The final line-up has been confirmed for the Bermuda Gold Cup, a World Championship event on the World Match Racing Tour, which starts on Monday.

Hosted by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, 14 of the 16 teams were announced two months ago with some of the star names competing including three-times defending champion Taylor Canfield, World No. 1 and new US match racing champion Chris Poole and the reigning Open Match Racing World Champion Nick Egnot-Johnson.

The reigning Women’s Match Racing World Champion Pauline Courtois and the Youth Match Racing World Champion Jeffrey Peterson will also take to the start line.

There will also be Bermuda representation with Joshua Greenslade, winner of the Bermuda Match Racing National Championship, taking on some of the world’s best.

Greenslade won the Bermuda championship by defeating Kelsey Durham 3-1 in August. A past competitor in the RenaissanceRe Gold Cup 2003-2006 and the Bermuda Gold Cup in 2013, Greenslade has taken a step back from match racing of late as he runs the youth sailing programme at RBYC but is looking forward to the competitive juices flowing once more.

“We’ll get out there and see what we can do,” Greenslade said.

“Hopefully we can cause some problems for the others. You like to think there’s local knowledge in the harbour, but it’s very hit or miss. I just hope the wind’s good and not super weird either way. I hope that I can see something that no one else sees, but I can’t guarantee that.”

The championship trophy for the Bermuda Gold Cup, the King Edward VII Gold Cup, is one of the most coveted championships in match racing and dates to 1907, which makes it the oldest match racing trophy in the world for a competition involving one-design yachts.

New Zealander Russell Coutts, a five-times America’s Cup winner as a skipper or chief executive officer, is the all-time winner with seven championships between 1990 and 2004. The regatta has been run as a ladder-style tournament on the confines of Hamilton Harbour since 1985.

Besides racing amid the natural beauty of Bermuda, part of the allure of the regatta is the class of boat, the International One-Design, or IOD as it’s popularly known. Designed in 1936, the IOD is 33 feet long overall, 21 feet long on the waterline, nearly 7 feet wide and displaces more than 7,100 pounds. Far from a hydrofoiler, the IOD is a glider that carries its speed for long stretches due to its weight. It’s a throwback in today’s age of lightweight flyers.

Canfield, who won the previous Gold Cup in October 2000 when it was also the Open Match Racing World Championship, will be late arrivals in Bermuda after racing in the M32 World Championship in Newport, Rhode Island, this week.

“The plan is to fly into Bermuda on Monday morning and train in the afternoon,” Canfield said.

“We haven’t focused much on match racing so I’m not sure where we stand with the current field, but Bermuda is one of my favourite venues. We’ve always done well there and we have a great team. We’re aware of each other’s personalities and the chemistry is good.”

Anna Östling's WINGS crew returns for a second run at the Bermuda Gold Cup after winning the 2023 Women's World Match Racing Tour (Photo: Charles Anderson).

Östling (Lerum, Sweden) is skipper of one of the three female crews and eyes the starts as critical to any success her team enjoys.

“We have been focusing on faster boats in the last year so it will be great fun and a challenge to step into the IOD again,” said the 39-year-old skipper.

“Last time was the first time for most of the crew, including me, and it took some time for us to understand the boat. So, I think with that experience I'm more prepared this time.

“I remember we had to plan the strategy a lot more before starting because we didn’t want to tack as often. So we really need to be on our toes and take every chance to start ahead. In this fleet it will be difficult but if we can pull off some good starts, I'm confident my girls on board will know how to sail the boat fast around the course.”

Racing is scheduled to begin at 10am on Tuesday, October 2, and run through to Saturday, October 7. Visit the Bermuda Gold Cup and World Match Racing Tour websites for more information.