Women’s match racing tour in Bermuda

The Women’s World Match Racing Tour has added a new event for the 2024 season to be held October 29 to November 3 in Bermuda. Joining five previously announced events, the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club will host the women alongside the 72nd edition of the Bermuda Gold Cup, a world championship stage of the World Match Racing Tour.

In order to host two events, the Bermuda Gold Cup format will be 10 teams in a single group. The women’s event will invite eight of the world’s top female match racing teams and will be the first ever women’s sailing regatta in Bermuda to also award prize money.

“The World Match Racing Tour approached the Club about adding a women’s event on the calendar,” explained Jon Corless, a Past RBTC Commodore and chairperson of the Bermuda Gold Cup. “Running the two regattas concurrently will make efficient use of race management personnel and will only add to the already exciting match racing in Hamilton Harbour.”

Now in its third season after re-launching in 2022, the women’s world tour is the only all-female global professional series in sailing, designed to promote and grow participation of women in sailing and match racing.

“We are delighted RBYC has agreed to add a new Women’s World Match Racing Tour event to the Bermuda Gold Cup this year” added WMRT Executive Director James Pleasance, “Our key mission for the Women’s WMRT is to expand and promote opportunities for competitive women’s sailing at the highest level, and having a new event in such an iconic venue like Bermuda is doing just that.”

Both events will be sailed in the 33-foot International One-Design (IOD) sloop, a 1936 design with long bow and stern overhangs and a keel-hung rudder. The format for the regatta will consist of a round robin, quarterfinal, semifinal, petite final, and final rounds.

The King Edward VII Trophy, awarded to the winner of the Bermuda Gold Cup, is the oldest trophy in the world for a competition involving one-design yachts. First presented in 1907 by King Edward VII at the Tri-Centenary Regatta at Jamestown, VA, honoring the 300th anniversary of the first permanent colony in America, the trophy is the only King’s Cup ever to be offered for competition in the United States which could be won outright.

Women’s World Match Racing Tour 2024
April 23-26 – Santa Maria Cup – Annapolis USA
May 2-5 – Casa Vela Cup – San Francisco USA
May 17-20 – Normandy Match Cup – Le Havre, France
July 1-6 – Nordea Women’s Trophy / Match Cup Sweden – Marstrand, Sweden
Sept. 5-8 – KDY Women’s Match Race – Skovshoved, Denmark
Oct. 28-Nov. 3 – Bermuda

A team’s Tour points total will be the sum of their best three (3) scores.

The team with the highest score at the end of the season will be 2024 Women’s World Match Racing Tour Champion.

2024 Notice of Tour: https://womenswmrt.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/WWMRT-2024-Notice-of-Tour.pdf

The Women’s World Match Racing Tour was launched in 2022 to continue the hugely successful legacy of the WIM Series (Women’s International Match Racing Series) providing a global match racing series for female sailors. The name of the series was re-launched as the Women’s World Match Racing Tour with its continued mission to expand and strengthen global match racing and promote opportunities for competitive women’s sailing at every level. The Women’s World Match Racing Tour is the world’s first and only professional sailing series for women providing a valuable pathway for aspiring female world champions in the sport of sailing. womenswmrt.com

Source: WWMRT