World Match Racing Tour
World Match Racing Tour
FormerlySwedish Match Tour
First held2001
Typematch-racing tour
ChampionsTorvar Mirsky (2017)
Most titlesIan Williams (5)
Websitewww.wmrt.com

The World Match Racing Tour (or WMRT) is an annual series of professional sailing match race events held in multiple countries.[1] Since 2006, the winner of the WMRT series has been named the Match Racing World Champion.[2]

Established in the year 2000, the WMRT brings together a diverse group of world-class sailors, including America's Cup and Olympic champions, to compete in the global championship series. WMRT holds the 'Special Event Status' designation from World Sailing, the governing body of the sport.

Throughout the course of the Tour, participating teams compete in various boats, with each event featuring identical boat models. Teams regularly switch boats during the competition, emphasizing the importance of the sailors' skill and strategic abilities.

WMRT is among the select group of World Sailing 'Special Events,' a category that includes renowned competitions such as the America's Cup and The Ocean Race. It is the longest-running professional sailing series in the sport. Past champions of the tour include Ian Williams, Peter Gilmour, Adam Minoprio, Phil Robertson, Taylor Canfield, and the current defending champion, Torvar Mirsky from Australia.

For professional sailors, the World Match Racing Tour has been seen as a valuable steppingstone towards the America's Cup, offering an opportunity for teams to refine their match racing expertise at the highest level. Initially focused on monohull match racing since its inception in 2000, the introduction of M32 multihulls in 2015 marked a significant change. Furthermore, with the America's Cup shifting to foiling monohulls for its 36th edition in 2021, the WMRT is expected to continue including events featuring a variety of boat types, encompassing monohulls, multihulls, and even foiling boats, starting in 2019.

History

Foundation of the World Match Racing Tour

The World Match Racing Tour in its current format started in the year 2000. However, many of its regattas started earlier, for example, the King Edward VII Gold Cup (now known as the Argo Group Gold Cup) in 1937 with American Briggs Cunningham as the first winner.[3]

During the mid-1990s, match racing received greater interest and Fabergé, the cosmetic manufacturer, used the brand Brut to form a match racing series. The series offered US$250,000 of prize money, the highest prize awarded in sailing regattas. To win the big prize – and the Fabergé egg, the competitor had to win three out of five regattas in Bermuda, San Francisco, New York, Lymington and Séte – the Brut Cup.[4]

In 1997, Russell Coutts and his Team Magic won the Fabergé Egg and the US$250,000 prize money. Brut left as a sponsor after that, leaving the match racing series in a state of limbo. Swedish Match took over as sponsor of the match racing series in 1998 and the creation of the Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing began.[4]

Swedish Match Tour (2000–2006)

In 2000, the Swedish Match Tour (formerly known as the Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing) was awarded Special Event status by the International Sailing Federation. Bertrand Pacé was the winner of the tour. In 2005, the first Asian event in the match racing circuit – Monsoon Cup – was added and marked the 50th event on the Swedish Match Tour.[4]

M32s in Match Cup Norway 2018.

World Championship (2006–present)

In 2006, following the departure of title sponsor Swedish Match AB, the Swedish Match Tour was renamed the World Match Racing Tour and gained status as the World Championship in match racing. The Korea Match Cup joined the World Match Racing Tour in 2008. Great Britain's Royal Jeweler's, Garrard & Co. created the World Match Racing Tour trophy in 2011. In 2012, ALPARI UK Ltd became the title sponsor of the tour – renaming it as the Apari World Match Racing Tour.[4]

In 2015, the tour adopted a new format where competitions were grouped into two categories: World Championship events giving more points and World Tour events giving less points in the tour standings.[1] For the 2016 tour, M32 became the equipment used.[5]

Sponsorship

The World Match Racing Tour has been sponsored since 2000. The title sponsorship enables the tour's sponsorship name. There have been two sponsors since the tour's formation.

YearSponsor
1998–1999none (Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing)
2000–2006Swedish Match (Swedish Match Tour)
2006–2011No sponsor (World Match Racing Tour)
2012–2015Alpari Group (Alpari World Match Racing Tour)[6]
2015–currentNo sponsor (World Match Racing Tour)

Winners

Year Winner Team
2000  Bertrand Pacé (FRA) Team New Zealand
2000–01  Magnus Holmberg (SWE) Team Stora Enso
2001–02  Peter Holmberg (USA) Oracle BMW Racing
2002–03  Jesper Radich (DEN) Team Radich
2003–04  Peter Gilmour (AUS) Pizza-La Sailing Team
2004–05  Peter Gilmour (AUS) Pizza-La Sailing Team
2005–06  Peter Gilmour (AUS) Pizza-La Sailing Team
2006–07  Ian Williams (GBR) Team Pindar
2008  Ian Williams (GBR) Bahrain Team Pindar
2009  Adam Minoprio (NZL) BlackMatch Racing
2010  Ben Ainslie (GBR) Team Origin
2011  Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar
2012  Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar
2013  Taylor Canfield (ISV) USOne
2014  Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar
2015[7]  Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar
2016[8]  Phil Robertson (NZL) Phil Robertson Racing
2017[9]  Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team
2019[10]  Phil Robertson (NZL) ChinaOne Ningbo
2020  Taylor Canfield (USA) Stars + Stripes Team USA
2022  Nick Egnot-Johnson (NZL) Knots Racing NZL
2023  Ian Williams (GBR) ChinaOne Ningbo

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to World Match Racing Tour.

References

  1. 1 2 "World Match Racing Tour – New world tour format attracts new talent". Sail-World. Archived from the original on 16 February 2018. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  2. ↑ "WHAT IS MATCH RACING". wmrt.com. Archived from the original on 20 October 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  3. ↑ "Winners of the King Edward VII Trophy since 1937". Archived from the original on 2015-10-04. Retrieved 2023-09-23.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "2014 WMRT Media Pack".
  5. ↑ "Skunked at World Match Racing Tour >> Scuttlebutt Sailing News". 3 July 2017.
  6. ↑ "ALPARI BACKS SAILING SERIES". Archived from the original on 2013-12-12. Retrieved 2013-12-09.
  7. ↑ "Ian Williams dominates Monsoon Cup to win 6th World Title". www.sailing.org. World Sailing. 30 January 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
  8. ↑ "ROBERTSON IS CROWNED THE MILLION DOLLAR WORLD CHAMPION". www.wmrt.com. World Match Racing Tour. 10 July 2016. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
  9. ↑ "TORVAR TOPPLES ROBERTSON TO WIN HIS FIRST WORLD TITLE". www.wmrt.com. World Match Racing Tour. 29 October 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
  10. ↑ "Phil Robertson wins Match Race Worlds". sailingscuttlebutt.com. ScuttleButt Sailing News. 7 July 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.