The World Match Racing Tour (or WMRT) is, since 2000, an annual series of professional sailing match race events held in multiple countries. Since 2006, the winner of the WMRT series has been named the Match Racing World Champion.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. For the 2016 tour, M32 became the equipment used.
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.
Year Sponsor1998–1999 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)2015–current No sponsor (World Match Racing Tour)
Winners Year Winner Team 2000 Bertrand Pacé Team New Zealand 2000–01 Magnus Holmberg Team Stora Enso 2001–02 Peter Holmberg Oracle BMW Racing 2002–03 Jesper Radich Team Radich 2003–04 Peter Gilmour Pizza-La Sailing Team 2004–05 Peter Gilmour Pizza-La Sailing Team 2005–06 Peter Gilmour Pizza-La Sailing Team 2006–07 Ian Williams Team Pindar 2008 Ian Williams Bahrain Team Pindar 2009 Adam Minoprio BlackMatch Racing 2010Ben Ainslie Team Origin 2011 Ian Williams Team GAC Pindar 2012 Ian Williams GAC Pindar 2013 Taylor Canfield USOne 2014 Ian Williams GAC Pindar 2015 Ian Williams GAC Pindar 2016 Phil Robertson Phil Robertson Racing 2017 Torvar Mirsky Mirsky Racing Team 2019Phil Robertson ChinaOne Ningbo2020Taylor CanfieldStars + Stripes Team USA2022Nick Egnot-JohnsonKnots Racing NZL2023Ian Williams ChinaOne Ningbo2024Ian WilliamsPindar by Manuport Logistics 2025Ian WilliamsPindar by Manuport Logistics
See also ISAF Open Match Racing World Championship Women's International Match Racing Series
References
External links World Match Racing Tour official site