LONG BEACH, CA (29 Sept, 2025) – The Long Beach Yacht Club has posted the Notice of Race for the 61st Congressional Cup, from April 29 – May 3, 2026. The event will be preceded by the Ficker Cup Grade 2 event from April 24-26 which will award the top two finishers an invitation to The Congressional Cup. Both events will form part of the 2026 World Match Racing Tour season, the full season to be announced in the coming months.
The Notice of Race documents for each event can be found by clicking the links below. Interested skippers are encouraged to submit a request for an invitation using the forms found on the notice boards.
LINK TO CONGRESSIONAL CUP NOTICE OF RACE & REQUEST FOR INVITATION
LINK TO FICKER CUP NOTICE OF RACE & REQUEST FOR INVITATION
Founded by Long Beach Yacht Club in 1965, and a founding event of the World Match Racing Tour in 2000, the Congressional Cup is widely regarded as the ‘granddaddy’ of modern world-class match racing, and the only Grade 1 event in North America on the World Match Racing Tour. The Congressional Cup has become an iconic match racing event which every professional match racing skipper strives to win in their career, not least for the honour of being awarded the famous Crimson Blazer, akin to the The Masters Green Jacket in professional golf. Past Congressional Cup winners include, Olympic and America’s Cup sailors such as Ted Turner (USA), Dennis Conner (USA), Rod Davis (NZL), Harold Cudmore (GBR), Peter Gilmour (AUS), Chris Dickson (NZL), Terry Hutchinson (USA), Gavin Brady (NZL), Dean Barker (NZL), Francesco Bruni (ITA), Taylor Canfield (USA), Johnie Berntsson (SWE), Ian Williams (GBR), Chris Poole (USA) and Eric Monnin (SUI).
The event is also uniquely hosted by a legion of 300 volunteer members of the Long Beach Yacht Club that enjoy welcoming international teams to Long Beach each year for the three-day Ficker Cup and five-day Congressional Cup each sailed in the fleet of Catalina 37 yachts in front of Belmont Pier for spectators to enjoy the action.
A first invitation to the 2026 Congressional Cup has been issued to Christian Prendergast (USA) by virtue of his success in the 2025 US Grand Slam Series, a series of Grade 2 events in New York, Chicago and Detroit.
For more information on Congressional Cup visit www.thecongressionalcup.com; and www.wmrt.com for details on the World Match Racing Tour.
CONTACT
LBYC Race Office – Cameron MacLaren raceoffice@lbyc.org
World Match Racing Tour info@wmrt.com
ABOUT LONG BEACH YACHT CLUB
Established in 1929, Long Beach Yacht Club is recognized as a leading organization in the international yachting community for its commitment to excellence in yacht racing and innovation in race management. In addition to hosting the Congressional Cup and numerous other local, national and international yachting events, the Club’s member families enjoy a year-round calendar of social, yachting and junior activities at its beautiful clubhouse on the shore of Alamitos Bay. www.lbyc.org
ABOUT WORLD MATCH RACING TOUR
Founded in 2000, the World MatchRacing Tour (WMRT) promotes the sport of match racing around the world and is the longest running global professional series in the sport of sailing. TheWMRT is awarded ‘Special Event’ status by the sport’s world governing body –World Sailing – and the winner of the WMRT each year is crowned World Sailing Match Racing World Champion. Since 2000, the World Match Racing Tour and its events have awarded over USD24million in prize money to sailors which has helped to contribute to the career pathway of many of today’s professional sailors. www.wmrt.com