Top 20 Advance to World Match Racing Tour Finale

The 2016 World Match Racing Tour season will conclude July 4-9 in Marstrand, Sweden. The results from the previous four events have confirmed the 20 teams that will compete in the M32 catamaran, which is manufactured and marketed by Tour owner Aston Harald.

Teams will compete for the ‘winner-takes-all’ Tour bonus of US $1 million in addition to the winner’s share of the US $200,000 event prize money. Tour owner Håkan Svensson is eager to see how the prize money affects the competition.

“You can see there are a lot nerves already and Marstrand is going to increase that pressure a lot on the teams,” noted Svensson. “So the team that holds up best to that pressure will win. There are a lot of teams that are practicing every day to get better when it comes to the sailing. Taylor [Canfield] is in a good spot but he needs to keep his nerve.”

Canfield and his US One team, which sit atop the Tour standings, go into the Tour finale as stand-out favourite.

“It is a big prize purse and a big bonus – it’ll be an awesome event, it is a great venue and there is big money up for grabs, big stakes,” says Canfield. “It is going to take some luck in that venue, especially if we get some changeable direction off the shoreline. There’s sometimes nothing you can do in the catamarans to get yourself back in the race. It is a combination of skill and luck and if we prepare as best we can, I think we have a good chance.”

Event Format:
• Day one and two – Fleet race Qualifying in Groups of 5. Each Group sails 6-8 races.
• Day three – Bottom two from each Group compete in a sail-off to decide who moves on to the 16 team knockout. Top three from each Group join the sail-off winners in a 16 team, first to three-point, knockout. 1v16, 2v15, 3v14 etc.
• Day four – Sponsor day and remaining races from the 16 team knockout.
• Day five – Quarter Finals and start of Semi Finals (knockout format).
• Day six – Finish Semi Finals and complete Final/Petit Final (knockout format).

WMRT Final Skipper Line Up:
1. Taylor Canfield – US One
2. Ian Williams – GAC Pindar
3. Nicolai Sehested – TREFOR Racing
4. Yann Guichard – Spindrift Racing
5. Phil Robertson – WAKA Racing
6. Nicklas Dackhammar – Essiq Racing Team
7. Chris Steele – 36 Below Racing
8. Mattias Rahm – Rahm Racing Team
9. Hans Wallén – Wallén Racing
10. Sam Gilmour – Neptune Racing
11. Sally Barkow – Team Magenta 32
12. Johnie Berntsson – Flux Team
13. Matt Jerwood – Redline Racing
14. Iker Martinez – Team Espāna
15. Evan Walker – KA Match / CYCA
16. Björn Hansen – Nautiska Racing
17. Steven Thomas – RPM Racing
18. Eric Monnin – Albert Riele Swiss Team
19. Murray Jones – Full Bants Racing
20. Keith Swinton – Team Accure