PORTLAND (AP) – Maine’s largest city has been chosen to host an international professional sailing event for the 2007-2008 Sailing World Cup series. State officials said no date has been scheduled yet for the World Match Racing Tour event in Portland, but it will likely span five days this fall or in spring 2008.
Tour Director Patrick Sikorski said Maine is an ideal addition to the event’s stops because of its maritime and boatbuilding heritage and its challenging waters.
Thirty-four teams compete for the championship title by accumulating points at each event. Last year’s World Cup featured stops in Croatia, Bermuda, Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Portugal, San Francisco and Switzerland.
The World Match Racing Tour, which bills itself as the world’s leading professional sailing series, is based in England. It is still setting its schedule for the season, so the Maine dates aren’t firmed up yet.
But the Maine event will take place off Portland’s East End, making for spectator-friendly sailing that pits top-ranked crews against each other in one-on-one short-course races. The tour is sanctioned by the International Sailing Federation and includes professional sailors, America’s Cup teams and Olympic gold medalists.
The nonprofit Maritime Maine, previously known as OpSail Maine Inc., hopes to make the Casco Bay race an annual event. Phineas Sprague of Maritime Maine, which helped to bring the event to Maine, said Portland’s East End is “beautifully situated for this type of event.”
Sprague estimated that the event could draw between 30,000 and 50,000 people to Portland.
Maine Economic Development Commissioner John Richardson said the World Match Racing Tour event will benefit Maine tourism, business development, boat building and marine trades.
The tour organization’s Web site says the entire race series produces 155 hours of television coverage annually that reaches more than 600 million households worldwide.
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On the Net:
World Match Racing Tour: http://www.worldmatchracingtour.com/
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