World Match Racing Tour. ALPARI

London, UK (May 22, 2013): The GKSS Spring Cup will be sailed this weekend in Gothenburg and the event serves as a qualifier for Stena Match Cup Sweden, the third stage of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour. Both the best international team and the best Swedish team will win an entry ticket to the World Tour event, and the line-up in the regatta features both top ranked skippers and young Swedish talents hoping to make it to the international stage. Ten teams have been invited to the GKSS Spring Cup, four Swedish and six international. One the top ranked skippers in the race is Reuben Corbett (NZL) who won the event last year, qualified for Stena Match Cup 2013 where his team made it to the quarterfinals.

Langenargen, Germany (20th May 2013): Lake Constance left it right until the last moment to get uncooperative at Match Race Germany. An ominous-looking rain cloud was on its way across the third largest lake in Europe from Switzerland, sucking all the wind out of the vicinity and causing PRO Rudi Magg to draw proceedings to a close. This handed victory at Match Race Germany to British helm Ian Williams and his American/Australian crew of Mal Parker and Bill Hardesty, supplemented on this occasion by stand-ins Graham Spence and Willem Van Waay. Williams’ GAC Pindar crew won today’s single Finals match against Adam Minoprio and his all-Kiwi Team Alpari FX crew of Nick Blackman, Chris Main, Tom Powrie and David Swete; reigning Alpari World Match Racing Tour champion (Williams), up against the 2009 champion (Minoprio).

Langenargen, Germany (20th May 2013): Lake Constance left it right until the last moment to get uncooperative at Match Race Germany. An ominous-looking rain cloud was on its way across the third largest lake in Europe from Switzerland, sucking all the wind out of the vicinity and causing PRO Rudi Magg to draw proceedings to a close. This handed victory at Match Race Germany to British helm Ian Williams and his American/Australian crew of Mal Parker and Bill Hardesty, supplemented on this occasion by stand-ins Graham Spence and Willem Van Waay. Williams’ GAC Pindar crew won today’s single Finals match against Adam Minoprio and his all-Kiwi Team Alpari FX crew of Nick Blackman, Chris Main, Tom Powrie and David Swete; reigning Alpari World Match Racing Tour champion (Williams), up against the 2009 champion (Minoprio).

Day of two halves Langenargen, Germany (19 May 2013): Light winds, strong winds, shifty winds, stable winds, rain, shine – Lake Constance is throwing up all imaginable conditions to test the skippers at Match Race Germany, the opening event of the 2013 Alpari World Match Racing Tour. Today it was the turn of 25 knot winds, sharp seas and driving rain in the morning only for these to peter out leading to a long delay before the Semi Finals could start. The Quarter Finals comprised three first-to-three point matches, which got underway late yesterday afternoon. Today started with Karol Jablonski level at 1-1 against Mathieu Richard’s GEFCO Match Racing Team, Adam Minoprio’s Team Alpari FX on the same score with Bjorn Hansen’s Mekonomen Sailing Team and Johnie Berntsson’s Stena Sailing Team looking strong 2-0 up against Taylor Canfield and USone.

Join Alpari UK at the London Investor Show FOREX. This is your chance to meet our title sponsor’s in-house team of market analysts and attend their workshop and seminars. You can also ask the global forex broker’s team all your questions about online forex trading. Get more with Alpari If you’re already an Alpari UK client, you can claim your event package worth GBP150! Clients should look out for an email from Alpari containing the voucher registration code. The event package includes: Free access to all areas of the London Investor Show FOREX Free workshops, seminars and events on the Alpari Showcase Theatre Free access to the lunchtime summit Free one-on-one platform demonstrations at the Alpari stand Free educational material and giveaways If you’d like to take advantage of this offer and you’re not yet a client, you can open a risk-free Demo account with Alpari UK now to get your event package. To proceed without the event package, register to attend the show here. Experience the Alpari Newsroom live Alpari is always looking for new ways to support traders and the Alpari Newsroom, a dedicated news portal designed by traders for traders, is one of their latest innovations. Get inside the Alpari Newsroom at the show and find out how you can make better-informed trading decisions with free daily news and market analysis. Visit Alpari’s London Investor Show FOREX page for more information on what you can get out of the show and how to sign up for a risk-free live trading contest. Forex, spread bets and CFDs are high risk and losses can exceed deposits.

London, 5 February 2013 – Today leading global forex broker Alpari, title sponsor of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour, announced a historic partnership with the iconic east London football club West Ham United. The agreement will see the association of Alpari companies worldwide become the club’s new Principal Sponsor – including the Alpari logo on the front of the famous claret and blue shirt – from the start of the 2013/14 season. Alpari and West Ham United marked the signing of the new partnership with a live event on the Alpari trading floor. Sam Allardyce, Kevin Nolan, Matt Jarvis and Joe Cole competed against each other in a currency trading contest that brought the worlds of football and online trading together.

