Lake Superior Yachting Association
Lars Hansen (USA) Wayzata Yacht Club
Lars Hansen and teammates Jon Noller and Rod Komis representing the Wayzata Yacht club have been sailing J22’s together for 15 years. They have participated in multiple Richardson Cup regattas, POW regattas and other US Sailing Championship regattas.
We have finished in the top 5 in the J22 at multiple national championships as well as a second at a J22 World Championship.
Lars is also an active Laser sailor having won numerous regattas including US Masters National Championship.
The team also sails on a J105 Placing in the top five at National championships and KWRW. This year the team took second at the Jackson Park Match Race as well as winning multiple NOOD, Verve and a Chicago Mac.

John Peterson (USA) Wayzata Yacht Club
John started match racing in the 1990’s as a member of many teams from the Bayfield Yacht Club, the Minnetonka Yacht Club, and the Wayzata Yacht club.  These efforts included some POW area events,  several local qualifying matches and numerous LSYA Richardson Cup runoffs.  These efforts resulted in a runoff victory and the right to represent the LSYA.  In more recent years John has been racing with Lars Hanson and Jon Noller. This team has represented the LSYA at a number of events. Last year the team split to form The Martian Matrix Match Racing Syndicate. John is the skipper of the second boat and his team includes Jesse Cote and Jon Monson. This will be John’s first time skippering the team at the Richardson Cup.

Maclean Potts  (USA) Wayzata Yacht Club
Started racing in 2003 on Lasers and club 420’s through high-school sailing.  After high school, he moved into bigger boats.  He is involved with an A-Scow program through which he has had the privilege of learning about competitive sailing from coach Gordy Bowers.  By sailing J22’s and J24’s at Wayzata Yacht Club, he has learned about match racing and the Richardson Cup.  After practicing and learning match racing techniques all summer, their team is excited and cannot wait to hit the water and do some more match racing in years to come.


Lake Michigan Sail Racing Association
Steve Lowery  (USA) Highland Park Yacht Club 
Steve Lowery is a graduate of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and has won US Sailing’s Single Handed Championship, the Beneteau 40.7 North Americans and finished second in the U.S. Laser Nationals. He competed in the Olympic Trials in Atlanta in Lasers in 1996 and raced on the Mumm30 circuit nationally afterwards. His recent focus has been on the match race format with a record of improving results. In addition to his modesty with his match racing bio, including several past Richardsons, Steve has list of sailing accomplishments too long to list here.  Steve lives in Highland Park, Il near Chicago, and is married with two young boys to keep him busy on weekends. 

Mark Johnson  (USA) Neenah Nodaway Yacht Club
Racing for 18 years, starting with Flying Juniors and Lasers, and for the past 7 years, in J/24s. Started match racing in earnest last year, qualifying for the Richardson Trophy Regatta, and finishing 7th in New York. Qualified this year for the US Match Racing Championships. Continuing to race J/24s, Lasers, and match race this year, with more emphasis on match racing. Coaching youth racers in 420s.  In addition, Mark is participating this year in the USMRC on Long Island.

Richard West (USA) Chicago Yacht Club
Sailing competitively since 2001 in T10, J105, Beneteau 36.7, and Farr 40 fleets.  First official match race event was the 2008 Windy City Match Race, but have participated in practice sessions with other Chicago match racers on Farr40, J24s, and Tom28s.  Currently skipper of a Farr 40 program, Gravitas, and previously skippered a 36.7 program under the same name; however, the current goal / directive is to dive head first into match racing as a primary focus over the current fleet racing focus.  Was a founding committee member for the Windy City Match Race – www.windycitymatchrace.org 


Detroit Regional Yacht Racing Association
Jim Denner  (USA) Bayview Yacht Club
Grew up in the junior sailing program at Grosse Pointe Yacht Club where he primarily sailed optis and then lasers.  After he graduated from high school he went on to coach junior sailing at the Detroit Yacht club for three summers between school years at the University of Michigan.  His first major accomplishments occurred while crewing as tactician on another Richardson competitor's J24 team, Josh Kerst's boat Instant Karma.  They had a successful few years sailing together.  Winning the Detroit NOODS or placing second each year, qualifying for the 2007 Worlds by placing 2nd in the GL Championships, having strong performances at multiple J24 North Americans and the annual Easter regatta in Columbia, SC. This is Jim’s first year match racing, and his 4th match racing regatta.  His previous three regattas were a 7th in the Bayview Club Match Racing (Grade 5), 7th in the Grade 4 Area E Qualifiers for US Championships and a 5th in the Grade 3 BYC Dynamite Cup (2nd placing DRYA sailor behind Chris Van Tol).
 
