Royal St. George Yacht Club trio Tom, Henry and Jack Higgins were crowned 2024 Irish Match Racing Champions after eight teams competed over two days in the National Yacht Club's Elliott 6m sportsboat fleet in Dun Laoghaire Harbour.

Waterford Harbour match racer Ruairi Finnegan, Dylan Whitcraft and Max Goodbody took second overall with Kinsale's Sam Hunt, Paddy Blackley and Peter Bayly in third place.

Umpires (in orange RIB) keep a close eye on a two-boat match in the Irish Match Racing Championships at Dun Laoghaire Harbour Photo: Afloat

Noted ILCA sailor Tom Higgins came into match racing after extensive experience in team racing, having won the varsity championships twice, the Busa finals, ITRAs, and the Oxford Top Gun.  Higgins' first international match racing event was the Governor's Cup in Los Angeles last summer. Since then, the UCD Ad Astra student has served as a mainsail trimmer on the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) and recently finished sixth at the Youth Worlds and fifth at the Harken International in Sydney in December.

Approaching a windward mark in Dun Laoghaire Harbour at the 2024 Irish Match Racing Championships Photo: Afloat

The eight competing teams at the 2024 championships were: 

• Jamie McMahon, Ewan O'Keeffe, Rob Keal
• Diana Kissane, Ellen Cahill, Cliodhna Connolly, Ally Moorehead
• Sam Hunt, Paddy Blackley, Peter Bayly
• Ruairi Finnegan, Dylan Whitcraft, Max Goodbody
• Oisin Cullen, Evan Smith, Ben Lumley
• Dan Little, Hana Blandford, Fiona Ferguson
• Tom Higgins, Henry Higgins, Jack Higgins
• Mícheál Ó'Súilleabháin, Michael Carroll, Rory Carroll

Promoted by the NYC's Oisin Cullen, the Irish Match Racing Association was formed in January and aims to develop the discipline across Ireland. More on match racing on the NYC page here

Royal St. George's top Irish match racer, Tom Higgins, will confront March's Student Match Racing National Championships winner, Jamie McMahon of Howth Yacht Club, among others, when the National Yacht Club (NYC) hosts the Irish Match Racing National Championships (IMRA) at Dun Laoghaire on May 11th and 12th.

A lineup of skilled helms from across the country are already signed up for the event, which is billed as an important step towards growing match racing in Ireland.

Kinsale's Sam Hunt from Gladiators returns to Dun Laoghaire following his win in the inaugural Irish Sailing League a fortnight ago. 

As well as the locally based Higgins Racing team, there will be Dan Little of No Clew, Diana Kissane representing WMR, Oisin Cullen from Red Flag Racing, and Ruairi Finnegan of Craic'n Racing who competed in China in December at the World Match racing finals.

As regular Afloat readers will know, UCD ace Higgins has been on the match racing global circuit competing in the USA at the Governor's Cup last July and more recently in Australia at the International Youth Match Racing Championship.

Oisin Cullen, the recently elected IMRA Chairperson, expressed his excitement about the upcoming event, which will be sailed in NYC's Elliott 6m one-design keelboats: "This championship is not just a race; it's a significant step towards growing match racing in Ireland".

Multi-talented Irish Finn Sailor Oisin McClelland from Donaghdee in County Down, who recently joined the 44Cup circuit, is in top match-racing form in America this weekend as part of Great Britain’s Ian Williams Congressional Cup crew, which is through to Sunday's semi-finals.

Day 4 of the 59th Cup in Long Beach concluded the quarter-final stage of the event, advancing the top four teams to the semi-finals led by defending Congressional Cup champion USA’s Chris Poole. Joining Poole in the semi-finals were five-time Congressional Cup champion Great Britain’s Ian Williams, Switzerland’s Eric Monnin and New Zealand’s Nick Egnot-Johnson. At the end of play, Poole and Williams led their semi-final matches 2-0 against their respective opponents, Monnin and Egnot-Johnson.

