World Match Racing Tour coming to Newport in 2016

BRAD READ, executive director of Sail Newport, said the World Match Racing Tour will visit Newport next year. / COURTESY SAIL NEWPORT
BRAD READ, executive director of Sail Newport, said the World Match Racing Tour will visit Newport next year. / COURTESY SAIL NEWPORT

NEWPORT – The World Match Racing Tour will visit Newport next year, Brad Read, executive director of Sail Newport, said Thursday.
“Since the Volvo Ocean Race Newport and the worldwide press about the enhanced facilities at Fort Adams State Park, major sailing event organizers are increasingly setting their sights on Newport and Rhode Island as the premiere sailing venue in the United States,” Read said in statement.
The competition will be held in Newport in late May and early June.
Fort Adams’ new 200-foot deep water pier was completed in May; it was designed to host these types of large marine events, Read said.
The WMRT Newport event will be the last stop in the world tour before the finals are decided in Marstrand, Sweden, July 4 to 9. Prior to Newport, the event will have visited Fremantle, Perth Australia (March 2-7) Long Beach, Calif. (April 5-10) and Copenhagen, Denmark (May 9-14). Another tour stop has yet to be announced.

The professional sailing event is similar to the America’s Cup World Series in 2012 in which a race course will be set within yards of the shoreline for spectator viewing. Live narration will be provided onshore following the action. The event will be open to the public with no admission fee, according to Sail Newport.

Boats used in the event will be M32s (Marstrom 32s), which are 32-foot high-speed catamarans.
“The races will be extraordinary close and action-packed as the best pro teams duel one-on-one in several laps of maneuvering,” Read said. “The event will be thrilling for the public to watch because it will be like Nascar racing – only on the water. The high-speed carbon fiber futuristic boats fly around at 40-50 knot speeds – all within feet of each other and with the best athletes found in the sport today. A true spectacle!”

Read also noted that the international Volvo Ocean Race is returning to Newport in May 2018.

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