World Match Racing Tour's Patrick Lim talks to Valencia Sailing

by ValenciaSailing.com on 22 Jun 2010
During the round robin of the 2010 Korea Match Cup, Valencia Sailing had the chance to meet Malaysian businessman Patrick Lim, Executive Chairman of the World Match Racing Tour, and discuss his views and ambitions for the world's match racing championship as new owner of the circuit.

Valencia Sailing: Your initial foray in the sport of sailing was in 2005 when you started organizing the Monsoon Cup in Kuala Terengganu in Malaysia. What made you become the promoter of a sailing event?
Patrick Lim: I'm a real-estate developer and I have always enjoyed working with sports, I liked to use sports as a catalyst for many of my developments. In the early days, I built an equestrian academy and around it I built a real-estate development. We are using sports and other mass-participation events as a base for a number of developments and it's something that has brought many new opportunities. As a result, we were tasked by the government of Malaysia to assist them in finding a program to develop and uplift the area of Kuala Terengganu because at that time the area lacked recognition in the international tourism market. It's a beautiful coastal area and has many monsoons but instead of thinking negatively we wanted to capitalize on that.

I'm not a sailor myself but while we were investigating various possibilities we also considered the yachting sector. By chance, during that period I had the opportunity to meet Peter Gilmour who talked to me about a fantastic series of sailing events, called the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT), thinking that it would be something that would help us achieve the objectives we had set. I have friends related to the world of Formula 1 and as a result, I was able to study the way they work and how they are structured. After considering all those facts, we decided to bid in order to become a venue of the WMRT. Our model was based on the highest level of international sports competition but also as a catalyst for growth. We wanted to develop a program, an event that would be able to attract the participation of non-core fans to the sport of sailing. Our aim from the beginning was to achieve the highest level possible in all aspects and I think that we have been quite successful with the Monsoon Cup.

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