DÚN LAOGHAIRE, DUBLIN (28 September 2026) France’s Tom Foucher won the 2026 Dublin Match Cup at the National Yacht Club in Dublin, Ireland, finishing with a near-perfect record. The race committee and competitors agreed to sail the entire knockout stage in one day to stay ahead of a severe forecast for Sunday.
With Sunday’s forecast ranging from 15 knots to gusts above 37, the decision was taken at 0900 on Saturday morning to run the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals back to back. The first start went at 10:20. The fleet raced in 8 to 18 knots on Dublin Bay. The wind direction held steady, but the day swung between intense, pressured racing and lighter, softer phases that tested every team.
Foucher was the standout sailor of the week. He won the Group B round robin stage with a perfect 6-0 round robin, defeating compatriot Victorien Eon 2-0 in the quarter-finals, and edged fellow Frenchman Timothée Rossi 2-1 in the semi-finals. That was his only loss of the regatta. He then took the final 3-0 to finish with an overall 13-1 record.
The home story belonged to Ruairi Finnegan, who organised the event and also raced in it. Finnegan finished third in Group B on 3-3, then beat Finland’s Jon Eriksson 2-0 in the quarter-finals and whitewashed Lennard Bal of the Netherlands 3-0 in the semi-finals. Second place is Finnegan’s best result on the World Match Race Tour so far, and it came on home water at an event he helped create as an official stage of the world tour.
In the petit final, Rossi beat Bal 2-0 to take third place.
Final results
- Tom Foucher (FRA)
- Ruairi Finnegan (IRL)
- Timothée Rossi (FRA)
- Lennard Bal (NED)
- Victorien Eon (FRA)
- Martin Allix (FRA)
- Jon Eriksson (FIN)
- Patryk Zbroja (POL)
About the Dublin Match Cup
The Dublin Match Cup is the only World Match Race Tour event held in Ireland. It is hosted by the National Yacht Club in Dún Laoghaire and organised with the Irish Match Racing Association, with support from Sport Ireland. The 2026 edition was the event’s second. It was a World Sailing Grade 2 event, with 14 teams from eight nations racing in J/80 keelboats from 24 to 27 September.
ABOUT WORLD MATCH RACING TOUR
Founded in 2000, the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) is the longest-running global professional series in the sport of sailing, featuring world-class sailors including America’s Cup and Olympic champions. The WMRT is exclusively sanctioned with ‘Special Event Status’ by World Sailing, the sport’s world governing body, and the winner of the WMRT each year is crowned World Sailing Match Racing World Champion. Long regarded as a pathway to the America’s Cup, the Tour provides sailors the opportunity to hone their match racing skills and teamwork at the highest level. Since 2000, WMRT and its events have awarded over USD $24 million in prize money to sailors worldwide. www.wmrt.com