London, UK - 14 May 2012: Several rule changes have been confirmed for the 2012 Alpari World Match Racing Tour, coming into effect at the first event of the season, Match Race Germany in Langenargen on May 23 – 28. The Racing Rules have been amended in order to continue the positioning of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour (AWMRT) as the most compelling, competitive and pioneering action on the water. Craig Mitchell, Alpari World Match Racing Tour, Tour Director, expects the alterations to have a positive effect on the Tour, as well as match racing in general: “Match racing has evolved to the point where we currently have a great set of rules, producing some fantastic sporting action, as we saw quite clearly in the 2011 series. “Nothing major has changed in the past few years and we are enthusiastic in our responsibility to keep developing the rules to challenge our world class athletes and create the best possible spectacle we can.”

Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia – 27 November, 2011: Borrowing from the motor sports world, where the driver is in constant contact with his crew via radio comms, real-time coaching has made its debut today in the Quarter-Finals of the Monsoon Cup. Rule 41 of the Racing Rules of Sailing which normally prohibits ‘outside assistance’ has been amended here, so that coaches have been allowed to give advice and insight to their team via radio. Positioned on the third-floor balcony of the Ri-Yaz Heritage pavilion adjacent to the race course area, the coaches have an elevated view of the current and the wind, and can provide, when prompted, their insight on which side of the course to favour in each match.  Having been out on the water themselves and felt the pressure of having to read the course while under fire, the natural choices of coaches were from among skippers and crew who did not make the cut to the Quarter-Final round. When these choices were revealed on the evening prior to racing, it provided great entertainment, as erstwhile enemies now became allies in the fight that lie ahead: having just won his last deciding match by mere centimetres, Francesco Bruni naturally chose his hapless opponent, Torvar Mirsky, to be his coach, and Matthieu Richard was tapped by rival skipper Peter Gilmour YANMAR Racing to help lead him through his next round.  Kidding aside, this shows the depth of respect and trust the teams have in each other’s abilities, even as they have been battling each other throughout the season.  “The concept of prohibiting outside assistance goes back to racing on the Thames in the 19th century,” says Gilmour, who proposed to try this at the Monsoon Cup. “Back then when the tide changed, a boat could hand off their anchor line to someone ashore, who could then tow them up the course. So the principal of being self-reliant became rooted in the game, and not until recently has this changed.”  And the change has been considerable: few yachts venture anywhere now without a GPS, most offshore races now allow weather routing help through downloads of grib files, and the advent of sophisticated electronic tools and modern telecommunications has brought offshore sailors to all new levels of accuracy and access. Most aspects of our lives can now be influenced and enhanced by having access to information made readily available – look at the explosion in apps for iPhones, iPads, and the like.  So it’s not a long stretch to accept real-time coaching help to increase the performance level of the teams, and help allow the game evolve in some new and interesting ways, especially if adopted at other match racing events. Coach positioning, for example, can play a huge role, and not every venue will have the bird’s eye view afforded here in Kuala Terengganu. Will coaches then be allowed.  out on other areas of the course, on the water or even in the air? And what about at the lower levels of the game where teams are still learning: would it be right for the coach to tell them how to execute a difficult manoeuvre and provide detailed tactical advice, rather then just observations of the race course? If so, who will police this?  And once coaches are accepted onto the competitor’s boats, what’s to keep them off the umpire boats as well? Most umpires agree that the integrity of most calls are made based on good positioning, and even the best umpires can find themselves out of position when a good call is needed. Can a coach possibly help them as well? An electronic variant of this concept devised by Stan Honey and his team is already in play at the America’s Cup World Series, where umpire calls are made based on highly-accurate telemetry brought to match umpires pouring over their screens. Honey says the debriefs are no longer arguments about the facts of positioning – the telemetry settles this to within centimetres – but about the tactical options and rules that apply.  But here at the Monsoon Cup the input provided by coaches was more factual than directive: where the wind shift was seen to be, what side of the course seemed to have better current, etc., and not direct advice on what side of the start line or upwind leg to favour.  One team that enjoyed the most success from the coaching was newly-crowned World Champion Ian Williams Team GAC Pindar, who had already signed up 49er Olympic Silver Medallist Ian Barker to help them read the course area. And while not a match racer per se, Barker does, however, have tremendous coaching experience for Olympic aspirants, and was already on his way to coach at the ISAF Sailing World Championships the following week in Perth. With Barker’s help, Williams won the overall World Championship title in the Quarter Final, sailing a course area strewn with tricky current eddies and wind shifts.  Perhaps ironically, the teams with skippers as coaches did not fair so well: Mirsky’s Bruni went down 1-3 to Williams, and Richard’s Gilmour lost 1-3 to Johnnie Berntsson.  But not having a coach had its perils as well: both Will Tiller and Phil Robertson eschewed their option to take on a coach, and both lost to their rivals by close scores of 2-3.  How much will coaching be used in future Tour events? Probably more, as the Tour seeks to embrace new ways to enhance the excitement level even more, both on and off the water. - Article provided by Dobbs Davis

Langenargen, Germany (19 May 2013): Match racing veteran Bjorn Hansen ended Qualifying in fourth place on 7.5 points. The 0.5 came about after his Mekonomen Sailing Team was docked a half point when it was ruled to have been at fault in a pre-start collision with Adam Minoprio’s Team Alpari FX on Friday. The Stockholm-based Swede reckons this is around his seventh time at Match Race Germany, although he has yet to get to the podium at this event. Why he has yet to crack the annual German round of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour on Lake Constance perplexes Hansen: “We like these conditions normally, but there is something strange here. After last year my usual bowman said ‘never again’, so we have a new bowman here.”

