The 2025 World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) is in full swing, and the recent Porto Montenegro Match Race has set a high bar for the season. Held 9–11 March at the picturesque Porto Montenegro Yacht Club, this event marked Stage 4 of the tour and showcased some of the most intense and tactical match racing we’ve seen so far this year.
Estonia’s Mati Sepp set the early pace with five straight wins on Day 1, closely followed by Frenchmen Tom Picot and Martin Allix, and Great Britain’s Christian Hamilton, all sitting just one win behind. Conditions on Day 2 turned on the action even more, with 15–18 knot breezes and 27 matches sailed. Sepp remained on top of the leaderboard with a 94% win rate, while Vladimir Lipavskiy of Israel pushed into second, and Hamilton and Allix rounded out the top four heading into the final day.
Despite Sepp’s early dominance, it was Christian Hamilton and his Team Magnum crew—Mark Lees, Jon Gundersen, and Trystan Seal, coached by James Gray—who stole the show. Racing in lighter winds on Sunday, Hamilton kept his cool to sweep the finals 3-0 over Martin Allix’s Sail in Blue team. It was a commanding win that firmly established Team Magnum as serious contenders for the 2025 tour crown.
Final placings saw Lipavskiy take the bronze, Sepp finish fourth, and the rest of the fleet—including Ireland’s Ruairi Finnegan—rounded out below. While Finnegan placed seventh, he’s already looking ahead to his next challenge and playing a much bigger role in the story of this year’s tour.
The next WMRT event is already underway: the GKSS Spring Cup in Långedrag, Sweden (17–18 May). Ten teams are battling it out, including Swedish match racing stalwart Johnie Berntsson, France’s Timothée Rossi and Martin Allix, and Ireland’s Ruairi Finnegan—making a quick return to the water after Porto Montenegro. With home-grown Swedish talent like Oscar Engström and Anna Östling in the mix, this weekend promises another tightly contested round.
Looking further ahead, the NJK Open Spring Cup in Helsinki, Finland (22–25 May) is next on the calendar. But the big news this week comes from Ireland.
In a landmark announcement on 16 May, the World Match Racing Tour revealed it will be heading to Irish waters for the first time in its history. The inaugural Dublin Match Cup, scheduled for 25–28 September, will be held at the National Yacht Club in Dún Laoghaire and hosted by the Irish Match Racing Association (IMRA). It will be a Tier 2 world tour event and is expected to attract twelve top-tier teams racing in a matched fleet of J/80s.
Spearheaded by IMRA co-founder Ruairi Finnegan, the Dublin Match Cup signals Ireland’s rising profile on the global sailing stage. The IMRA, established in 2024, has quickly built momentum with six events planned this year, and a strong local appetite for competitive match racing. Finnegan says the event will offer Irish sailors a vital opportunity to test themselves against the world’s best, with broader benefits for keelboat racing in the region.
The event also boasts strong support from Sport Ireland, with a shore-side festival planned to match the on-water action. As WMRT Executive Director James Pleasance noted, “This new event will grow in the years to come and encourage new teams to get involved in match racing and the tour.”
With the tour expanding, competition heating up, and new host nations joining the circuit, the 2025 World Match Racing Tour is shaping up to be one of the most dynamic and international seasons yet.
