Swedish Match Cup to decide overall winner

by Sean McNeill on 29 Jun 2005 Long the jewel of the Swedish Match Tour, the Swedish Match Cup features a greatly decorated array of match-racers, two of whom will square off for the sixth Tour championship.

American Ed Baird, of America’s Cup champion Alinghi, and Australia’s Peter Gilmour, of Pizza-La Sailing Team, are locked in a tussle, tied with 102 points.

If Baird is to win his first Tour championship, he must finish no worse than fourth, with Gilmour behind him. For Gilmour to repeat as the Tour champ, he has to finish ahead of Baird, no matter where they place in the standings.

A public opinion poll on the Swedish Match Tour website shows that people believe Gilmour will win the championship. As of today, he led Baird with 64 percent of the vote.

Vote for who you think will win the championship. The champion will win a US$60,000 bonus from the Tour and a BMW 545i Touring provided by Tour partner BMW.

The 12th annual Swedish Match Cup returns next week, July 4-10, to the small island of Marstrand, off Sweden’s west coast, for more furious action. From the beginning, the Swedish Match Cup has always attracted the top-ranked skippers and this year is no different.

Of the 16 teams entered, nine represent syndicates entered in the 32nd
America’s Cup. Their resumes are an incredible list of success, having three America’s Cup matches, two Louis Vuitton Cup titles, three Olympic medals and 11 match-racing world championships.

All five past Swedish Match Tour champions – Bertrand Pacé, Magnus Holmberg, Peter Holmberg, Jesper Radich and Gilmour – are in the lineup.

There also are four skippers who have won 10 of the previous eleven Swedish Match Cups. Gilmour leads the pack with five victories; (1994, '95, '97, '98, '99). Dean Barker, of Emirates Team New Zealand and Russell Coutts, of Coutts Racing, have two wins each and Pacé, of BMW Oracle Racing, has one. Baird is a four-time runner-up at the event (1994, ’95, ’97, ’99), each time to Gilmour.

Coutts is the reigning champion. Sailing with Danish crew members Michael Arnhild, Jes Gram-Hansen, Christian Kamp and Rasmus Kostner, Coutts Racing outduelled Gilmour’s Pizza-La Sailing Team to win the championship 2-1.

Marstrand’s tight race course will become more restricted with the use of the Swedish Match 40 replacing the DS 37 that has been used in the previous 11 editions. A consortium of companies has purchased a fleet of boats for the event.

A prize purse of SEK849,000 (approximately US114,000) is up for grabs, with SEK280,000 (approximately US$37,000) earmarked for the champion.

The Swedish Match Cup will also host a Women’s event, concurrent with the open regatta. A field of eight teams is slated to compete, including
reigning champion Marie Bjorling (SWE), who has won three consecutive championships and Claire Leroy (FRA), the Women’s No. 1-world ranked match-racer.

A 52-minute television program focusing on another Swedish Match Tour event, the Toscana Elba Cup – Trofeo Locman, is available for viewing online at the Tour’s broadband TV channel, www.SwedishMatchTour.tv. The show is available to watch free of charge, on demand, 24 hours a day.

Swedish Match Tour partners include Swedish Match, BMW and the Match Race Association. Swedish Match Tour official sponsors include Musto, Sebago, Travel Places, Trident Studio and Wedgwood.

For more information on the Swedish Match Tour, its competitors and events, please visit the official Tour Web site, www.SwedishMatchTour.com. Swedish Match Tour television programs may be viewed by clicking on the Tour television button on the home page of the Website.