Former Match Racing World Champion and co-founder of the ‘Stars & Stripes Team USA’ America’s Cup team, Taylor Canfield, has been confirmed as the twelfth and final skipper for the World Match Racing Tour championship final in Marstrand, Sweden from 3-7 July. Canfield joins a world class line-up of eleven other professional match racing skippers including defending world Champion Torvar Mirsky (AUS), Mirsky Racing Team, and six-time world champion Ian Williams (GBR), Team GAC Pindar.
29yr old Canfield, from St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, has become a formidable name on the professional match racing circuit. A former Match Racing World Champion in 2013, he is a four-time winner of the crimson blazer at Long Beach Yacht Club’s Congressional Cup, two-time winner of the Argo Group Gold Cup in Bermuda, and has won numerous other events on the World Match Racing Tour since his Tour debut in 2011.
In December last year, Canfield was announced as helmsman for the ‘Stars & Stripes USA’ America’s Cup team under the flag of the Long Beach Yacht Club, CA. The team was confirmed as the 5th challenger for the 36th America’s Cup in Auckland, New Zealand.
Currently ranked #15 on the WMRT leaderboard, Canfield has been awarded an invitation to the WMRT championship final due to higher ranked skippers being unable to attend the event because of other commitments. The winner-take-all championship final will give Canfield and his team the opportunity to clinch a second world title. However, with three other former world champions to contend with, it will not be an easy road to the top step of the podium.
The five-day WMRT Championship Final takes place 3-7 July in Marstrand, Sweden hosted by GKSS Match Cup Sweden. The teams will race on identical M32 carbon fibre multihulls providing close-action racing in front of the tens of thousands of spectators that flock to the picturesque island of Marstrand each year for the event.
Confirmed skippers for the WMRT Championship Final;
- Nicklas Dackhammer (SWE) Essiq Racing Team
- Ian Williams (GBR) GAC Pindar
- Yann Guichard (FRA) Spindrift Racing
- Harry Price (AUS) Down Under Racing
- Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team
- Mans Holmberg (SWE) Holmberg Match Racing Team
- Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team
- Markus Edegran (USA) Team Torrent
- Phil Robertson (NZL) China One Ningbo
- Pieter-Jan Postma (NED) Sailing Team NL
- Daniel Björnholt (DEN) Youth Vikings Denmark
- Taylor Canfield (ISV)
Full details of each team including skipper bios and crew lists will be announced in the run up to the July event and made available on the WMRT website.
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