The day kicked off with the concluding races of the quarter-finals in clear skies and a steady 8-10 knot south-westerly breeze. Williams /Gladstone’s Long Beach and Monnin /Capvis Swiss Match Racing Team asserted their dominance, each clinching three straight victories over their opponents, Australia’s Cole Tapper and Denmark’s Jeppe Borch.

Ian Williams (GBR) with crew Richard Sydenham, Gerry Mitchell, Ricky McGarvie, Ted Hackney, and Oisin McClelland (second from right) Photo: Ian Roman

Monnin commented on the quarter-final racing, “The goal for this season was to do better in the quarter-finals, which we just squeezed into in this regatta. We were able to improve our game and now we have to focus on the semi-finals. Now, we just have to win three races in a row tomorrow.”

In the remaining quarter-final pairings, Chris Poole /Riptide Racing won the first race and only dropped one race to opponent Gavin Brady /True Blue Racing USA before rebounding and winning the next two races, securing his spot in the semi-finals.

A tense battle unfolded in the last quarter-final pairing between Dave Hood /DH3 Racing and Nick Egnot-Johnson /KNOTS Racing. The racing stretched to the full five races in the first-to-three point match. Leveled at 2-2 with a deciding race to determine which team would advance to the semi-finals, it came down to the bottom gate in the last race. With Hood leading Egnot-Johnson, both teams split at the bottom gate, Egnot-Johnson choosing the favored left hand side and overtaking Hood to the finish.

“We have had an amazing week of sailing,” commented Hood. “It was a tough day today, we really had Nick [Egnot-Johnson] on that last race, and it came down to that last left turn, when we went out for a right shift we thought was there, but wasn’t.”

The Junior Congressional Cup was held in front of the Long Beach Yacht Club to finish the day, with junior LBYC sailors paired with Congressional Cup skippers and fleet race Flying Juniors, always a highlight of the Congressional Cup week. This year’s winners are Olivia Corzine and Chris Steele / DH3 Racing.

Tomorrow’s racing will begin with what is left of the semi-finals before the finals match where the two top teams will battle it out for the coveted Crimson Blazer.

The Women’s World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) has announced an updated schedule for the 2024 Tour after the unfortunate cancellation of the opening season events in Annapolis and San Francisco due to a shortage of registered teams. The revised schedule sees the addition of the newly announced women’s trophy event in Bermuda, which will take place during the iconic Bermuda Gold Cup.

The WMRT Executive Director, James Pleasance, expressed his disappointment regarding the cancellation of the Santa Maria Cup in Annapolis and Casa Vela Cup in San Francisco. He commented, "Both the events were hugely successful last year, and we look forward to welcoming them back on Tour for 2025. This year is an exceptionally busy year for women in sailing, including the Paris Olympics and the first Women’s Americas Cup in Barcelona. As a result, the scheduling for sailors and teams has proved challenging."

The updated Tour schedule will comprise of four events for 2024, including the new women's event in Bermuda, which was announced last week and will take place in October. The combined Bermuda events have been scheduled later in the season (29 Oct – 3 Nov) to ensure they take place after the America’s Cup in Barcelona. 

Pleasance also highlighted that opportunities for women in sailing are growing fast, and this year demonstrates that the series is achieving its goals. "When the WIM Series started in 2013 (re-launched as the Women’s World Match Racing Tour in 2022), the series set out with a very clear mission to grow and strengthen opportunities for women in match racing and competitive sailing at every level. Over 200 women sailors have competed on the Tour in just the last two years."

The Women’s World Match Racing Tour 2024

Women’s World Match Racing Tour 2024 (updated 22 March 2024)

• Stage 1 - Santa Maria Cup, Annapolis USA, 23-26 April - Cancelled
• Stage 2 - Casa Vela Cup, San Francisco USA, 2-5 May - Cancelled
• Stage 3 - Normandy Match Cup, Le Havre, France 17-20 May
• Stage 4 - Nordea Women’s Trophy – Match Cup Sweden, Marstrand, 1-6 July
• Stage 5 - KDY Women’s Match Race, Skovshoved, Denmark, 5-8 Sept
• Stage 6 - Bermuda Women's Trophy, Hamilton, Bermuda 29 Oct - 3 Nov

*Race days only published

- 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 the 2024 Women’s World Match Racing Tour Champion.

