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2 - 7 September
St Moritz, Switzerland
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| TOUR ADDS ST. MORITZ MATCH RACE |
The St. Moritz Match Race is held on Lake St. Moritz in the Engadin valley of the southeastern Swiss Alps. (Max Ranchi photo)
Image © Max Ranchi - www.maxranchi.com
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Pete Spaulding (left) and Ed Smyth helped Mark Mendleblatt (right) earn his second St. Moritz Match Race championship in its second year. (Max Ranchi photo)
Image © Max Ranchi - www.maxranchi.com
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Mark Mendleblatt (USA) has windward position on Peter Holmberg (ISV) in the final of the 2004 St. Moritz Match Race, won by Mendleblatt 3-1. (Max Ranchi photo)
Image © Max Ranchi - www.maxranchi.com
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ROWAYTON, Conn. (Feb. 11, 2005) — The Swedish Match Tour is pleased to announce the addition of the St. Moritz Match Race to the Tour calendar for the 2005-’06 season. The event is scheduled Aug. 16-21, 2005.
The third-year St. Moritz Match Race, an ISAF Grade 1 match-race regatta, is organized by the St. Moritz Sailing Club and is held on Lake St. Moritz in the Engadin valley of the southeastern Swiss Alps. It features a 150,000 Swiss Franc (approximately $122,000) prize purse, with 36,000 Swiss Francs (approx. $30,000) earmarked for its champion.
“The Swedish Match Tour looks forward to competing in St. Moritz,” said Tour Director Scott MacLeod. “We’re excited to bring the Tour to a new market in Switzerland, which is also home to America’s Cup champion Team Alinghi.”
St. Moritz is more renowned for its idyllic skiing conditions than as a sailing destination. It hosted the Winter Olympics in 1928 and ’48. Now, it hosts an event of the Swedish Match Tour.
“After becoming the home country of the America’s Cup it was our goal to develop a premium match-race event in Switzerland, to bring the best sailors up to our mountains, and to give our young sailors an opportunity to meet them,” said Christian Scherrer, Principal Race Officer of St. Moritz Match Race and a former crewmember for Alinghi. “Joining the Swedish Match Tour is a major step towards this goal. For us it has the same importance as when the Gstaad Tennis Tournament joined the ATP Tour a couple of years ago.”
Sailing at the top of the world, the St. Moritz Match Race is one of the world’s unique regattas. Held on Lake St. Moritz, which lies at an elevation of 5,624 feet (1,856 meters) above sea level, the St. Moritz Match Race might be the highest-elevation match-race regatta in the world.
The large, skiff-like boats make St. Moritz Match Race an exciting event. The Streamline 7.15 is a three-person boat, with small winglets and trapezes for the two crewmembers.
American Mark Mendleblatt won the first two editions of the St. Moritz Match Race. Last year, the U.S. entrant in the Laser class at the Athens Olympics defeated Peter Holmberg (U.S.V.I.), a helmsman for Alinghi and past champion of the Swedish Match Tour (2002), 3-1 in the final.
Scherrer said that the field of 12 teams in August will feature Mendleblatt returning with crewmembers Pete Spaulding of the U.S. and New Zealander Ed Smyth to defend their title. Two other entries will come from a qualifying event in Zurich, Switzerland, May 14-16, that is part of the UBS Alinghi Swiss Tour, which forms the Swiss national match racing championship.
The St. Moritz Match Race is tentatively slotted as Stage 3 on the 2005-’06 calendar. The seventh season of the professional match-racing series begins with the Portugal Match Cup in Cascais, Portugal, July 16-24, 2005.
Four events are confirmed to begin the 2005-’06 season: Portugal Match Cup, Danish Open (Copenhagen, Aug. 10-15), St. Moritz Match Race and the Investors Guaranty Presentation of the King Edward VII Gold Cup (Bermuda, Oct. 15-23).
The Swedish Match Tour is in the midst of its sixth season, and American Ed Baird (St. Petersburg, Fla.) leads the standings with 65 points. The season resumes May 1-8 with Stage 5, the Toscana Elba Cup – Trofeo Locman in Porto Azzurro, Italy. The season began last July with the Portugal Match Cup.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION
Sean McNeill
Swedish Match Tour
Director of Public Relations
Tel: +1 401 846 8812
E-mail: smcneill@f10marketing.com
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT ST. MORITZ MATCH RACE
Christian Scherrer
St. Moritz Match Race
Principal Race Officer
Tel: +41 43 222 47 02
E-mail: chrscherrer@compuserve.com
Web site: St. Moritz Match Race
UPCOMING SWEDISH MATCH TOUR SCHEDULE
May 1-8: Toscana Elba Cup -- Trofeo Locman (Porto Azzurro, Italy)
May 11-16: Match Race Germany (Langenargen, Germany)
May 23-28: ACI HTmobile Cup (Split, Croatia)
July 4-10: Swedish Match Cup (Marstrand, Sweden)
RELATED CONTENT
St. Moritz Match Race Event Summary
Streamline 7.15
Swedish Match Tour TV
Tour Parts with Congressional Cup (Feb. 7, 2005)
Looking Back on 2004 (Dec. 22, 2004)
SWEDISH MATCH TOUR STANDINGS
(After 4 of 8 stages)
1. Ed Baird (USA) 65 points
2. Russell Coutts (NZL) 45 points
T. Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN) 45 points
4. Peter Gilmour (AUS) 40 points
5. Staffan Lindberg (FIN) 26 points
6. Philippe Presti (FRA) 24 points
7. Mathieu Richard (FRA) 21 points
8. Kelvin Harrap (NZL) 20 points
T. James Spithill (AUS) 20 points
(View full standings)
ABOUT THE SWEDISH MATCH TOUR
• The Swedish Match Tour is the leading professional sailing series in the world.
• The Tour offers almost $1 million in overall prize money, with $200,000 divided among the top eight teams in the overall Tour Championship points race.
• The winner of the Tour Championship nets a BMW 545i Touring, a $60,000 bonus and the official Swedish Match Tour Championship Trophy, produced by Swedish Match Tour sponsor Wedgwood.
• Swedish Match Tour events take place in venues with virtual on-the-water stadiums, which allow general public spectators to follow the races shoreside.
• Swedish Match Tour television programs and highlights reach nearly 325 million households in 190 countries around the world.
• Swedish Match Tour partners include Swedish Match, BMW and the Match Race Association. Swedish Match Tour Official Sponsors include Colorcraft, Wedgwood, Musto and Trident Studios.
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