Aspen renews title sponsorship of Bermuda Championship Women's Match Race
by WMRT 21 Jun 00:03 NZST
21-26 October 2025
Skipper Lea Vogelius (DEN) competing at the 2024 Aspen Bermuda Women's Match Racing Regatta © Ian Roman / WMRT
The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and World Match Racing Tour has announced the return of leading speciality insurer and re-insurer ASPEN as title sponsor of the 2025 Bermuda Women's Match Racing Regatta to be held from 21-26 October.
Introduced in 2024, the women's event will once again be the final stage of the Women's World Match Racing Tour, the world's only all-female global series in sailing. Furthering Aspen's support of women in sailing, the 2025 Bermuda women's match race will also offer an increased prize purse of USD 50,000.
The Aspen Bermuda Women's Match Racing Regatta will again run parallel to the iconic Bermuda Gold Cup (for the King Edward VII Trophy), a founding event of the World Match Racing Tour. 2025 marks the 73rd year of the Bermuda Gold Cup, previous winners including six-time Gold Cup champion Russell Coutts (NZL), Sir Ben Ainslie (GBR), Peter Gilmour (AUS), Rod Davis (NZL), James Spithill (AUS), Ian Williams (GBR) and Taylor Canfield (USA).
"Aspen is proud to continue to support the Aspen Bermuda Women's Match Racing Regatta" said Mark Cloutier, Executive Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer of Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd. "This regatta not only showcases the incredible talent and determination of women sailors but also demonstrates the power of teamwork and collaboration; values we hold dear at Aspen. We are honoured to be a part of it."
The Aspen women's match race will again attract eight of the very best women's match racing teams to Bermuda including defending event champion and current Women's World Match Racing Tour champion Pauline Courtois with her Match in Pink Normandy Elite Team from France. Sweden's Anna Östling and her Team WINGS will also be back in Bermuda with their sights firmly set on the Aspen Trophy after finishing second to Courtois last year.
For the Bermuda Gold Cup line-up, three-time Gold Cup winner Johnie Berntsson and his Berntsson Sailing Team from Sweden are expected to return to defend their title, as well as current seven-time match racing world champion and two-time Gold Cup winner (2006, 2019) Ian Williams from Great Britain. Williams was unable to attend the Bermuda event last year due to commitments with Team INEOS at the 37th America's Cup in Barcelona.
Current #1 ranked match racer (World Sailing rankings 1 June) Chris Poole from the USA is also expected to join the line-up of eight teams for this year's Bermuda Gold Cup. Although Poole and his Riptide Racing team have yet to win the Bermuda Gold Cup, the team finished the 2024 World Match Racing Tour as overall points champions, starting the 2025 season with a solid third place finish at the Macao Match Cup in January, and second at the Long Beach Congressional Cup in April.
The Bermuda Gold Cup and Aspen Women's Match Race are both run by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. established in 1844. The King Edward VII Gold Cup is the oldest match racing trophy in the world for competition involving one-design yachts. The Gold Cup was first given in 1907 by King Edward VII at the Tri-Centary Regatta at Jamestown, Virginia in commemoration of the 300th Anniversary of the first permanent colony in America.
"We are very proud of our long history of running world class events in Bermuda" added Bermuda Gold Cup Event Chair and past RBYC Commodore Jon Corless. "The Bermuda Gold Cup has long been our flagship event and, after its inaugural year last year, we are delighted to continue as host of the Aspen Bermuda Women's Match Racing Regatta as this year's final stage of the Women's World Match Racing Tour."
The Notice of Race documents for the 2025 Bermuda Gold Cup and Aspen Bermuda Women's Match Racing Regatta have been published and invited skippers/teams will be announced in the coming weeks.