Scuttlebutt Photos:

New Boat for Swedish Match Tour

Coinciding with the debut of the Portugal Match Cup is the debut of the Swedish Match 40, the specially designed match-racer from legendary Swedish designer Pelle Petterson. When the Portugal Match Cup joined the ‘04/05 Swedish Match Tour, it agreed to purchase six of the 40-footers from builder Maxi Yachts for use in their regatta.

The Swedish Match 40 has a double-knuckle bow, like the ones displayed on New Zealand, NZL-60, and Alinghi, SUI-64, which helps move hull volume forward to extend lateral stability and sailing length. They also are quite narrow with a beam of 7 feet, 6 inches and displace 8,377 pounds. The working sail area is 645 square feet, which increases by almost 130 square feet when the genoa is hoisted. The spinnaker is a massive 1,076 square feet.

While designed to have similar lines to an America’s Cup Class sloop, the goal was also to create a boat that could be transported in a 40-foot container in hopes of other tour events taking advantage of the specially designed match-racer.

Photos courtesy of Guido Cantini/Sea&See and Swedish Match Tour

And also new on the Swedish Match Tour...

Swedish Match Tour skippers pose at the 2004 Portugal Match Cup with the BMW 5 Series Touring being offered to the '04/05 Tour champion by BMW. (Left side, from left) Ed Baird, Chris Law, Geoff Meek, Peter Holmberg, Jesper Radich and Staffan Lindberg (kneeling). (Right side, from right) Philippe Presti, Peter Gilmour, Bertrand Pacé, Russell Coutts and Francisco Neto (kneeling).

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