Introduction to the Swedish Match Tour

The Swedish Match Tour is the world's leading professional sailing series, featuring America's Cup teams, skippers, Olympic Gold medalists and World Champions in the ultimate one-on-one test, a "race of truth.”

Uniting world's best match-race regattas
The Swedish Match Tour was created in 2000 to unite the world's best match-race regattas under one banner. The goal was to afford more international coverage for the events, and create interest by crowning an overall Tour champion at the end of the year. Through its first five years the Swedish Match Tour has become a proving ground for experienced match-race teams, America's Cup teams and up-and-coming stars of the match-racing discipline.

Quick races with emphasis on boathandling
Match-racing is a discipline of sailing that pits two crews against each other, one-on-one, on a short racecourse. The short course means that the races are quick, and it places an emphasis on boathandling, and knowledge of tactics and rules. Mastery of these critical areas of racing leads to great success no matter what discipline of the sport. The fields for each event usually number between 10 and 12 crews, although some events have up to 16 crews competing. Skippers receive invitations to the events based on their Swedish Match Tour standing and their world ranking.

Points toward the championship
Each event's format consists of one or a series of round robins. The rounds help whittle the field to either quarterfinalists or semifinalists (depending on event format), and then the finalists. Competitors earn points toward the Tour championship by placing in the top eight at each regatta. With nine events on the 2004-'05 schedule a skipper's seven-best finishes will count toward the championship, but only if he competes in at least seven events.


Source: www.swedishmatchtour.com