Alpari World Match Racing Tour announces first ever event in Holland

CEO of Batavia Sailing Center and Event Promoter of the Dutch Match Cup, Joop van Diest (right) and Alpari World Match Racing Tour Executive Director, James Pleasance © Alpari World Match Racing Tour

The Alpari World Match Racing Tour today announced the addition of the Dutch Match Cup as an official stage of the 2014 world championship tour.

The Dutch event joins the current schedule of six championship events in Germany, Sweden, Poland, Chicago, Bermuda, and Malaysia. Today's announcement comes just two days before the start of the 2014 Alpari World Match Racing Tour on the shores of Lake Constance at Match Race Germany from 5-9 June.

The Dutch Match Cup will mark the first ever Alpari World Match Racing Tour event to be held in Holland. The event will take place from 24-28 September in Lelystad, the largest municipality in Holland and the capital of the province of Flevoland. The event will offer a prize purse of USD75,000 [adding to the current 2014 Tour prize purse of USD1.4million] and teams will compete in an identical fleet of Maxfun 25 keelboats with four crew per boat.

The racing will take place directly off the harbour wall at Bataviahaven in Lelystad, one of the largest marinas in the Netherlands located on the 700 km2 Markermeer in between North Holland and its larger sibling, the Ijsselmeer. The €7million marina development at Bataviahaven was started in 2002 to host large nautical events including boat shows and regattas. The development also includes residential and commercial space including restaurants, shops and bars.

The sea wall will provide an ideal stadium sailing atmosphere for spectators to watch the world's top match racing teams go head to head in September. A separate offshore event – the 200miles Solo Race - will also start and finish at Bataviahaven during the Dutch Match Cup which will add to the spectacle around other shore side events.

Today's launch of the Dutch Match Cup was presented to local media at Lelystad's City Hall attended by the Deputy Mayor of Lelystad, Jop Fackeldey; CEO of Batavia Sailing Center and Event Promoter of the Dutch Match Cup, Joop van Diest; and James Pleasance, Executive Director of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour.

"I am very pleased we have been able to add the Dutch Match Cup to the 2014 Alpari World Match Racing Tour season," commented Pleasance. "It is the first ever Tour event in Holland and Bataviahaven is an excellent sailing stadium venue. Together with the City of Lelystad and local partners, the event organisation has worked very hard to ensure the event goes ahead this year and we look forward to coming to Lelystad in September."

As Deputy Mayor Jop Fackeldey added "The sport of sailing is an integral part of the coastline of Lelystad. Hosting a world class event such as the Dutch Match Cup will attract many visitors to the region and generate a very valuable exposure for the City. In turn, this will contribute greatly to the economic development of the region."

The Dutch Match Cup will also be televised locally, and a 26 and 47 minute television show from the event will be distributed by IMG Media Worldwide, official partner of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour and the world's largest distributor of sports and entertainment programming. IMG currently distribute all World Tour shows to over 60 broadcasters in 180 countries. The Tour is also the only sailing series to be broadcast in-flight with global airline Emirates in partnership with title sponsor Alpari.

In addition to hosting the Dutch Match Cup, the Batavia Sailing Center also plans to launch an annual match racing series in Holland in partnership with the Alpari World Match Racing Tour and ISAF (International Sailing Federation). The national sailing program will provide a valuable pathway for aspiring Dutch sailors to hone their match racing skills and increase their world ranking. The series will also incorporate a youth development program to attract new sailors to the sport, and to match racing.

For more information on the Alpari World Match Racing Tour, visit www.wmrt.com