THE HISTORY OF MATCH RACING

Match race sailing, as opposed to fleet racing, started evolving with the America's Cup races, whose foundation was layed 144 years ago, and which have been growing steadily since. The first match race to be sailed in one-design i.e. technically identical boats, was the Omega Gold Cup in Bermuda, that was first sailed in 1937 and is currently marking its 56th anniversary. The skipper who won it was Briggs Cunningham, who was also the one to win the first America's Cup in 12-metre boats. (12-metre boats, contrary to what many think, are not 12 m long, but 20 m, and the number 12 is the result of a formula that determines all the parameters of its design. 12 metre boats replaced in 1958 the formerly used J-Class boats, of which there is still a glorious survivor sailing nowadays around the world, the Endeavour. Today, the class sailed in the America's Cup is called IACC - International America's Cup Class). The Omega Gold Cup event marked the beginning of this new form of sailing format that started developing rapidly, and since the seventies events of that kind started emerging all over the world. This new form of sailing competition soon required some kind of parent organization and so the World Match Race Conference was born, a body consisting of delegates from each event, whose role it is to supervise, conceptually enhance and represent this World Match Racing Grand Prix Circuit, with the aim of further development and professional set up of this form of sailing.