Prize money will be awarded at both the Open and Women’s Bermuda events. The Bermuda Gold Cup, a founding event of the World Match Racing Tour, is this year celebrating its 71st edition. 

The updated 2024 women’s tour schedule presents an exciting opportunity for women in sailing to showcase their skills and compete at the highest level.

The Irish Match Racing Association (IMRA) has been established with a clear mission: to promote and cultivate match racing across Ireland. Match racing has been gaining popularity in Dun Laoghaire and other local clubs, but IMRA aims to broaden the sport's reach and make it accessible to a wider audience.

Match racing is a thrilling discipline that demands skill, strategy, and split-second decision-making, pushing even experienced sailors far out of their comfort zones. It's a confrontational, all-or-nothing sport that excites and dazzles onlookers, both sailors and nonsailors alike. IMRA recognises the potential to elevate this dynamic facet of sailing in Ireland further and has been set up to promote match racing at every level of the sport.

At the heart of the IMRA's mission is the ambition to encourage participation, raise standards of competition, and organize events that showcase the excitement of match racing. With more events to supply match racing demand, the hope is to attract others to try it and grow the community of those interested.

The IMRA has already scheduled the Irish Match Racing National Championships to take place on the 11th and 12th of May at the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire Harbour. This championship promises to mark the beginning of a fast-growing match racing community. Sailors from across the country will compete for top honours in tightly contested races.

The inaugural IMRA National Match Racing Championships will be held in Dun Laoghaire Harbour in May and hosted by the National Yacht Club in its Elliot 6 fleet Photo: Afloat

IMRA also aims to engage with clubs, providing resources, guidance, and support to those interested in hosting their own match racing activities. Through this initiative, IMRA hopes to foster match racing and enable more sailors to fulfil their potential and passion for being competitive on the international stage.

Competitors who wish to request an invitation to the Irish Match Racing Nationals can do so at IMRA's website through the events page. The notice of race can also be found on the website. Clubs who are interested in hosting an event supported by IMRA can contact the association at [email protected]. 

The IMRA is poised to take match racing to new heights in Ireland, with the potential for international success to be a product of this initiative. With the rise of events and standards of match racing, sailors can fulfil their potential and passion for being competitive on the international stage. The community of those interested in match racing is set to grow, and the IMRA is at the forefront of this exciting new era.

Match racer Oisin Cullen Saluted by National Yacht Club

The weekend's National Yacht Club 2023 Awards dinner featured match racer Oisin Cullen in the line-up of major trophy winners. Cullen was rewarded 'for his tireless work and commitment to promoting and developing Match Racing in the Club and nationwide' with the Martin Crotty Trophy Award –  a prize for a younger member who shows sailing endeavour. 

The Martin Crotty Cup (2017) was awarded to Oisin Cullen for his sailing endeavour in promoting match racing. The trophy was presented by Sabine Sarr  Photo: Michael Chester

California’s Long Beach Yacht Club has announced the addition of two invitations for this year’s 59th edition of the Congressional Cup Regatta, April 24 to 28, 2024.

As the season-opening Championship event of the 2024 World Match Racing Tour, the Congressional Cup line-up will now feature twelve teams, including three qualifiers from the Ficker Cup Regatta, also hosted by LBYC, 18 to 21 April 2024.

The roster for this year’s Congressional Cup follows an unprecedented demand by eligible match racing teams from around the globe. The oldest continuously-held sailing match race regatta in the world, the Congressional Cup is the only match race regatta in the United States to qualify for World Championship status from World Sailing. As such, an invitation to compete in the Congressional Cup is one of the most sought-after in match racing, and a victory, the most revered. Many of the 29 skippers who have won – several, multiple times – and worn the esteemed Crimson Blazer have gone on to America’s Cup and SailGP. Now celebrating its 95th anniversary, LBYC and its members are proud to host and welcome the world to the Congressional Cup once again.

