Hamilton, Bermuda: With three weeks and one World Match Racing Tour event to go, the Argo Group Gold Cup looks like it will be the race of champions. Sailors are certainly not looking past the Danish Open, September 9-13, in Aarhus, Denmark, but competition for the 102 year-old King Edward VII Gold Cup is always hot; and the 2009 skippers will battle to the end to get their name etched on the golden prize beside those of the world's top match race sailors.
The top eight teams on the World Tour will be in Bermuda October 6-11 to test their skill in the classic International One Design sailboats used for the Argo Group Gold Cup. They will be joined by last year's Gold Cup champion Johnie Berntsson and fifteen other up-and-coming match race skippers.
"The historic story about the Gold Cup event," said defending champ Berntsson, "is something that the other events on the World Match Racing Tour can not come close to. Not many other sailing events at all and not many other worldwide sports events in general can compare with the Gold Cup tradition."
Mathieu Richard, winner in 2007, put it this way. "Bermuda is very unique place and this makes for a special atmosphere during the week of competition. That's a very special event, that I really do love."
Winner of the St Mortiz Match Race, Adam Minoprio (NZL, ETNZ/BlackMatch) stands on the top World tour rankings. With 86 points, he is twelve points ahead of Torvar Mirsky (AUS, Mirsky Racing Team) and another six points ahead of Mathieu Richard (FRA, French Match Racing Team) and two more ahead of Ian Williams (GBR, Team Pindar) and two more ahead of Peter Gilmour (AUS, YANMAR Racing). These top five World Tour teams will all be in Denmark and Bermuda before moving on to the final tour championship event, The Monsoon Cup, sailed December 1-6 in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.
Richard, Williams and Gilmour have all won the King Edward VII Gold Cup before. Minoprio was runner-up in 2008. Mirsky was out of the money last year, not making the cut for one of the top eight positions. Of the initial twenty-four teams, sixteen teams are eliminated in the first three days of racing leaving the top eight teams to battle for a finals slot and a shot at the $50,000 first place prize. The second through eighth place teams divide the rest of the $100,000 purse.
International teams include four from the USA, three each from Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, and Sweden, two from Bermuda, one each from Denmark, Portugal and Switzerland.
Biographies of all twenty-four 2009 Argo Group Gold Cup skippers are posted athttp://www.bermudagoldcup.com/content/view/81/42/
World Match Racing Tour rankings after St. Moritz Match Race 2009
1 : Adam Minoprio (NZL, ETNZ/BlackMatch) 86
2 : Torvar Mirsky (AUS, Mirsky Racing Team) 74
3 : Mathieu Richard (FRA, French Match Racing Team) 68
4 : Ian Williams (GBR, Team Pindar) 64
5: Peter Gilmour (AUS, YANMAR Racing) 62
6: Damien Iehl (FRA, French Match Racing Team) 44
7: Sébastien Col (FRA, French Match Racing Team) 41
8: Ben Ainslie (GBR, Team Origi) 40
About the Argo Group Gold Cup: bermudagoldcup.com
Stage 8 of the World Match Racing Tour
The Argo Group Gold Cup, sailed for the King Edward VII Gold Cup Trophy, is now stage 8 of the World Match Racing Tour, the International Sailing Federation match racing world championship. The Bermuda classic is the oldest match racing competition in the world for one-design yachts. The trophy presented to the winning team was originally given at the Tri-Centenary Regatta at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1907 by King Edward VII in commemoration of the 300th Anniversary of the first permanent settlement in America. C. Sherman Hoyt, a renowned American sailor, won the regatta and was presented with this now historic cup.
Through the years Bermuda has won the Cup twenty-one times, the United States seventeen times, New Zealand ten times, Australia five times, the United Kingdom three times, Sweden once and in 2002 Denmark claimed the King Edward VII Gold Cup for the first time. The 2006 winner was Ian Williams (UK) who defeated a fleet including the 2005 winner, Luna Rosa Skipper James Spithill, who in that year had shut out Russell Coutts' incredible string of wins. Mathieu Richard of France became the third consecutive first-time winner of the King Edward VII Gold Cup in 2007. In 2008 the cup went to Sweden's Johnie Berntsson and his Berntsson Racing Team in the final 3-1 victory over Adam Minoprio's Emirates Team New Zealand/BlackMatch Team.
