Lineup revealed for 2026 Ficker Cup

The full lineup of eight skippers for the 2026 Ficker Cup has been released, with the international field to race April 24-26 in Long Beach, CA. The Ficker Cup is a Grade 2 match race event on the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) and serves as a qualifier for the Congressional Cup, with the top two finishers earning invitations to the 2026 Congressional Cup, a WMRT Championship event, scheduled for April 29-May 3.

The four returning competitors are led by Long Beach Yacht Club’s own Scotty Dickson, the winningest skipper in Ficker Cup history with 14 prior wins. If Dickson places first or second in the Ficker Cup, he will be making his 23rd attempt at the Congressional Cup. In his previous 22 appearances, he has placed second twice but has never secured a Congressional Cup win. He will be aiming to make 2026 his year.

Nicole Breault of St. Francis Yacht Club will be making her fourth appearance at the Ficker Cup. She placed second in 2025 and subsequently finished ninth at the 2025 Congressional Cup. Since then, Breault has dialed up the performance of her Vela Racing team finishing first in the 2025 US Women’s Match Racing Championship and the US Open Match Racing Qualifier.

The third returning skipper is Chris Weis of Richmond Yacht Club, who won the 2023 Ficker Cup and went on to finish ninth at the Congressional Cup. His recent wins demonstrate that he could win it all this time, after placing first in the second stop of the 2025 California Dreamin’ Series at St. Francis Yacht Club and second at the third stop at Balboa Yacht Club. This will be his third appearance at the Ficker Cup.

The final Ficker alumnus is Irish skipper Ruairi Finnegan who is coming back for his second attempt at the Cup. Ruairi placed eighth in the 2023 regatta but has worked his way up to #30 on the 2025 WMRT Leaderboard in the intervening three years and will be looking to take one of the two top spots in 2026.

Among the first-time Ficker Cup competitors is Patryk Zbroja of Poland, sailing with his YKP team. Zbroja, who has been match racing since 2007, is currently ranked #25 on the 2025 WMRT Leaderboard and has been ranked previously as high as sixth.

Tom Picot, a young sailor from Australia who has been match racing for 11 years, will also be making his Ficker Cup debut. He has been active on the WMRT climbing to #20 on the 2025 Leaderboard. A top spot in Ficker Cup and a solid showing in Congressional Cup would propel him into a leading position for the 2026 season.

Coming in at #19 on the 2025 WMRT Leaderboard is Lennard Bal from the Netherlands. This will be his first Ficker Cup with Team Lowlands Racing. With a background in keelboat fleet racing, he made match racing his main sailing activity only two years ago and has competed and placed well in roughly 15 international match racing events.

The final new to the Ficker Cup is Oscar Engström, a young skipper from the Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club in Sweden, who is currently ranked #4 on the 2025 WMRT Leaderboard. Engström cut his teeth in dinghy racing on 29ers and 49ers before developing a passion for match racing in 2021. Earlier this year, he finished second at the WMRT World Championship Final in Shenzhen, China, losing to Ian Williams.

The complete 2026 calendar for WMRT has not yet been released.

More details at wmrt.com and www.thecongressionalcup.com.

Founded in 2000, the World Match Racing Tour promotes the sport of match racing around the world and is the longest running global professional series in the sport of sailing. The winner of the WMRT each year is crowned the Match Racing World Champion.

Source: WMRT