(From the ISAF web site: www.sailing.org)

Twenty of the world’s top match race skippers have arrived in Porto Alegre, Brazil to represent their country at the Grand Final of the 2009 ISAF Nations Cup.

The Grand Final is the culmination of a global competition to find the world’s top match-racing nation and develop match-racing infrastructure around the world. Brazil hosts the fifth edition of the Grand Final, with France defending the title in the two divisions, for open and women crews.

Throughout the course of 2008, eight Regional Finals were held across Asia, Europe, Oceania and both North and South America, with the top teams qualifying for this year’s Grand Final at the Veleiros do Sul sailing club in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Ten nations will be represented the open and nine in the women’s divisions, with racing held in the J/24 keelboats with a crew of four.

The competing nations and skippers are:

Open Entries (Nation - Skipper - ISAF World Match Race Ranking)

Host Nation, Brazil - Henrique Haddad - 80
Defending Nation, France - Damien Iehl - 7

Denmark - Mads Ebler - 11
Spain - Manuel Weiller Vidal - 23
Portugal - Alvaro Marinho - 30
India - Mahesh Ramchandran - 35
Finland - Jon Eriksson - 36
USA - Dave Perry - 37
Argentina - Juan Figueroa - 52
New Zealand - Adrian Short - 67

Women’s Entries
(Nation - Skipper - ISAF World Match Race Ranking)

Host Nation, Brazil - Juliana Senfft - 58
Defending Nation, France - Claire Leroy -1

Great Britain - Lucy MacGregor -3
Denmark - Lotte Meldgaard Pedersen -4
Australia - Nicky Souter -10
Italy - Giulia Conti -36
Portugal - Rita Goncalves -18
USA - Anna Tunnicliffe -37
Argentina - Cecilia Ruiz Barlett -235

India - entry withdrawn

Racing for the ISAF Nations Cup will begin with the start of the round robin Tuesday. All skippers in each division will compete against one another during the round robin, with the top three qualifying for the semi-finals. Skippers finishing in fourth to seventh will move forward to the repechage, where they will sail a second, smaller round-robin series to determine the fourth and final qualifier for the semi-finals.

The semi-finals and final revert to a simple knockout formula, with the first skippers to score three points declared the winner.

The round robin and repechage stages are scheduled for the first four days of racing (24-27 March), with the semi-final and finals to take place on Saturday 28 March.

www.sailing.org/nationscup