World Match Racing Tour's 'short season' announced

Racing to kick off in Fremantle in March

Following the announcement during the Argo Group Gold Cup that the World Match Racing Tour is to transition to catamaran racing in the M32 one designs, the team have worked hard on creating a strong season that will be crowned with a US$1 million prize for the winner. This has resulted in a season comprising leading sailing venues that will write a new chapter in the legacy of the World Match Racing Tour.
 
The Championship events of this season, which will form a short season when reverting to the Tour's original cycle that culminates in the World Finals in Marstrand in July. Together these will create a total prize purse of over US$2 million fpr the teams. This, together with the introduction of the M32, has spawned some fast growing interest for the World Match Racing Tour.
 
The 2016 short season Championship Events will be hosted at the venues and on the dates listed:
 
- Fremantle, Perth, Australia, 2-7 March
- Long Beach, Los Angeles, USA, 5-10 April
- Undisclosed Venue, 18-23 April (TBC)
- Copenhagen, Denmark, 9-14 May
- Newport,  RI, USA, 31 May-4 June
- World Championship Finals, Marstrand, Sweden, 4-9 July

For Fremantle it will be the 30 year anniversary since the start of classic America’s Cup event in 1986-87, while Long Beach will host its 52nd edition of the Congressional Cup and Copenhagen will make a much sought after comeback to the premiere division of match racing.

There is probably no place in the world with a sailboat racing history like Newport, RI and it is with great pride that we welcome the American sailing hot spot to the WMRT 2016.
 
The finals will be held in Marstrand once again as they did in the early days of the World Match Racing Tour where the title was awarded for almost a decade.

Six of the ten Tour Card entries for 2016 were awarded after the Argo Group Gold Cup in Bermuda based on the results on the 2015 World Match Racing Tour. The six teams at the top of the leaderboard have all accepted their Tour Card for 2016 and we can therefore confirm the following entries to the WMRT 2016:
 
- Ian Williams, GBR
- Björn Hansen, SWE
- Taylor Canfield, ISV
- Keith Swinton, AUS
- Phil Robertson, NZL
- Eric Monnin, SUI
 
The interest for 2016 Tour Cards has been high with a large number of applicants. The final four Tour Cards will be presented during next week.
 
During the short season (before the new season kicks off after Marstrand) there will ten WMRT Tour Level Events, which will be presented on 21 December. Application for entries to these events will open at the same time. At each WMRT Tour Level Event, the top three teams will qualify to a WMRT Championship Event.