Chicago, IL – Each of the two teams readying to compete in next week’s 2010 International Championship Match Race Series for the Canada’s Cup are both well-armed with talent to engage in three days of match race combat: the crew lists for Grant Hood’s challenging Vincere team from Canada’s Port Credit YC and for Don Wilson’s Team Chicago Match Race Center racing on Convexity bristle with America’s Cup, Olympic, and World Championship talent.

Talent at this caliber is suitable for the Canada’s Cup, a symbol of sailing supremacy on the Great Lakes since its inception by the Royal Canadian YC in 1896 as a challenge trophy between representative yachts clubs of the US and Canada. Competition will be in each team’s Farr 40 class yachts, and will be held over October 15-17th at the Chicago Match Race Center (CMRC). Windward-leeward 4-leg courses will be set off Chicago’s Belmont Harbor, matches will be from 60 to 75 minutes in target length, and no races can be sailed in sustained winds exceeding 22 knots. The club represented by the team who is first to win five matches (weather permitting) will win the Canada’s Cup.Sailing Instructions outlining details of the racing format and crew lists for the event will be posted at CMRC’s website,
www.chicagomatchrace.com <http://www.chicagomatchrace.com> .

Team Chicago Match Race Center skipper Wilson, as Founder of CMRC, has a passionate interest in match race sailing and has been pursuing this interest with gusto, having competed in over a dozen international match race events in Chicago and beyond over the past two years. Currently ranked 73rd in the World Open match race Rankings, his recent victories include last month’s ISAF Grade 3 CMRC Autumn Open B regatta, the Grade 3 CMRC Spring Invitational in May, and last year’s inaugural Grade 3 event at CMRC in June. Like Hood, Wilson has assembled a team of high-level talent, including the following: Brent Ruhne at the Bow, backed by Mory Matias at the Mast; Payson Infelise is in the Pit, with Caroline Young as Floater; Zach Hurst will be Jib Trimmer, assisted by Michael Bradley as Tailer and Jennifer Wilson as offside Trimmer; Mal Parker will be trimming Main, and 1999 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year winner and BMW Oracle America’s Cup team member Eric Doyle will be calling tactics.