The Notice of Race for the 2015 ISAF Nations Cup has been released with Vladivostok, Russia set to host the Grand Final from 14-19 July 2015.

Open and Women’s match racers will compete in six Regional Finals from February to June 2015 ahead of the Grand Final with the first, Oceania, to be hosted in Brisbane, Australia from 27 February to 2 March 2015.

Winning skippers from each division in the Regional Finals will qualify for the ISAF Nations Cup Grand Final where they will be joined by defending champions Brazil (Women’s) and Australia (Open) as well as host nation Russia to battle for the 2015 ISAF Nations Cup trophies.

The Notice of Race outlines the key details of the event, including the dates and venues, equipment and format of the Regional Finals and Grand Final. Click here to view the Notice of Race.

ISAF Competitions Manager Jon Napier said, "The ISAF Nations Cup is great opportunity for match racing countries - both established and developing - to field their best skippers against one another in the test to find the best match racing nation."

Grand Final
Vladivostok, Russia - 14-19 July 2015

Regional Finals
Africa - Tunis, Tunisia - 16 - 20 March 2015
Asia - Zallaq, Bahrain - 22 - 26 April 2015
Europe I - Howth, Dublin, Ireland - 7 - 10 May 2015
North America & Caribbean - San Diego, California, USA - 28 - 31 May 2015
Oceania - Brisbane, Australia - 27 Feb - 2 March 2015
South America - Buenos Aires, Argentina - 2 - 5 April 2015

ISAF Nations Cup

The ISAF Nations Cup was first introduced to the world in 1991. Open and Women’s contests are run and it is based on a series of Regional Finals with the top crews meeting at the Grand Final. Ed Baird (USA) won the first ISAF Nation’s Cup.

The winners of each Regional Final progress to the Grand Final, where they are joined by the defending nation and the host nation.

The aim of the event is to broaden the availability of match racing and provide international match racing competition for national authorities and sailors at a reasonable cost, whilst acting as an incentive for national match racing programmes.

Many great match racers today in the Americas Cup, the World Match Racing Tour and the 2012 Olympics have come up through this event. Examples would be Mathieu Richard (FRA), Bertrand Pace (FRA), Claire Leroy (FRA), Anna Tunnicliffe (USA), Lucy Macgregor (GBR), Peter Holmberg (ISV), Eugeniy Neugodnikov (RUS), Jesper Bank (DEN), Murray Jones (NZL), Damien Iehl (FRA), Nicky Souter (AUS).

Visit the ISAF Nations Cup Microsite for more information:
www.sailing.org/events/nationscup/index.php