The Argo Group Gold Cup is the ninth out of ten events on the 2009 World Match Racing Tour's World Championship schedule. It is sailed in Hamilton Harbour adjacent to the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. The venue brings world-class match racing close to shore where spectators can easily see the competition.
The twenty-four invited crews include eight official "World Tour Card" teams and two winners of qualifying events, the Knickerbocker Cup and the Bermuda National Match Race Championship. Teams will be divided into three groups of eight to sail a round robin elimination series Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The leading eight skippers go on to the Quarter and Semi Finals, to be sailed on Friday and Saturday respectively.
The finals take place on Sunday with the top two teams in a 'first to three points' head to head battle and the losing semi finalists in a 'first to two points' Petite Final. Between the second and third races, the course is taken over for the final race of the Renaissance Re Junior Gold Cup, which will have been underway simultaneously since Thursday in the Great Sound.
The King Edward VII Gold Cup was a founding member of the World Match Racing Tour. The tour is a series of international events. It has extensive television coverage and worldwide promotion. The one-hour television broadcast of the 2008 event appeared in November on Eurosport, ESPN, Versus Network, the Sky network and other regional broadcasters. This network reaches more than 300 million homes in 90 countries. An exciting summary video of all the tour events can be viewed at www.worldmatchracingtour.com
About Argo Group: www.argolimited.com/index.aspx
Global. Powerful. Committed.
Argo Group International Holdings, Ltd. (NasdaqGS: AGII), is an international underwriter of specialty insurance and reinsurance products in the property and casualty market. The company offers a full line of high-quality products and services designed to meet the unique coverage and claims handling needs of businesses in four arenas: Excess and Surplus Lines, Commercial Specialty, International Specialty and Reinsurance.
Argo Group clients and shareholders alike benefit from the commitment to specialization, deep expertise and dynamic relationships, that create a winning combination for mutual success.
Argo Group has built a company with a fundamental purpose of securing the future and a straightforward vision to achieve outstanding results realized together.
The company and all of its operating units believe that tangible excitement is created by having desire to excel. Maintaining unwavering interest in the clients it serves forges long-lasting connections. Argo Group's trademark is a combination of intellectual curiosity and creative zeal, which brings bold, far-reaching ideas to their clients to evolve those clients' own thriving businesses.
Organization-wide, the strategy—easy to define and rewarding to deploy—is to grow hand-in-hand with their clients.
About The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club: www.rbyc.bm
The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club is a private Club and is the third oldest club holding a Royal Warrant outside the British Isles. The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club was established on the 1st of November 1844 by a party of thirty gentlemen, consisting largely of officers in the British Army. There are now approximately 850 resident and non-resident members.
About the World Match Racing Tour: www.worldmatchracingtour.com
- The World Match Racing Tour is the leading professional sailing series featuring 10 World Championship events across the globe.
- The World Tour is sanctioned by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) with "Special Event" status.
- The World Tour awards over US$1million in prize money.
- Points are awarded at each event culminating in the crowning of the season ending 'ISAF Match Racing World Champion.'
- Events utilize the same "match race" format used in the America's Cup with racing taking place in identically supplied racing yachts which places a focus on teamwork and skill.
- Racing takes place close to the shore for the general public to follow the races as virtual on-the-water stadiums.
- Media and television highlights coverage reaches over 500 million households in excess of 90 countries around the world.
- World Match Racing Tour sponsors include Line 7, Pindar, Custom House, Travel Places, Wedgwood and Sail.TV.
For information on the World Match Racing Tour:
Yvonne Reid Force 10 Marketing
Tel: +44 (0) 1590 679613
Mob: +44 (0) 7809 149268
Email: [email protected]
www.worldmatchracingtour.com
For Argo Group Gold Cup Media Contact:
Talbot Wilson, Talbot Wilson & Associates, Inc.
Tel: +1 (850)432-8170
Fax: +1 (850)432-8050
Mob: +1 (850)217-7138
Email: [email protected]
SKYPE: talbotwilson
For Argo Group
John Narraway
Email: [email protected]
Royal Bermuda Yacht Club
Email: [email protected]
Tel: (441) 295 2214 Ex 105
Fax:(441) 295 6361