Changing Boat Designs for World Match Racing Tour

Does the world of yacht racing need any more designs? Perhaps a silly question – the sport of sailing is at least 50% about innovation and design and in some ‘open’ events, it doesn’t matter how good the sailor is outspent before the boat gets onto the water. But the World Match Racing Tour is not an ‘open’ event when it comes to the boats used. The format pits sailor against sailor – even swapping boats mid race to make sure that the vehicle gives no advantage to either side. So do the boats even matter?

When organisers of the America’s Cup decided to relaunch sailing to a new generation and use the catamaran to do it, match racing in monohulls was characterised by some of the sport’s most influentual people as old-fashioned and boring. Speed and excitement were chosen as the attributes to lure spectators rather than strategy. The new America’s Cup promises a jingoistic format – the world’s best sailors sailing the world’s fastest boats and with a ‘planned’ youth series, the America’s Cup has set itself head to head with a series like the World Match Racing Tour, which has traditionally been a recognised stepping stone to the Cup.

In order to retain the world’s greatest match racers, the WMRT has embarked on a plan to deliver great events and part of the responsibilities of new venues is to choose boats that deliver for sailors and fans. Existing venues will also be expected to update their fleets.

Rather than choose just one or two options, the World Match Racing Tour has unveiled 7 new boat designs.

The designers were presented with a tough brief, namely to create a robust, cost-effective boat that is capable of delivering exciting, tactical and fiercely-fought racing across a range of conditions, from variable winds to differing depths and unpredictable currents. The designers were further challenged by the fact the boats need to test performance sailors yet be versatile enough for corporate and club sailors to give venues a diversified income from them.

Terry Newby of Regatta International said:

“The World Match Racing Tour is delighted with the huge response it received to this brief and the fact it attracted some of the world’s best boat designers reflects the status of the Tour. Each finalist has shown a real understanding of the series’ strategic requirements and has produced a multipurpose design that will be an asset to both new and existing venues who invest in one of these designs. ”We expect everyone to benefit. The designers will increase their profile while the Tour’s venues will be associated with world class sailors using the very latest match racing boats. For the Tour, it will continue to affirm its position to fans, broadcast partners and sponsors as the arena for exciting, innovative and compelling match racing.”

Denmark Out. New Host Cities ready to replace them.

Like many sports that are trying to compete for sponsorship dollars, media and fans, the World Match Racing Tour is changing the mix of events that are part of the tour and raising standards. Like Formula One, which has embraced new host cities and new tracks at the expense of some older, more traditional circuits, the World Match Racing Tour now expects that each event meets certain criteria to be part of the tour.

The WMRT has announced that the Danish Open, which has been on the calendar for a while, will not go ahead in 2011 due to promoters not being able to fulfill their obligations.  The contract has been terminated and the event has been officially cancelled.

Terry Newby says that there are a large number of cities ready to take the place of Denmark and the additional slots that the tour plans to add going forwards.

“With the number of potential host cities growing all the time, I expect the bidding for the available spots to be hard fought. It is also pleasing to see the level of interest from other outstanding venues which are planning ahead past the 2012 and 2013 seasons.”

More World Match Racing Tour News

Not the Bavaria 40S

It continues to puzzle us at yachtsponsorship.com why more yacht builders don’t use racing as a positioning tool. The argument that ‘our customers are cruisers and aren’t interested in performance’ just doesn’t make any sense. As the World Match Racing Tour call for a new match racing boat design for new events, Match Race Germany has announced that they will use the Farr Yacht Designed BAVARIA 40s for their fleet.

The objective of Bavaria was, to supply a product for the customer, that combines all the comfort and functionality, with a big emphasis on performance. The basic concept is built around the Bavaria Cruiser 40, which was launched at last years HISWA in Amsterdam. The reasoning of the Organisers to take this huge step was to once again give the event more value, for sponsors, partners but also to the customer, the world´s best match racers. On top of all the new fleet should be a clear sign to secure the spot on the World Match Racing Tour for the coming years.

Dr. Jens Ludmann, CEO BAVARIA said:

“After successfully running with the BAVARIA 35Match over the last few years and an immense contribution to the Match Race Germany at Lake Constance we are very much looking forward to a continued good partnership with Match Race Germany GmbH with the brand new 40 S fleet. We will have seven boats at the competition in May at Lake Constance that will fight for victory and we are very excited about it.”

Match Race Germany founder, Harald Thierer added:

“For us, Bavaria is one of the most valuable partners. With the new Bavaria 40S , we will have the 4th brand new race fleet from BAVARIA since 2003 and are looking very much forward besides getting the new Yachts, to continue the partnership with Bavaria in the coming years.”

During a presentation, Dr. Jens Ludmann symbolically handed over a Carbon steering wheel to the founders of Match Race Germany, Harald Thierer, Eberhard Magg and Bernd Buck.

Eberhard Magg said:

“ The highest classified and most valuable Match Racing event in Germany will receive a big boost once again to be yet for another time a Hot Spot on the World Match Racing Tour”.

Jim O´Toole, CEO WMRT confirmed that such an investment by Match Race Germany would position the event well for the future:

“With such an investment, Match Race Germany will play a key role internationally!”

The World Match Racing Tour is unique amongst elite sailing series in that the promoters provide matched boats and sailors need to get to grips with different styles of boats and sailing. It will be interesting to see what match racing stars like Ian Williams and Torvar Mirsky who are competing in both the WMRT and the Extreme Sailing Series will think of the new boats, but Markus Wieser said:

“Bavaria hit the right button, the symbiosis of performance and comfort has been well achieved. Farr design managed the balancing act very well. I am very happy to return to Match Race Germany 2011, and will try to win the event a second time after my victory back in 2001”.

More World Match Racing Tour News

A great article in the Times (UK) about UK designer Nigel Irens. Irens is behind the boats that break round the world records including those of Francis Joyon, Ellen Macarthur and the current challenger Thomas Coville.

Irens, 62, is one of Britain’s unsung heroes of design and innovation, modestly going about his business from his home in Devon. “We didn’t even go out to tender; we went straight to Nigel,” Mark Turner, MacArthur’s business partner, said. “Ellen knew him and he’d taken her under his wing. He’s a legend really, it’s going to be hard to break these records.

“He’s a lovely guy and genuinely passionate about it. He is also a rare Englishman who is supremely respected in France – there are not many British sailing related people who are loved by the French, but Nigel is.”

But even within the world of inshore sailing Irens’s status is such that when Alinghi, the America’s Cup holders, were preparing to race BMW Oracle in a trimaran, they called on Irens and Cabaret to be part of the team.

“Nigel is at home designing a cruising catamaran or a 100ft trimaran to break records,” Turner said.

As if to confirm that, Irens reels off his list of recent commissions; from Alinghi to a modified Sodeb’O for a round-the-world attempt by Oman, the Arab nation, to a 50ft race trimaran from a giant co-operative of Brittany vegetable farmers.

Irens wants to build a 50-metre long multihull for a crewed record attempt. But in his crystal ball he sees boats with no need for huge beams or keels, because the forces are going through the boat, rather than trying to capsize it. “There were people with the first kites out there from 1974,” Irens said. “They were crazy things, but it was a sail whose centre of effort passed through the same axis as the centre of mass and the centre of lateral resistance, so it was a zero heeling device. You can’t help but think that is the future.”