Match Race - History

History

The grounds for match racing were originally set about one hundred and forty four years ago when the first America’s Cup was set to take place in its one of a kind event. The match racing rules were set so that you could have two similar boats within a box rule. A box rule which specifies a maximum overall size for boats in the class, as well as features such as stability. That could go head to head in attempt to find the best sailing crews and teams. These rules allow one boat to try and attack the other by getting the other boat penalized so that it has to do what is called three sixty (this is turning the boat three hundred and sixty degrees around or as the rule that states, one tack and one gibe in the same direction), which then puts the penalized boat at a large disadvantage compared to the others. After the America’s Cup the first real match race took place at the Omega Gold Cup in Bermuda in the year 1937. It was considered the first real match race, because it was sailed in one design boats (boats that are all exactly identical as they were built and managed by the same people), while the America’s Cup is a box rule which allows each of the boats to be different speeds. The skipper whom won this regatta was Briggs Cunningham. Briggs Cunningham also won the first America’s Cup that was held which incorporated the box rule. Since the Omega Gold Cup was a great success, match racing grew exponentially and created a new form of competitive sailing that had to have its rules managed and standardized so that rules were the same everywhere. This resulted in The World Match Race Conference, which was a meeting with delegates from all major match racing regattas who decided on the rules and restrictions and who now supervise all match racing regattas.