Clean Report
The first stage of the M32/World Match Racing Tour experiment wraps up today with a shock finale: Only one form guide favorite advancing to the semifinals of the million-dollar, winner-take-all World Championship in Marstrand, Sweden.
Taylor Canfield advances as the favorite, but loses tactician Chris Main to a shoulder injury going into the final day, and with 25 knots forecast, he’l lose weight and strength with GAC Pindar trimmer Garth Ellingham subbing in.
With Iker Martinez, Yann Guichard, and 6-time world champ Ian Williams all knocked out in the quarters, every skipper in the final four matchup is 30 or younger, and Hakan Svensson’s vision of providing a pathway to greatness for young sailors has been fulfilled.
The event itself is quite insane; I’ve never seen more gorgeous women in one place, and the event has set all kids of records for both daily attendance and digital viewership. We’ll have more on today’s action shortly, right here on the front page – head over to WMRT Facebook for live coverage of the skipper’s meeting and much, much more this morning; we’ll have the finals embedded right here from 1400 CET/0800 ET/0500 PT. Brian Carlin photography.
Here’s a video summary of yesterday’s insanity, and Nic the Sailor Girl grabbed some strong interviews with Williams after his knockout and his nemesis, young Chris Steele.
