. After controlling the start and getting out to the left side of the course he was aiming for, Hutchinson sailed his own race, leading at the first windward mark by 15 seconds. By the time the gun sounded at the finish, they had increased their lead and handily defeated Rahm by 23 seconds.

The penultimate race of the day, Flight eight Match one, saw Hutchinson slowing down his opponent Kelvin Harrap, part of the Kiwi contingent at the Congressional Cup, at the start and doing a nice job of protecting his position on the port side of the course. Later, winding up in the wrong spot at the wrong time really cost the team, though, as they sailed though a light patch of wind on the course for about 25 seconds while Harrap took the lead in some nice pressure. Unable to overcome this setback, Team Annapolis Volvo finished behind Harrup.

With spectators on the Belmont Pier cheering them on at the start and a blimp circling the race course overhead, Hutchinson showed that previous Congressional Cup experience is like money in the bank against Con Cup newcomers. In the start of Flight nine Match one, Allan Coutts of New Zealand failed to challenge Team Annapolis Volvo as they repeatedly pushed Coutts and his team around, keeping them on the outside of the starting area. This intimidation continued during the race as well with Hutchinson forcing Coutts beyond the lay line more than once as they sailed the race course. Hutchinson took the gun and 23 seconds later, Coutts crossed the finish line. The scheduled Flight ten was cancelled as a huge wind shift crossed the race course. Team Annapolis Volvo is tied for third place with Ed Baird (USA), Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN), and Harrap. Hutchinson, in looking back over the day’s results, said “We just got unlucky today. I can’t think of anything we did wrong or would change in our set-up. Hopefully we’ll get some breaks our way tomorrow and have a better day.”