The 2024 roster includes defending champion Chris Poole (USA), 2009 Congressional Cup winner Johnie Berntsson (SWE), Eric Monnin (SUI), Jeppe Borch (DEN), Mati Sepp (EST), Nick Egnot-Johnson (NZL) and Dave Hood (USA). Returning after a 12-year interval is four-time Congressional Cup winner Gavin Brady (USA); LBYC also announced five-time Congressional Cup winner Ian Williams (GBR) will join the line-up. Williams, sailing for China.one Ningbo Team, was recently crowned the Match Racing World Champion for the seventh time. Three remaining spots will be awarded to the top trio of finishers hot off the Ficker Cup. With such incredible talent, the Congressional Cup promises to be a thrill!

2024 Confirmed Skippers for Congressional Cup Regatta

1. Chris Poole, USA, Riptide Racing (WS Ranking #1)
2. Eric Monnin, SUI, Capvis Swiss Match Racing Team (WS Ranking #2)
3. Johnie Berntsson, SWE, Berntsson Sailing Team (WS Ranking #3)
4. Jeppe Borch, DEN, Borch Racing (WS Ranking #4)
5. Mati Sepp, EST, Clean Energy Match Race Team (WS Ranking #6)
6. Nick Egnot-Johnson, NZL, Knots Racing (WS Ranking #7)
7. Ian Williams, GBR, China.one Ningbo (WS Ranking #11)
8. Gavin Brady, USA, True Blue Racing (WS Ranking #14)
9. Dave Hood, USA, DH3 Racing (WS Ranking #33)
10. Qualifier from Ficker Cup 2024
11. Qualifier from Ficker Cup 2024
12. Qualifier from Ficker Cup 2024

World Sailing Ranking as of 1 January 2024

St. Francis Yacht Club and Eastport Yacht Club are collaborating once again to host the top women’s match racing teams at back-to-back events. The events are part of the 2024 Women’s World Match Racing Tour. Following the success of the inaugural Casa Vela Cup at St. Francis Yacht Club, and the return of the popular Santa Maria Cup after ten years at Eastport Yacht Club last year, both clubs have coordinated their Grade 2 international women’s match racing events to run back-to-back for 2024.

The Santa Maria Cup at Eastport Yacht Club will open the 2024 women’s world tour season from 23-26 April, with the Casa Vela Cup at St. Francis Yacht Club to follow from 2-4 May. Both events will be held in the respective clubs provided fleets of J/22s. The travel window for teams to travel from East to West coast will be four days.

Celia Willison (NZL) and Edge Women’s Match Team winning the 2023 Casa Vela Cup (crew left to right: Celia Willison, Serena Woodall, Charlotte Porter, Alison Kent)

The 2024 Casa Vela Cup and Santa Maria Cup will be a part of Season 3 of the Women’s World Match Racing Tour. The Women’s World Match Racing Tour is currently the world’s only global professional sailing series for women. Since it was re-launched in 2022, thirty-two teams and over 140 female athletes have competed on the first two seasons of the Women’s World Match Racing Tour. The events were held in the USA, France, New Zealand, Greece, and Denmark.

The full schedule for the 2024 Women’s World Match Racing Tour will be announced in late January. The events are planned in the USA, France, Sweden, and Denmark. Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting event for women’s sailing!

An Irish Match Racing Association looks set to be introduced with the first Annual General Meeting (AGM) on January 23, 2024.

Match racing is gaining popularity in Ireland, with more and more people showing interest in the discipline, according to promoters.

The discipline of match racing is steadily gaining popularity in Ireland, with the National Yacht Club's Elliott 6m boats playing a pivotal role. These boats are regularly in use, providing sailors with the perfect platform to hone their skills and compete at the highest level.

