London (16 Sept, 2022) The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron have announced that long-term partner Barfoot & Thompson have boosted the club’s capability in hosting the final event of the inaugural Women’s World Match Racing Tour by becoming title sponsor of the 2022 Barfoot & Thompson Women’s World Match Racing Championship on Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour from 9-13 November.

The winner of the 2022 Barfoot & Thompson Women’s World Match Racing Championship will be crowned 2022 Women’s Match Racing World Champion as sanctioned by World Sailing, the world governing body of the sport. The event comes at a fitting time when global eyes will be on New Zealand and women in sport via the Rugby World Cup and IWG World Conference.

“Barfoot & Thompson has truly established their support for the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, and quite simply we couldn’t run world-class events without highly committed partners like the team at Barfoot & Thompson” commented Andrew Aitken, RNZYS Commodore. “We couldn’t be more pleased to continue growing our relationship with a company that’s passionate about the development of our sport at all levels.”

As part of this extended partnership, Barfoot & Thompson also take naming rights for the RNZYS’ world-renowned Learn to Sail Programme and continue their existing support for the club’s Barfoot & Thompson Ladies Summer Sailing Series.

Peter Thompson, RNZYS Commodore Andrew Aitken and Stephen Barfoot (L/R) with the Barfoot & Thompson sponsor burgee and Elliott 7 yacht – RNZYS

“We’re thrilled to lend our support to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Giving back to the communities where we live and work is central to our purpose” says Peter Thompson of Barfoot & Thompson. “More than anything, we’re happy to see major events like this finally going ahead and doing our small part to help put Auckland back on the map as a global destination for sport”.

The Barfoot & Thompson Women’s Match Racing World Championships will see 14 skippers take part, including last year’s champion and World Number 1 Pauline Courtois and her Match in Pink by Normandy Elite Team.

Hosting the World Championships in Auckland also means that the 2022 New Zealand Women’s Match Racing Championship, sailed the weekend before from the 3rd to the 6th of November, will act as the final qualifier for a wildcard entry into this year’s World Championships on home soil.

“It’s quite a fortunate opportunity for the sailors in our Performance Programme and young women in our Mastercard Youth Training Programme Teams to have this event in our own waters” added Commodore Andrew Aitken. “This gives the best up and coming New Zealand women’s sailors the chance to train with and learn from the absolute best in the world”.

Match Racing is the same format of racing as used for the America’s Cup, where two teams compete against each other vis-à-vis, and for this event the locally designed and identical fleet of Elliott 7 keelboats will be used. The Barfoot & Thompson Women’s Match Racing World Championships will see the 14 teams compete a round robin, with the top 8 qualifying to the best-of-3 quarterfinals, followed by semi-finals and final.

More information on the event is available online at the RNZYS Website, and followers can watch the action unfold on Facebook and Instagram.
For media enquiries contact:

William Woodworth
RNZYS Communications Co-ordinator
bwoodworth@rnzys.org.nz

About Women’s World Match Racing Tour
The Women’s World Match Racing Tour was launched in 2022 to continue the hugely successful legacy of the WIM Series (Women’s International Match Racing Series) providing a global match racing series for female sailors. The name of the WIM Series has been changed and re-launched as the Women’s World Match Racing Tour with it’s continued mission to expand and strengthen global match racing and promote opportunities for competitive women’s sailing at every level. The Women’s World Match Racing Tour is the world’s first and only professional sailing series for women providing a valuable pathway for aspiring female world champions in the sport of sailing. womenswmrt.com