London, UK, 1.12.2009

WORLD TOUR ANNOUNCES 2010 SCHEDULE AND TOUR INVITE POLICY

The 2010 Tour schedule will comprise of the same nine events as 2009 starting the year in France in April and ending once again in Malaysia.

April 6 – 11 Marseille International Match Race Marseille, France
May 19 – 24 Match Race Germany Langenargen, Germany
June 8 - 13 Korea Match Cup Gyeonggi, Korea
June 22 - 27 Troia Portugal Match Cup Troia, Portugal
July 5 – 11 Match Cup Sweden Marstrand, Sweden
Aug 31 – Sept 5 St Moritz Match Race St Moritz, Switzerland
Sept 8 – 12 Danish Open TBC, Denmark
October 4 - 10 Argo Group Gold Cup Hamilton, Bermuda
Nov 30 – Dec 5 Monsoon Cup K.Terengganu, Malaysia

A refined Tour Invite Policy for the 2010 season will be retained which will reward 9 skippers and teams with guaranteed invites to six events of their choice for the year. “The Tour Card policy was first introduced at the beginning of the 2009 and overall it worked well but in order to improve upon it we have made a few revisions for next year.” said Tour Director Craig Mitchell.

Based on a 9-event schedule, and a 12-team event format, at each event 8 invitations will be allocated by the Tour Invite Policy, 2 invitations go to winners of Tour qualifying events, and 2 or more wild card invites will go to each event promoter.

For teams that don’t get one of the 9 Tour Cards they will still be able to race on the Tour through either an event wild card or at one of the 18 qualifying events that feed into the World Tour events.

New venues are also being targeted as the Tour plans to expand the number of events. “This is an exciting time for everyone involved in the Tour from competitors, events and staff a like. We look forward to taking the Tour to the next level and are excited by the future ahead” said acting President Peter Gilmour.

Tour Standings
(After 8 of 9 events)
1. Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing 100 Points
2. Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team 88 Points
3. Ian Williams (GBR) Team Pindar 75 Points
4. Mathieu Richard (FRA), French Match Racing Team Racing 74 Points
5. Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR 71 Points
6. Ben Ainslie, (GBR) Team Origin 65 Points
7. Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team 48 Points
8. Sebastien Col, (FRA) French Match Racing Team 41 Points