Harry Price leads at Miami Match Cup

Miami, FL (April 12, 2017) – Harry Price (AUS) leads his Down Under Racing team to another day at the top dropping just one in thirteen races at Miami Match Cup, positioning himself untouchable for progression to the knockout rounds tomorrow. Americans lead the charge behind with Nevin Snow’s 13Fifty Racing and Markus Edegran’s E11EVEN Racing chasing the Australian hard.

As a World Tour event, Miami Match Cup qualifies the top two finishers to the World Championship level event Match Cup Sweden held July 3-8.

With racing in the M32 catamarans, the second round robin stage will conclude tomorrow, with US Virgin Islander Anthony Kotoun and Australia’s Evan Walker sitting tied on points for the fourth slot to advance to the knockout matches.

Kotoun, 41, is proof the new era of the World Match Racing Tour is not just for twenty-something year olds. Making his comeback to the Tour since sailing with Ed Baird, Peter Holmberg, and Bill Hardesty in the monohull days, Anthony finds the catamaran racing a new and exciting challenge.

“These kids are great. They have a lot of skill and a lot of talent. When we heard the Tour was coming we thought why not give it another try, but weren’t expecting to be in this position.” Kotoun brings fellow Virgin Islander and US One Sailing Team crew member Cy Thompson as part of his lineup.

The Magenta Project came with a fresh game plan to racing today. After a shaky start yesterday when only getting one point on the board, Jo Aleh (NZL) led the team in back-to-back wins. This is the first event the team have sailed together so they hope to see this progression continue.

In the girls’ win over Kotoun, they held a close second place around the course until pouncing at the final mark and luffing Kotoun above the line and taking the dramatic win by just a length to cheers from crews waiting on the finish boat.

“It’s been about making small mistakes in each race and then we make sure to do it right the next time,” remarked Aleh on their improvement. “The learning curve is steep but as a new team we are progressing. We’ll get it by the end of the week.”

Racing concludes April 13.

Tour details – Event details – Scoreboard – Facebook

 
2017 World Championship Level Events:
WMRT Match Cup Australia, March 20-25
WMRT Congressional Cup, March 29-April 2
WMRT Northern Europe, June 6-11 (Venue TBA)
WMRT Match Cup Sweden, July 3-8
WMRT Match Cup USA, August 1-6 (Venue TBA)
WMRT Match Cup America, October 3-8 (Venue TBA)

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS
WMRT Match Cup China, November 3-10 (Venue TBA)

Background: In 2013, Swedish company Aston Harald AB acquired the design and production rights to the one-design M32 catamarans. In July 2015, Aston Harald AB acquired the World Match Racing Tour, which then began the use of the M32 during the 2016 Tour. Launched in 2000, the World Match Racing Tour is the leading professional match racing series sanctioned by World Sailing.

Source: WMRT