The commitment to multiple series, including the Student Match Racing Event in April 2023 and the Dun Laoghaire Cup in October, reflects the interest in the discipline. These series’ play a pivotal role in developing match racing and have encouraged teams to seek competition elsewhere such as Adam Leddy and his team competing in Copenhagen in December and Andrew Smith and his UCD team competing in an RYA Winter Warmer Event early in 2023.

Some match racers have gone further afield such as Tom Higgins who in the past year has competed in the prestigious Governors Cup in California as well as the Match Racing Youth World Championships in Sydney, Australia.

Ruairi Finnegan from Waterford competing in the World Match Racing Tour Finals in China Photo: Ian Roman/WMRT 

Ruairi Finnegan has been competing on the World Match Racing Tour for a number of years. Finnegan’s 2023 season has seen him compete in WMRT Events in Poland, Montenegro, Italy, America as well as the World Match Race Tour
Finals in China.

As we look ahead to an exciting year, the association has already laid out plans for the Match Racing Nationals and other Match Racing events, which will all be discussed at the AGM later this month.

The AGM is open to all however, those wishing to receive the Agenda and Proposed Constitution can fill in this form to receive them. 

It’s 6,000 miles from Strangford Lough Yacht Club in the small hamlet of Whiterock on the western shore of the Lough in County Down, to Da Chan Bay in Shenzhen, China. And it is very different racing for Jon Gundersen on the SLYC River Class keelboat Moyola to competing – and winning - the World Match Racing Championships with Ian Williams in a twelve-boat fleet of FarEast 28Rs recently. Williams, from Exeter, is a seven-time winner of the World Match Racing Championships. The other crew members were Richard Sydenham and Gerry Mitchell.

Jon is a New Zealander and, could we say, an ‘adopted Irishman’? He is the second SLYC member to draw attention recently in sailing circles, Phil Quinn having just taken over as Skipper of Qingdao in the Clipper Round the World Race.

Jon is delighted with the win; “It was great to win the Match Racing World Championship; the last time I sailed in a final was 26 years ago in Sweden when I was 22 and trimming for Ed Baird. That time, we were beaten by the Australian Peter Gilmour in the final”.

Ed Baird is an American sailor, a coach of the 1995 America’s Cup-winning Team New Zealand, and a helmsman for the winning Alinghi syndicate.

Jon continues, “We have been living in Whiterock since 2021. My wife Sarah worked for Artemis Racing for about 15 years, so we lived in Valencia, San Francisco and Bermuda while they chased the America's Cup. She is now part of the Senior Management team at Artemis Technologies in Belfast”.

Jon and Sarah joined SLYC when they arrived in Northern Ireland, and their nine-year-old son Ollie has been heavily involved in junior sailing and starting to race his Optimist. Jon says he himself loves sailing with his mates on the River Class keelboat Moyola.

Jon is a Professional Sailor, normally as Jib Trim on TP52s. He has raced on Andy Soriano’s Alegre in the Super Series and on Robert Hughes’ Heartbreaker. A seasoned World Championship competitor, he has been racing with Ian Williams on the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) for the last two years. Jon says, “We have been doing just a few events a year - mainly for fun, as the amount of prize money available these days is not what it used to be!”

Jon says he has known all the crew since they were teenagers and in their early 20s. “Richard and I raced against each other in the semi-finals of the Diet Coke Cup Youth Match Racing Regatta in Auckland - he was on the RYA team, and I met Ian at the same event when he competed the next year. Around the same time, Gerry did the Whitbread on Dolphin/Youth, and I met him in Auckland. So, we are having much fun getting back into Match Racing and taking on the young guys. In 2022, we won the Congressional Cup in Long Beach and now the Worlds”.