Langenargen, Germany (18 May 2013): Germany’s greatest sailor was in Langenargen yesterday as an ambassador for adidas – the sportswear giant is premiering its first performance sailing collection at Match Race Germany. Originally from East Germany Jochen Schümann won gold in the Finn heavyweight men’s singlehander at the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976. His longest tenure though was in the Soling when he secured a further three Olympic medals: two golds and one silver. His final two - gold in Savannah in 1996 and silver four years later in Sydney - came after match racing was introduced to the latter half of the Soling event at the Games. Schümann spent most of the 2000s as Sports Director for Ernesto Bertarelli’s Swiss America’s Cup campaign, winning in 2003 in New Zealand and then successfully defending the 32nd America’s Cup in Valencia in 2007. It was after the 2003 event that Schümann campaigned the World Match Racing Tour with an Alinghi team, to help hone the Swiss sailing team’s skills in the build up to the Acts that preceded the 32nd AC. It was around this time that Schümann reckons he last competed at Match Race Germany. “I didn’t win it,” the tall, fit, 58-year-old match racing legend admits, racking his brain. “It is a difficult venue with very little breeze normally. But I really appreciate the big efforts of the Magg family and the Match Race Centre to keep up a top international event here on Lake Constance - that is very good,” he adds, referring to Rudi and son Eberhard Magg, who run the Match Centre Germany in Langenargen and who founded Match Race Germany 16 years ago. “The city is supporting it very well too. It is good to have one of these events in Germany.” The Alpari World Match Racing Tour has certainly changed in the decade since Schümann last competed in it. All the skippers seem to have got younger for example.  In all seriousness, there are certainly more skippers in their 20s than there were in his day. Schümann observes that the whole landscape for match racing has changed over this period. “There is no match racing in the Olympics and there’s no match racing really in the America’s Cup anymore,” he says. So today the Alpari World Match Racing Tour represents the pinnacle of what is sailing’s most aggressively competitive parts. “Still the best match racers are here and match racing is a great discipline in sailing,” Schumann says. “I think it is very helpful as a training tool for every racing sailor because all the details, all the action - sailing the boat fast, making the right manoeuvres, getting a good start, etc - are compressed into a short time under the permanent influence of a strong opponent. “Match racing is a great sport with a lot of emotions – and even controlling the emotions are important I think: you have to respect the umpires and the tricky moves of your opponent. And it is really good fun.”

London, UK (May 22, 2013): The GKSS Spring Cup will be sailed this weekend in Gothenburg and the event serves as a qualifier for Stena Match Cup Sweden, the third stage of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour. Both the best international team and the best Swedish team will win an entry ticket to the World Tour event, and the line-up in the regatta features both top ranked skippers and young Swedish talents hoping to make it to the international stage. Ten teams have been invited to the GKSS Spring Cup, four Swedish and six international. One the top ranked skippers in the race is Reuben Corbett (NZL) who won the event last year, qualified for Stena Match Cup 2013 where his team made it to the quarterfinals.

London, UK (May 7, 2013): The 2013 Korea Match Cup Qualifying event was held in the waters of Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Jebudo from April 25-28. Australian David Gilmour, AUS Team Gilmour took victory in the finals 2-0 against Jeremy Koo, MAS Koo Racing Team and with it booked a place in the Korea Match Cup which will take place May 29 – June 2. It will be Gilmour’s second Tour event following his appearance at the Monsoon Cup last year where he got through to the Quarterfinal round before being knocked out by his father Peter Gilmour. The Australian team, led by skipper David Gilmour never lost a match during the four days of Qualifying and knockout rounds. The Korean team led by skipper Gunwoo Park, KOR Busan Match Team overcame his fellow national Byeongki Park, KOR Team Goeje City in the Petit Final 2-0 to take the other Qualification place. Throughout the competition Team Gilmour focused on improving their teamwork but also worked on enjoying the game itself, resulting in a win – win situation. The hard work and training seemed to pay off and having now been to the Qualifying event Gilmour feels more confident about being able to put in a good result at the end of May. The Gyeonggi-Do Maritime Festival, which will be held concurrently with the 2013 Korea Match Cup offers visitors a spectacular maritime experience with a variety of on-water activities including power boat rides, dinghy sailing, water bumper cars, water bicycle, pedal boats, mud walking along with many on-shore attractions and musical performances. This will be the 6th Korea Match Cup as part of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour and is one of Asia's leading maritime sports competitions. “The Korea Match Cup is a global player in the world of sailing competitions. With the event scheduled for the end of May beginning of June we’re looking forward to seeing a lot of visitors during the week to experience the cut and thrust of top level match racing as well as the great atmosphere and activities of the maritime festival.” said Korea Match Cup CEO Dong Young Kim. For more information on the Korea Match Cup - http://www.koreamatchcup.com/