Defending champion leads elite field for 60th Congressional Cup

The prestigious Long Beach Yacht Club Congressional Cup, this year celebrating its milestone 60th Anniversary, today confirmed the line-up of ten skippers from seven countries to compete at the anniversary event from 30 April-4 May. Defending champion USA’s Chris Poole and his Riptide Racing team have their sights firmly set on a third consecutive win of the event against strong competition from past winner Johnie Berntsson from Sweden (Berntsson Sailing Team), and  Switzerland’s Eric Monnin (Capvis Swiss Match Racing Team) keen to secure his first Congressional Cup win.  

The pressure is on at this year’s 60th Anniversary Long Beach Yacht Club Congressional Cup for defending champion USA’s Chris Poole to clinch a ‘three-peat’ win of the famous match racing regatta, founded in 1965 and known as the ‘Grandfather of match racing’.  Past winners and recipients of the famous Crimson Blazer read like a who’s who of the international sailing world including Ted Turner (USA), Dennis Conner (USA), Rod Davis (NZL), Harold Cudmore (GBR), Peter Gilmour (AUS), Chris Dickson (NZL), Terry Hutchinson (USA), GavinBrady (NZL), Dean Barker (NZL), Francesco Bruni (ITA), Taylor Canfield (USA), Johnie Berntsson (SWE), and Ian Williams (GBR).

"Our team is looking forward to returning to Long Beach for the 60th Congressional Cup,” said Poole. “We have a chance to go for a 3-peat which is an incredible opportunity at one of the toughest match racing events in the world. But we are mainly focused on our team philosophy of putting together a good team. As our late coach Dougie Pye would say just "Just keep on doing what you know how to do" so with that in mind it's just one event at a time, one day at a time, one race at a time."

Joining the 2025 Congressional Cup roster is Italy’s Rocco Attili (RBYS Racing), Australia’s Cole Tapper (CYCA) and match racing veteran Sweden’s Bjorn Hansen (Hansen Sailing Team). Also sailing his first Congressional Cup is France’s Ian Garreta (Team Garreta) who finished fourth at the 2024 WMRT Final in Shenzhen in December.  The Long Beach Yacht Club will be represented by Dave Hood (DH3 Racing).

The last two places will be awarded to the top two finishers from the 2025 Ficker Cup to be hosted over the weekend of 25-27 April. The Ficker Cup is also an official stage of the World Match Racing Tour and awards points to the WMRT leaderboard. Eight teams will compete for this year’s Ficker Cup including French skippers Aurelién Pierroz and Maxime Mesnil, Australia’s Zac West, Peter Wickwire from Canada, and USA’s Pearson Potts, Nicole Breault and Ryan Seago.

“I am very proud to announce the list of skippers for the 60th Long Beach Yacht Club Congressional Cup” added 2025 Event Chair Stephen Meyer. “We have an incredibly strong list of teams for this year’s event, half of them within the top 10 world rankings and including a mix of young and experienced match racing sailors which promises to deliver some fierce battles.”

A notable absence to this year’s event is five-time Congressional Cup winner and current defending match racing world champion Ian Williams from Great Britain.

“It is a great shame my team and I are unable to make it to Long Beach this year,” commented Williams. “The Congressional Cup is one of our favourite events and venues on the tour and we are very sorry to be missing the 60th Anniversary of the event, I hope we can be back next year!”
 
Racing for the Ficker Cup and Congressional Cup will take place in the Long Beach Yacht Club’s identical fleet of Catalina 37’s with symmetrical spinnakers. Teams will consist of either six or seven crew providing they are within the maximum team weight limit of 525kg (1157.4 lbs).  

Racing will also take place right in front of the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier where spectators can gain free access to watch the thrilling racing close up with live commentary. The event will be televised live from Friday, 2 May and broadcast via YouTube and social media channels.