World Match Racing Tour Final Moves to Sydney

25th October 2022

The World Match Racing Tour Final is moving to Sydney

Organisers of the World Match Racing Tour have announced the 2022 WMRT Final has been re-scheduled to 13-18 December in Sydney, Australia. The event will be co-hosted with the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA) and the winner will be crowned the official 2022 Match Racing World Champion.

The change of venue for the 2022 WMRT Final follows the ongoing border closures in China, where the WMRT Final was previously scheduled to take place in Shenzhen from 6-11 December. Strict travel restrictions for international visitors to China have been in place since the start of the global pandemic in 2020

“It is unfortunate we have been unable to host the WMRT Final in Shenzhen again this year due to the continued travel restrictions to China” commented WMRT Executive Director James Pleasance “however, to ensure we can still host the tour final this year, we are very pleased to partner with the CYCA to host the event in Sydney - the club has a great deal of experience in running world-class match racing events and sailing conditions in Sydney in December should be ideal as well.”

The Elliott 7m match racing fleet at the CYCA in Sydney

Up to 12 teams are being invited to the event, including defending match racing world champion Taylor Canfield (Stars + Stripes Team USA) and six-time world champion Ian Williams from Great Britain. The event will be sailed in the CYCA fleet of Elliott 7m keelboats with crews of 4 or 5. Racing will take place over five days with a single round robin stage followed by a repechage, Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Final on Sunday, 18 December.

The CYCA is also home to the Rolex Sydney-Hobart Yacht Race and the club will be busy in late December preparing for the 77th edition of the iconic race starting on 26 December as CYCA Commodore Arthur Lane explains;

“It is extremely exciting for us to partner with the World Match Racing Tour to bring the Finals to the southern hemisphere for the very first time. The Club has a strong history in hosting world-class sailing events, so adding the World Match Racing Tour to our calendar this December will be very special. We look forward to welcoming all the teams to Sydney and to the CYCA.”

Taylor Canfield (centre) and Stars+Stripes Team USA, WMRT Champions 2020

WMRT Match Racing World Championship Trophy by Garrard & Co.

Published in Match Racing

Tagged under

Match Racing

About The Author

Afloat.ie Team

Email The Author

Afloat.ie is Ireland's dedicated marine journalism team.

Have you got a story for our reporters? Email us here.

We've got a favour to ask

More people are reading Afloat.ie than ever thanks to the power of the internet but we're in stormy seas because advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. Unlike many news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall because we want to keep our marine journalism open.

Afloat.ie is Ireland's only full–time marine journalism team and it takes time, money and hard work to produce our content.

So you can see why we need to ask for your help.

If everyone chipped in, we can enhance our coverage and our future would be more secure. You can help us through a small donation. Thank you.