 World Match Racing Tour | |
| Formerly | Swedish Match Tour |
|---|---|
| First held | 2001 |
| Type | match-racing tour |
| Champions | Torvar Mirsky (2017) |
| Most titles | Ian Williams (5) |
| Website | www.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.[3]
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.[4]
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.[5]
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.[6]
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.[6]
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.[6]
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.[6]
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.[7]
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.
| Year | Sponsor |
|---|---|
| 1998–1999 | none (Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing) |
| 2000–2006 | Swedish Match (Swedish Match Tour) |
| 2006–2011 | No sponsor (World Match Racing Tour) |
| 2012–2015 | Alpari Group (Alpari World Match Racing Tour)[8] |
| 2015–current | No sponsor (World Match Racing Tour) |
| 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[9] | Ian Williams (GBR)
|
GAC Pindar |
| 2016[10] | Phil Robertson (NZL)
|
Phil Robertson Racing |
| 2017[11] | Torvar Mirsky (AUS)
|
Mirsky Racing Team |
| 2019[12] | 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 |
