World Match Racing Tour Legacy Development

Marstrand, Sweden – 6 July, 2010 – The next generation of Swedish sailors are also taking to the water during Stena Match Cup Sweden.  The second day of the ‘Junior Cup’ is under way with a healthy 150 young contenders fleet racing in teams of 3.

The Junior Cup, new this year, was introduced to bring together the youth sailors into one regatta and let them see firsthand the professional racers in action.  The event also enables these youngsters to understand the match racing career path on offer and aims to assist in energizing and inspiring this new pool of talent.

The daily morning briefings have involved some of the famous skippers sharing their advice on weather conditions and top tips for tuning the C55 dinghies.  This link between fully fledged match racing idols and young hopefuls is important to the ISAF World Match Racing Tour’s identity as it seeks to provide a sustainable legacy beyond the 10 annual event series.

The youths racing today could in fact be the rising stars of future WMRT events.  Mattias Rahm (SWE) Stena Bulk Sailing Team has brought his nephew, Axel, with him this week in order for the 12 year old Swede to start developing his own racing profile.  Axel has already won a race this week and his uncle is looking to add his own set of victories.

The Junior Cup is an important vehicle in moving children out of the single handed Optimist class at an early age and starting their education into team work skills and group communications.  Many Optimist sailors lack important interaction with crews which is so essential to the sport of match racing.

Childhood, the official charity of Stena Match Cup Sweden, is also a valuable entity to Stage 5 of the Tour.  The worldwide foundation works around the globe providing children with the opportunity to develop into strong, secure and responsible adults.  For the first time this year the charity, supported by Stena, is providing day care facilities for visitors to the event. 

Ellika Mårtenson, Childhood, commented, “We are very grateful to Stena for supporting us and enabling us to provide this facility.  The activities here are focused on bringing happiness to the visiting children and through this we are raising the awareness of Childhood and raising funds to help children all over the World.”