Long Beach, CA (28 April, 2024) – The intensity of the 59th Congressional Cup, the opening event for the 2024 World Match Racing Tour, reached its peak today as USA’s Chris Poole and his Riptide Racing team won his second consecutive Congressional Cup and Crimson Blazer. Poole and his Riptide Racing team of Joachim Aschenbrenner, Bernardo Freitas, Mal Parker, Luke Payne, and Harry West defeated five-time Congressional Cup winner Ian Williams 3-1 in a tense final.
Showing dominance early, Poole claimed the first point of the event. With so much talent and experience in these boats, Williams and Poole pushed the match racing rules and boats to their maximum.
Reflecting on the victory, Chris Poole said, “It’s an incredible feeling. It would be impossible without my team. We didn’t start the week the way we wanted to, but once we started sailing like we did last year, we were pretty confident it was going to be ours to win.”
2024 Congressional Cup Teams:
Ian Williams (46, Lymington, England)/ Gladstone’s Long Beach
World No. 11 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Richard Sydenham, Gerry Mitchell, Ricky McGarvie, Ted Hackney, Oisin Mcclelland
Chris Poole (35, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA) / Riptide Racing
World No. 1 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Joachim Aschenbrenner, Bernardo Freitas, Mal Parker, Luke Payne, Harry West
Eric Monnin (48, Immensee, Switzerland)/ Capvis Swiss Match Racing
World No. 2 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Simon Brügger, Maxime Mesnil, Julien Falxa, Ute Monnin-Wagner, Mathieü Renault, Jean-Claude Monnin
Nick Egnot-Johnson (25, Auckland, New Zealand)/ KNOTS Racing
World No. 8 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Sam Barnett, Zak Merton, Alastair Gifford, Taylor Balogh, Jorden Van Rooijen
Jeppe Borch (26, Copenhagen, Denmark)/ Borch Racing
World No. 4 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Thor Malthe Andersen, Mathias Rossing, Gustav Wantzin, August de la Cour, Sebastien Pieters
Dave Hood (66, Long Beach, USA)/ DH3 Racing
World No. 37 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Nick Blackman, Chris Main, Chris Steele, Steve Natvig, Will Tiller
Gavin Brady (50, USA)/ True Blue Racing USA
World No. 13 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Chris Cowan, Harry Hall, Ryan Houston, Chris Larson, Joshua Wijohn
Johnie Berntsson (51, Stenungsund, Sweden)/ Berntsson Sailing Team
World No. 3 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Filip Karlsson, Herman Andersson, Fredrik Laangström, Erik Malmberg, Jespre Stålheim
Rocco Attili (27, Rome, Italy)/ RBYS
World No. 7 Open Match Race Rankings
Crew: Alberto Corneli, Andres Guerra, Edoardo Mancinelli Scotti, Luca Camilli, Gianluca Perasole, Ludovico Mori
Cole Tapper (21, AUS)/ CYCA Youth Sailing Academy
Crew: Jordan Reece, George Richardson, Hamish Vass, Charlotte Carmichael, Max Brennan, Nathan Gulliksen
Megan Thomson (25, NZL)/ 2.0 Racing
Crew: Charlotte Porter, Josi Andres, Bastian Sorensen, Sebastian Olsen, Cormac Murphy
Scotty Dickson (53, Long Beach, USA) Dickson Racing Team
Crew: Erik Berzins, Garrett Brown, Steve Flam, Zack Hanna, Greg Dair
ABOUT LONG BEACH YACHT CLUB
Established in 1929, Long Beach Yacht Club is recognized as a leading organization in the international yachting community for its commitment to excellence in yacht racing and innovation in race management. In addition to hosting the Congressional Cup and numerous other local, national and international yachting events, the Club’s member families enjoy a year-round calendar of social, yachting and junior activities at its beautiful clubhouse on the shore of Alamitos Bay.
ABOUT WMRT
Founded in 1999, the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) is the longest running global professional series in the sport of sailing, featuring world class sailors including America’s Cup and Olympic champions. WMRT is exclusively sanctioned with ‘Special Event Status’ by World Sailing, the sport’s world governing body.
The winner of the WMRT each year is crowned official Match Racing World Champion.The World Match Racing Tour has long been regarded by professional sailors as a pathway to the America’s Cup and as an opportunity for teams to hone their match racing skills and teamwork at the highest level.
WMRT was originally founded as a match racing series for monohull yachts, and multihulls were introduced to the Tour in 2015.
Match Racing is the same discipline of sailing used by the sport’s oldest sporting trophy since 1851, the America’s Cup. It is one of the easiest types of sailing to understand with just two boats around a race course in a winner-take-all duel of tactics, strategy and teamwork.
Teams compete in different boats at each stage of the World Match Racing Tour, however the boats supplied at each event are identical. To keep the competition 100% fair and equal, teams rotate boats during the event. This way, competing on the WMRT becomes purely about the skill and strategy of the sailors.
The race courses are short with intense close to shore action providing host venues with an excellent opportunity to attract public spectators and hospitality guests to enjoy the racing up close.
Previous WMRT Champions include six-time world champion Ian Williams (GBR), Peter Gilmour (AUS), Adam Minoprio (NZL), Phil Robertson (NZL), Taylor Canfield (ISV) and Torvar Mirsky (AUS).