The Alinghi crew at the Marseille International Match Race. Left to right: Warwick Fleury, Lorenzo Mazza, Pieter Van Nieuwenhuijzen and Ed Baird. Image copyright Gilles Martin-Raget/World Match Racing Tour.
by Anne Hinton
Further to the Alinghi statement published below, Alinghi press officer, Daphne Morgan Barnicoat has confirmed that "the WMRT [World Match Racing Tour] is the most competitive match racing event in the world and provides excellent training for a conventional America's Cup in monohulls. As we have been forced to an America's Cup Match in multihulls, our focus must be on training and racing these. So yes we have withdrawn from our monohull commitments this summer."
Alinghi, in the form of Ed Baird, had been given a wildcard entry to the 2009 World Match Racing Tour, which they no longer need. Yvonne Reid has stated, on behalf of the World Match Racing Tour, that "the Tour card replacement is currently under discussion and is yet to be confirmed".
Note from SailRaceWin: It is out understanding that there was a choice available between a Deed of Gift America's Cup Match and a multi-challenger event, and that the choice of the Deed of Gift match in multihulls was made by Alinghi.
World Match Racing Tour
2 comments:
"As we have been forced to an America's Cup Match in multihulls"
Surely this is a typo!
Further to the comment above, Anne Hinton has confirmed that the quotations have been reproduced faithfully exactly as provided to her by both Daphne Morgan Barnicoat and Yvonne Reid.
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