Swedish Match 40

The Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand this past July was not only once again the final event on the world's premier professional sailing series, but also the location of Swedish Match Tour's latest, and in many ways proudest, announcement: the unveiling of the Swedish Match 40, a new custom built match racing yacht designed for the Swedish Match Tour.

Designed by Swedish sailing legend Pelle Petterson, with project management provided by Sailnet, a Scandinavian marketing and management company, a prototype of the Swedish Match 40 was launched in Marstrand and made available for viewing and sailing throughout the week by media, sailors and other interested parties.

"I was very excited about the prospect of designing a boat that will be sailed by the world's top match racing teams at events around the world," said Petterson. "The Swedish Match 40 is a unique design based on the most recent America's Cup class yachts. The Swedish Match 40 will provide sailors and teams a perfect tool to develop their match racing skills on the road to the next America's Cup in 2007."

After relying on event-supplied yachts for the first four years of the Swedish Match Tour, a desire arose to design and build an exclusive fleet of boats for the Swedish Match Tour that could provide a consist quality of yacht from event-to-event. The boat also needed be of a "grand-prix" nature, utilizing the latest technology and designed in way that would continue the Swedish Match Tour tradition of holding the racing on short courses in shore-side venues, allowing spectators to see, first-hand, sailing at the highest level.

Additionally, recognizing the value the America's Cup teams place on competing on the Swedish Match Tour, the goal was also to design a boat similar in look and performance to the America's Cup class yachts, but portable enough to fit in a 40-foot container allowing a fleet of Swedish Match 40s to be shipped to each of the events on the Swedish Match Tour.

"We wanted to create an opportunity to simulate the America's Cup racing and bring it to as many markets as possible, including those that in the past would have been unable to host a Swedish Match Tour event due to a lack of a suitable fleet," said Scott MacLeod, Swedish Match Tour Director. "The current America's Cup class boats would be cost prohibitive to ship around the world, and we wanted to provide the best experience for the sailors while allowing them to sharpen their match racing skills and core crew communication, while also developing a feel for umpires' calls as they prepare for 2007."

The Swedish Match Tour started the process by contacting Sailnet to manage the project. After several discussions, famed Swedish boat builder Pelle Petterson agreed to design a racing yacht meeting the vision of the Swedish Match Tour. Working from his own vast experience as a multiple world champion in several classes as well holder of two Olympic medals and skipper of two America's Cup challenges, Petterson also solicited input from several of the Tour's top competitors, including former Swedish Match Tour champion Magnus Holmberg and renowned sailor Paul Cayard to create a boat that will provide optimal performance while also allowing for the portability necessary to move the fleet around the world on an annual basis.

It is expected that the first fleet of Swedish Match 40s will be integrated into the Tour starting in midyear 2004.

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