European Match Race Tour 2019 announced
by Helmut Czasny 10 Dec 2018 08:29 AEDT
European Match Race Tour 2018 Grand Final © 2018 EMRT / PMYC
The European Match Race Tour will feature another 7 qualifying events and a Grand Final for its third edition. While many of the tour stops were already hosts in previous editions, the 2019 tour will visit Italy's Lago di Ledro and Romania's black sea town Limanu for the first time. Hosts of the 2019 Grand Final will be Croatia's beautiful sailing city of Sibenik in October.
The tour 2019 consists of the proven and well known format as in the previous two editions. Europe's best skippers will be able to earn points at seven qualifying events to qualify themselves for the Grand Final with double points. In addition, there will be a separate U23 ranking and U 23 European Tour champion as well as a womens only ranking list. These two ranking lists and titles shall highlight the diversity of match racing in Europe and be a stepping stone for young and up-and-coming teams into the match racing circuit.
The opening event will be traditionally at Sibenik on the Dalmatian coast, where skippers have the chance to try out the conditions for the season finale. The next stage will take place a bit further south the Adriatic coast line at Tivat's Porto Montenegro followed by the stop-over on Austria's Lake Neusiedl before heading south again to Romania for the first visit of the pitorsk fishermen town of Limanu. Two events on the Baltic will follow – Gothenburg in Sweden and Swinoujscie in Poland – before the last event of round one in Italy's match race Eldorado at Ledro. The tour will finish with the Grand Final 2019 at Sibenik in Mid-October.
"We are very excited about the 2019 calendar and we look forward to defend our title," explained Piotr Harasimowicz, the winner of the 2018 European Match Race Tour, "We believe the format is great and again many of Europe's best match race skippers will take part in it!"
Provisional calendar:
21-23 February: Sibenik, CRO
22-24 March: Tivat, MNE
12-14 April: Lake Neusiedl, AUT
03-05 May: Limanu, ROU
25-26 May: Gothenburg, SWE
21-23 June: Swinoujscie, POL
29 Aug – 1 Sept: Lago di Ledro, ITA
Mid-October: Sibenik, CRO (Grand Final)