“They have always said to win the America’s Cup, first you have to win the Louis Vuitton Cup. We have always said to win the Louis Vuitton Cup, first you should win the World Match Racing Tour." - James Pleasance.
Director of the Tour, James Pleasance, he’s happy to keep the Tour travelling along its well-established trajectory, for the moment at least. “We are still the pre-eminent match racing series worldwide, officially sanctioned by ISAF,” says Pleasance. “We continue to grow as a global series and importantly a monohull match racing series. Over the last 13 years, the Tour has been widely recognised as the breeding ground for the America’s Cup. Well known sailors such as James Spithill cut his ‘match racing’ teeth on the Tour plus the likes of Dean Barker, Ben Ainslie, Peter Gilmour, Russell Coutts, Ed Baird, Peter and Magnus Holmberg have all competed and won on the Tour. Most of the Cup sailors have won Tour events at one time or the other. “They have always said to win the America’s Cup, first you have to win the Louis Vuitton Cup. We have always said to win the Louis Vuitton Cup, first you should win the World Match Racing Tour. There’s still a lot of truth to that, despite the fact that the Cup has changed to multihulls. At the end of the day, whilst the Cup may be raced on two or three hulls, it has always been and will continue to be a match racing competition between two boats. And the Tour is undoubtedly the best platform for teams to hone their match racing skills.” Pleasance does not rule out the prospect of including multihull events in the Tour, but remains somewhat sceptical of the benefits. “Personally I'm yet to be convinced that multihulls are a better match racing vehicle than monohulls. The AC72s are incredibly impressive but the emphasis has been
48 Image credit: Brian Carlin/WMRT
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