WMRT FINAL STANDINGS

Ian Williams (46, Lymington, England)/ Chinaone.Ningbo – seven-time Open Match Racing World Champion (2007, ’08, ’11, ’12, ’14, ’15,’23)
Crew: Jon Gundersen, Richard Sydenham, Gerrard Mitchell

Gavin Brady (49, Auckland, New Zealand)/ True Blue Racing USA – World No. 38 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Nick Blackman, Tom Powrie, Dave Swete

Megan Thomson (25, Auckland, New Zealand)/ 2.0 Racing – World No. 4 Women’s Match Race Rankings, No. 15 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Leo Takahashi, Nicholas Heiner, Niall Malone

Johnie Berntsson (52, Stenungsund, Sweden)/ Berntsson Sailing Team – World No. 4 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Filip Karlsson, Emil Wolfgang, Rasmus Alnebäck

Björn Hansen (56, Gothenburg, Sweden) – World No. 30 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Philip Kai Guhle, Mathias Bredin, Nils Bjerkås

Eric Monnin (47, Immensee, Switzerland)/ Capvis Swiss Match Racing Team – World No. 3 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Simon Brügger, Marc Monnin, Jean-Claude Monnin, Hugo Feydit

Nick Egnot-Johnson (25, Auckland, New Zealand)/ KNOTS Racing – World No. 8 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Sam Barnett, Bradley McLaughlin, Zak Merton

Chris Poole (34, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA)/ Riptide Racing – World No. 1 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Joachim Aschenbrenner, Tomas Dietrich, Bernardo Freitas

Jeppe Borch (25, Copenhagen, Denmark)/ Borch Racing – World No. 2 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Thor Malthe Andersen, Mathias Rossing, Gustav Wantzin

Rocco Attili (26, Rome, Italy)/ RBYC – World No. 9 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Giulio Tamburini, Gianluca Perasole, Ludovico Mori

Ruairi Finnegan (27, Co. Waterford, Ireland)/ Craic’n Racing – World No. 36 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Noah Fisher, Daniel Little, Ryan Fitzgerald

Mati Sepp (55, Tallinn, Estonia)/ Clean Energy Match Race – World No. 5 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Karl Kolk, Janno Hool, Ago Rebane

Action-packed and filled with unexpected turns, day four of the 2023 World Match Racing Tour Final in Shenzhen, China, saw the emergence of the final four.

The conclusion of the last two flights of the round-robin phase set the stage for the top eight to progress to the quarter-finals. Among them, New Zealand's Megan Thomson clinched the final spot in the top eight, triumphing over Denmark's Jeppe Borch and Italy's Rocco Attili on countback. Thomson, steering 2.0 Racing, capitalised on their eighth-place finish, dethroning the regatta's reigning champion.

In a classic selection process, first-place finisher Sweden's Björn Hansen chose to race eighth-place finisher Thomson in the quarter-finals. The day's conditions on the water presented a stark contrast to earlier races, with a shift in wind direction, substantial gusts, and consistently stronger breezes.

On the selection, Thomson wasn't surprised, "We were expecting to get picked by the first-place finisher since we only just scraped through to the quarter-finals."

But never discount an underdog. Thomson has sailed well this regatta with her crew of Leo Takahashi, Nicholas Heiner and Niall Malone. Throughout the week, the team has made smart decisions on the water, and some of their losses on the scoreboard were much closer in competition than a simple '1-0'.

The quarter-finals, where the first team to reach two points would advance, saw Hansen secure the initial victory before Thomson levelled the score in the second race. The last race between the two would determine the semi-finalist. It was close, with a tight second top mark rounding, including last-minute gybes and strong gusts. Hansen had an issue with his kite halyard, which led to it dropping completely in the water and ultimately, Thomson kept her lead and secured the final win to advance to the semi-finals.

"The goal was to make the top eight, and we achieved that, so anything is a bonus from here," says Thomson. "We're just happy to be here and racing against the best. We're going to focus on having fun tomorrow."

Thomson's advancement to the semi-finals isn't just a personal triumph; it's a watershed moment for the sport. She is the first female skipper to be in the top four of a World Match Racing Tour Final.