World Match Racing Tour announces 2017 World Championship season

by WMRT on 22 Dec 2016 After a busy 2016 season with a final in Marstrand that introduced the first ever million-dollar prize in sailing the World Match Racing Tour has announced a season with several firsts and more chances for teams to become the Match Racing World Champion than ever before. The 2017 season will include one World Championship Final, six World Championship level events and eighteen World Tour level events.

Last years incorporation of the M32 multihull revitalized the WMRT and introduced a new style of match racing as well as a rise in the prize money at each World Championship level event which strengthened the finances for the teams. The 2017 tour will include multihull and monohull events as well as the introduction of prize money at some World Tour level events.

“The World Match Racing Tour will consist of twenty-five events where eighteen will be at the World Tour level. The finalists of the World Tour events win an invite to a World Championship level event. After the penultimate event the top 16 on the leaderboard will secure invites to the WMRT Finals 2017.” Craig Mitchell WMRT Racing Director commented, continuing “This will give up to 42 teams the opportunity to win every World Championship level event and allow more teams to find their way in to world class match racing. In addition the scoring system has been tweaked to give more WMRT Championship points to the WT level events and to the teams reaching the quarterfinals of the WC level events. This will create a more exciting playing field.”

“We are very happy to see that the sailing world has taken our vision to their hearts and the expansion of the tour is a sign of the hard work from everyone involved in the tour. We have several events that now are committed over multiple years, which will give the WMRT great stability.“ said Robert Magnusson CEO of Aston Harald Sports the rights owner of the World Match Racing Tour and continued, “This together with new global sponsors, which will be announced in 2017, is testament that our new model is working and we can continue to grow the longest running global professional sailing series in the sport.”

The 25 events will be spread across the globe and the 2017 season presents the first World Match Racing Tour event in China and a return to Croatia.

“The new season will present events in more countries and places than ever before. We are very excited to host the World Championship finals in China this year, the first ever WMRT event in the country. The World Match Racing Tour is truly a worldwide series with events and teams from across the globe.” said Martin Sohtell Head of Marketing and PR at Aston Harald Sports and continued, “Each venue will present their event through a press conference or a media release which will start already in the first week of January. Expect a lot more exciting news at the start of 2017.”