Kent Colpaert  (USA) Bayview Yacht Club 
Kent Colpaert, 43, of Grosse Pointe, Michigan represents Bayview Yacht Club and the DRYA in Detroit, Michigan. He has over 15 years of experience sailing big boats in Mackinac and NOOD races with crews of eight to 10. However he had never sailed small boats before he began Match Racing in spring of 2006. “It’s been very humbling at times, but it’s starting to coming together now” Kent says. Kent is currently ranked 13th in the USA and 230th in the world ISAF rankings. Most recently Kent has competed in the Dynamite Cup in Detroit where he qualified to go on to Wayzata Yacht Club in Minnesota to compete for the Richardson Trophy. He has just returned from Canada where he competed in the Royal Canadian Yacht Clubs Open Challenge. Kent has also recently been asked to sail with the Van Tol Match Racing team, currently ranked number one in the USA, as crew at the Ficker Cup in Long Beach, California, in 2008, and for the Congressional Cup in Long Beach, California, in 2009. This year Kent also had the opportunity to qualify for the Area E Quarter Qualifier in Detroit, and qualified to move on to compete at the Area E & K Qualifier in Sheboygan Wisconsin. Next Kent is trying to secure a bid as the North American team to Brindisi, Italy, for the Christmas Match Race in late November.


Interlake Yachting Association
Josh Kerst  (USA) North Cape Yacht Club
Josh began his sailing career at the age of 6 within the junior sailing program in Fair Haven, New York. Through the program he sailed everything from Sunfish, Lasers, Flying Juniors, Club 420s to Thistles. Josh continued his passion for sailing while attending the University of Michigan from 1983-1987 and then transitioned to campaigning his J-24 around the world.  Josh discovered match racing in 2007 and a career in engineering consulting has allowed his team to put together an aggressive racing schedule that has allowed their match race ranking to steadily increase. Current ISAF Ranking: 452 (32nd of USA teams)

Keith Ziegler  (USA) Bayview Yacht Club
Has been sailing in the great lakes area for the past twenty years. He is relatively new and just started match racing over the last three years. He has competed in all the match racing events at Bayview Yacht Club for that period of time. This includes the Dynamite Cup and three area E qualifiers, the last where he took a second.


Lake Yacht Racing Association
Sarah Bury  (CAN) Royal Canadian Yacht Club
Sarah is representing the Royal Canadian Yacht Club and LYRA at the 2008 Richardson Cup.  She had been sailing for the past two years in the Yngling class, training and competing for a spot on Canada’s Olympic team.  Sarah began match racing this spring in Sonars, with the start of a match racing program at the RCYC, and very much enjoys the new challenges that match racing brings.  Her team consists of Jen Aprile, Ali Beck and Dave Provan.  All of these sailors have competed provincially and nationally in dinghies and keelboats.  The whole team is excited to compete in their first Richardson Cup.

Peter Wickwire  (CAN) Royal Canadian Yacht Club 
Peter Wickwire and team are fleet racers who are enjoying their introductory year sailing ISAF graded match racing events. Peter qualified for the grade 2 Detroit Cup sailed in May having finished 3rd at the Grade 3 Bayview Invitational in April as a last minute alternate. Peter and crew earned the opportunity to represent LYRA at the Richardson Cup at the grade 3 Ira Ross Great Race sailed in Buffalo this past summer. While new to ISAF match racing Peter has some prior match racing experience. He was involved with the RCYC effort for the past two Canada Cup's and helmed a C-Class cat in the '07 Little America's Cup. In his first season of ISAF graded events Peter has managed to earn the second highest ISAF ranking in Canada.