BMW ORACLE Racing has a full racing calendar in May, fielding a team at each of three back-to-back match race events on the Swedish Match Tour. The first of this year’s regattas on the internationally pre-eminent sailing circuit is the Toscana Elba Cup, 3 to 8 May in Italy, on the island of Elba. Match Race Germany follows from 11 to 16 May at Lake Constance, near Langenargen, providing the one German setting for the tour. The last highlight of the month will be the ACI HTmobile Cup, to be held from 23 to 28 May in Split, Croatia. The Tour involves a total prize purse in excess of one million Euro and a competitive field of America’s Cup skippers, Olympic sailors and world champions.

In the starting event of May’s three-regatta circuit, Gavin Brady will lead BMW ORACLE Racing’s team of five. Together with their 31-year-old New Zealand helmsman, Dirk de Ridder, Sean Clarkson, Robbie Naismith and Brad Webb will be coming straight from training in Valencia, where the crew has been testing and training with their two America’s Cup Class race boats. Brady comments: “The Elba regatta is the ideal supplement to our two-boat testing programme in Valencia. On the smaller boats, we can focus on our match racing
strategy and tactics against some of the best match racers in the world.”

BMW ORACLE Racing’s Bertrand Pace will be at the helm for the second and third stops on the May tour, Match Race Germany on Lake Constance and the ACI HTmobile Cup. In both events Brad Webb, Dirk de Ridder, Eric Doyle and Zach Hurst will be the supporting team for the 43-year-old Frenchman, who was the overall winner of the Swedish Match Tour in the year 2000. Pace says: “We are looking forward to some great racing in Germany and Croatia. Split in particular represents a major challenge — after all, that is where I will be
defending my title from last year.”

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