Nations Cup Grand Final 2019 in the USA

World Sailing’s Nations Cup Grand Final will bring together an elite field of international match race teams for the 9th edition to be held in 2019 from April 9 to 14 in San Francisco, CA.

Ten Open and ten Women’s division skippers will be invited with the host nation, USA, entitled to one entry in both. As winners of the last Nations Cup Grand Final, Russia will be entitled to an automatic spot in the Open and USA in the Women’s.

For the 2019 Nations Cup Grand Final, World Sailing Member National Authorities (MNA) may nominate their most recent National Match Racing Champion in the Open and Women’s division.

Nominations will be allocated by region to Africa, Asia, Europe, North America & Caribbean, Oceania and South America. The skipper with the highest ranking points by region at 30 August 2018 in each division will subsequently be invited to the Grand Final.

At World Sailing’s discretion, a team from an emerging nation and the 2018 Youth Match Racing World Champion may be invited. Any remaining places will be allocated to the highest ranked skippers across all regions who have been nominated by their MNA.

St Francis Yacht Club will host the Nations Cup Grand Final using J/22s. The closing date for MNAs to apply for a place is September 17, 2018. To view the Notice of Race, click here.

Contact Madeleine Dunn at World Sailing for questions: madeleine.dunn@sailing.org (put “Nations Cup 2019” as the subject.)

About the Nations Cup
The inaugural Nations Cup in 1991 saw six regional qualifiers in each of Denmark, Italy, Greece, Brazil, Bermuda and Japan, with the Grand Final in Barcelona, Spain. At that time only sailed in an Open division, the title was won by Ed Baird (USA). The 1991 Nations Cup Grand Final was the climax of over 1,000 races sailed by some 50 countries.

Moving onto 1993, preceding the Grand Final in Holland, the qualifiers were held in Finland, France, United Arab Emirates, Peru, USA and Singapore, with Roy Heiner (NED) taking the Open Title and Helena Strang (SWE) the Women’s event.

The 1995 event saw San Francisco, USA host the Grand Final, with the qualifying events in South Africa, Croatia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada and Chile. The Open Event was won by South Africa’s Bruce Savage, with the Women’s title claimed by Susan Walters (AUS).

The ISAF Nations Cup was successfully re-launched in 2006 with eight Regional Finals leading to the Grand Final in Cork, Ireland. France completed a double victory with skippers Mathieu Richard and Claire Leroy leading their teams to victory in both the Open and the Women’s division.

In 2009 competitors from more than 40 nations contested the Regional Finals held in Antibes, Auckland, Brindisi, Buenos Aires, Charleston, Kinsale, and Mumbai, whilst Porto Alegre in Brazil played the host of the Grand Final. Brazil saw some of the world’s best match racers representing their countries, but France repeated their achievement of 2006 to win both titles again with skippers Claire Leroy and Damien Iehl.

The 2011 ISAF Nations Cup Grand Final was hosted in Sheboygan, USA. Claire Leroy won her third consecutive title for France with Laurie Jury skippering a New Zealand team to victory in the Open event.

In 2013 Denmark won the rights to host the Nations Cup in Middelfart with the support of the Triangle region. Australia’s David Gilmour the 22-year-old son of Peter Gilmour brought home the Cup to Australia and the Women’s title went to Brazil with Juliana Senfft as skipper – the first ever Nations Cup victory for Brazil.

Vladivostok, Russia hosted the last edition of the Nations Cup in 2015. Russia’s Vladimir Lipavsky took the title in the Open division and Nicole Breault from the United States of America claimed the Women’s title.

Source: World Sailing