World Match Racing Tour celebrates 25th Anniversary season
by WMRT 22 Feb 02:59 NZDT
World Match Racing Tour celebrates 25th Anniversary season © WMRT
The World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) today announced its complete 2025 championship season, which started at the inaugural Macao Match Cup last month.
This year also marks the 25th Anniversary of the Tour, the longest running global professional sailing series and Special Event of World Sailing, the world governing body of the sport.
The 2025 WMRT season features a 16-event schedule across 10 countries including five 'World Championship' level events and eleven 'World Tour' level events. Teams will count their top 4 results after the penultimate stage in Bermuda to qualify for a slot at the end of season WMRT Final in Shenzhen China, with a USD200,000 prize purse.
The 2025 season started last month with the inaugural Macao Match Cup won by Great Britain's Ian Williams and his Pindar by Manuport Logistics team of Gerry Mitchell, Jon Gundersen and Richard Sydenham. Williams and crew started the year as eight-time match racing world champions after defending their 2024 title at the WMRT Final in Shenzhen, China in December.
The season continues at the end of April with another milestone event at the 60th Anniversary of the Long Beach Yacht Club Congressional Cup, founded in 1965. Past Congressional Cup champions including notable sailing world champions, Olympics and America's Cup names such as Ted Turner (USA), Harold Cudmore (GBR), Dennis Conner (USA), Peter Gilmour (AUS), Rod Davis (NZL), Chris Dickson (NZL), Gavin Brady (NZL), Dean Barker (NZL), Peter Holmberg (ISV), Ken Read (USA), Ed Baird (USA) and Francesco Bruni (ITA). The Long Beach Yacht Club Ficker Cup will take place the weekend before the Congressional Cup, with the top two placed skippers qualifying into the Congressional Cup.
The Tour will then head to Europe with events in Porto Montenegro, Sweden, Finland, Italy and France before returning to the USA in August for the back-to-back USA Grand Slam events at the Oakcliff International, Thompson Cup, Chicago Grand Slam and Detroit Cup.
The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club will host the 73rd edition of the iconic Bermuda Gold Cup in October as the penultimate stage of the season, after which sixteen teams will qualify to compete at the WMRT Final to be hosted for the third time in Shenzhen, China in December.
'This year is a particularly special year as our 25th Anniversary of the Tour' added WMRT Executive Director James Pleasance. 'Many of sailings best known names from major events such as the Olympics, world championships and America's Cup have honed their skills and forged successful careers from the World Match Racing Tour, and it is inspiring to see so many new sailors and teams continuing to follow in their path.'
The World Match Racing Tour was founded in 2000, originally named the Swedish Match Tour as a series of match racing events in New Zealand, Australia, Croatia, Germany and Sweden. The first tour season was won by France's Bertrand Pace with New Zealand's Dean Barker in 2nd and Sweden's Magnus Holmberg in 3rd. Holmberg went on to win the Tour in 2001.
Since 2000, tour events have been introduced in USA, Switzerland, Italy, South Korea, Poland, Portugal, Brazil, Malaysia, China and Japan. Tour champions include Magnus Holmberg (2001), Peter Holmberg, ISV (2002) Jesper Radich, DEN (2003), Peter Gilmour, AUS (2004, 2005, 2006), Ian Williams, GBR (2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2023, 2024), Adam Minoprio, NZL (2009), Ben Ainslie, GBR (2010), Torvar Mirsky, AUS (2017), Taylor Canfield, USA (2013, 2020), Phil Robertson, NZL (2016, 2019) and Nick Egnot-Johnson, NZL (2022).
2025 World Match Racing Tour Schedule:
STAGE 1: *Macao Match Cup, Macao, 8-12 Jan
STAGE 2: Long Beach Yacht Club Ficker Cup, CA, USA, 25-27 April
STAGE 3: *Long Beach Yacht Club Congressional Cup, CA, USA, 30 April - 4 May
STAGE 4: Porto Montenegro Match Race, 9-11 May
STAGE 5: GKSS Spring Cup, Marstrand, Sweden, 16-18 May
STAGE 6: NJK Open Spring Cup, Finland, 22-25 May
STAGE 7: OM International Ledro Match Race, Italy, 27-29 June
STAGE 8: *GKSS Match Cup Sweden, Marstrand, 30 June - 5 July
STAGE 9: Internationaux de France Match Racing (IFMR), Pornichet, France, 18-20 July
STAGE 10: Oakcliff International, Oyster Bay, NY, USA, 4-7 August
STAGE 11: Thompson Cup, Oyster Bay, NY, USA, 9-12 August
STAGE 12: Chicago Grand Slam, Chicago, USA, 15-17 August
STAGE 13: The Detroit Cup, Detroit, USA, 21-24 AUGUST
STAGE 14: Szczecin Match Race, Szczecin, Poland, 17-19 OCTOBER
STAGE 15: *Bermuda Gold Cup, Hamilton, Bermuda, 21-26 OCTOBER
FINAL: WMRT FINAL SHENZHEN BAO'AN, CHINA, TBC DECEMBER
*World Championship (WC) Events
For more information visit www.wmrt.com