Chicago Match Racing Centre Announces Winter Series Featuring Melges 24

The Chicago Match Race Center (CMRC) is pleased to announce a new two event series of two-day match race events to be held in Key West and Miami, Florida called the 2011 CMRC Winter Series. Both events will be raced in Melges 24 class boats, with the first being the Key West Invitational to be held over 22-23 January 2011, and the second Miami Invitational to be held over 26-27 February 2011. 

“This will be our third year of match racing in Key West,” said CMRC Director Bill Hardesty, “and it has proven to be both great fun and a way to keep up our match race skills over the winter season. Since there are also many events in the Melges class in Florida in their Road to Corpus series of events to the 2011 World Championship, we decided to add Miami to the schedule as well.

“We see these match races as being valuable opportunities for both match racers and Melges teams to hone their team-building skills.”  

The ISAF Grade status is not yet determined, but the intent is to have eight teams at each event to comply with Grade 3 standards. 

The Key West Invitational immediately follows Premiere Racingʼs Key West Race Week over 17-21 January, and would likely attract teams having just competed in that important event. Likewise, the Miami Invitational fits in between the Sail22 Tune-up Regatta and the Miami Winter Regatta over 10-13 February and Bacardi Miami Sailing Week over 10-12 March, and should attract teams participating in these major class events as well. 

Teams interested in receiving an invitation to one or both events are asked to visit the CMRC website at www.chicagomatchrace.com and apply for the Request for Invitation document. Each event’s Notice of Race is also posted, and Sailing Instructions will be available for competitors prior to racing at each event. Competitors must provide their own Melges 24, along with all the sails and equipment needed for class racing, and class rules will be in effect. 

Winners in the CMRC Winter Series will receive automatic invitations to other Grade 3 events on the CMRC calendar - past winners of the Key West Invitational include Charlie Enright in 2009 and Guy Mossman in 2010. 

Official Partners of the CMRC include CME Group and the City Inns family of hotels, and NYSE LIFFE is CMRC’s official Boat Sponsor and Line Honors is the Official Clothing Supplier to CMRC. For more information about the CMRC Winter Series, visit www.chicagomatchrace.com or contact CMRC Director Bill Hardesty at bill@chicagomatchrace.com. For more information on US Melges 24 Class events, visit www.usmelges24.com. 

About CMRC: The Chicago Match Race Center was founded to promote and grow the sport &

lt;/em>of match race sailing. Besides being used in the America’s Cup, match race sailing has recently also been adapted as a Women’s discipline in the 2012 Olympic Games. As part of its mission to provide the highest-level match racing training facility for professional and amateur sailors in the US, CMRC has procured a fleet of Elliott 6M class boats, the type that will be used in the Games, and will use them to train and race teams with Olympic aspirations. Additionally, the CMRC retains a full fleet of TOM 28 class boats and all umpire and support boats needed to run international-caliber regattas.  For the complete list of events and results from the 2010 season schedule, and events for the 2011 season, please visit www.ChicagoMatchRace.com.