January 19, 2010, Simpson Bay– St. Maarten – With all eight entries now confirmed, this year’s Budget MarineMatch Racing Cup at the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta is set to establish itselffirmly on the ladder as one of key match racing events in the Caribbean.

As well as entries received fromPeter Isler, Gavin Brady, and Peter Holmberg – three of the world’s mostrespected match racing skippers – there’s some other interesting names inmelting pot who’ll be racing for cash prizes totalling $10,000 at this ISAF-sanctionedGrade 5 event,including Colin Rathbun, Eugeniy Nikiforov, Jakub Pawluk, Chris Nesbitt and MarcFitzgerald.

 The racing, to be held on Tuesday 2 March during the run-up to St.Maarten Heineken Regatta, will be based on a round-robin format and sailed in Lagoon Sailboat Rental’s fleet of six Jeanneau SunFast 20s, without spinnakers. The one-dayformat of this event, and the fact that there are just six boats for eightteams, means racing will be exceptionally action-packed with crews swappingboats after every flight to ensure racing is kept as fair as possible.

With a silver medal from the 1988 Games, and a win forAlinghi at the 32^nd America’s Cup in 2007, listed among hisexceptional sailing achievements, it wasn’t particularly surprising to seePeter Holmberg clean up at last year’s inaugural Budget Marine Match RacingCup. The good news is, he enjoyed it so much; he’ll be back to defend his title this year.

Holmberg who is no stranger to island life, having been brought up on the US VirginIsland, is always an avid supporter of Caribbean regattas and says as well as competingin the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in New Zealand in January last year, hemade sure he did most of the big events in the Caribbean. “The Heineken is thebig opener to the Caribbean season so I'mlooking forward to racing against all the hot boats coming this year.”

Sailing with team mates Ben Beer on jib, and Maurice Kurg on mainsheet,Holmberg says the match racing is a great lead-in to the Heineken Regatta,commenting: “Match racing puts a premium on all aspects of racing, from crewwork, to speed, to rules, so it's a great way to get me and my team in racingshape just before the big regatta.”

Joining Holmberg at the event this year is the equallytalented match racing pro Peter Isler. Isler who is two-time winner of the America’s Cup and has a total of five America’s Cupcampaigns under his belt including the position of Oracle’s navigator in 2007at the 32^nd edition of the Cup, says he’s really looking forward to gettingback on the helm as a match racing skipper. Isler was a really active andsuccessful skipper on the pro match racing tour in the late 80s and early 90sand sees the Budget Marine match racing event as a chance to get back on thehelm and have some fun. He commented: “It’s been so long since I steered anysort of regatta, my expectations are certainly tempered... but it will be a lotof fun… and that's why we are coming!” 

Isler will be racing with a couple of his teammates from Titan 15 – Artie Means from San Diego, and CT Olander from Newport, Rhode Island.He says when he saw publicity about the match race, he thought it would be afun start to Heineken Regatta. “Because it’s only one day, I can afford the time– we start practice on Titan the day after the match race.”

With Gavin Brady, another highly talented match racing helmsman, and multiple America’s Cupcampaigner, joining the line up at the Budget Marine Match Racing event,there’ll be no shortage of top ranked competition on Simpson Bay Lagoon inMarch. Brady enthusing about the event, said: “This will be the first matchrace event I will sail in 2010, and with good teams and great winds I am reallylooking forward to the racing.”

Colin Rathbun from the BVIs is another Caribbean race week regular and although he isknown more on the fleet racing circuit sailing his IC24, he won the 2009 PeteShiels Match Race, and notched up a creditable fourth place overall at the 2009Carlos Aguilar Match Racing Regatta in St Thomas. ‘Our claim to fame at thatevent,” said Rathbun, “is to have beaten US match racing pro Dave Perry. Webarely slid through in front of him, but it’s not every day an amateur sailorcan say that.”

Russian sailor Eugeniy Nikiforov who’s currently ranked 45^th the ISAFMatch Racing placings, will be back for the second year running and hoping toimprove on last year’s third overall, while Marc Fitzgerald from the Britishyacht Sojana hopes to at least match the second place he achieved last year.Jakub Pawluk from Polandwill make his debut at this event, while Chris Nesbitt and his team of Brian Janney and IsaoToyama who’ve been match racing together for a year hope to turn a few heads asthey pit themselves against the professionals. Nesbitt confessed he is verymuch looking forward to sailing against Peter Isler. "It’s not often thatwe get to sail against America’sCup veterans and it should be a great learning experience for a new team like ours."