K. Terengganu, Malaysia (November 25, 2013) – Taylor Canfield comes into this year’s Monsoon Cup as one of the hot favourites. The US Virgin Islander has come a long way in the past 12 months since last year’s event in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. Canfield and his USone crew qualified for the 2012 Monsoon Cup through a Wild Card entry and came away winners. This year he returns not only to defend the Monsoon Cup but to see if he can become World Champion for the first time.
The Monsoon Cup is the sixth and final regatta in the Alpari World Match Race Tour, and there are six teams still with a chance of claiming the title of World Champion 2013. From being the hunter, Canfield is now the hunted, although he claims not to be feeling the pressure. “It won’t change much how we approach the racing,” he said. “We’ll go in with an open mind, take it one race at a time and if we sail to the best of our ability we’ll open some doors.”
While Phil Robertson has an outside chance of winning the Tour, Canfield sees his other four rivals as the bigger threat: Ian Williams, Bjorn Hansen, Adam Minoprio and Keith Swinton. Williams was recently nominated for ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year, the British skipper of GAC Pindar having won his fourth match racing world title at last year’s Monsoon Cup. This year he has the chance to win an unprecedented fifth title, making him one of the most successful match racers ever.
Williams predicts he’s going to have to sail better than ever to secure his fifth Tour title. “With so many teams in with a chance of winning the Tour this year, we’ll probably have to win the regatta or at least get to the Final,” he said. “In past years we’ve only had to make the Semis or the Quarters to win the World Championship. People will have to progress further this year to win the overall title.”
Tough the conditions may be, but the 12 teams won’t be lacking in motivation, The Monsoon Cup offers the highest prize purse on the Tour, MYR 1.475million (approx USD 475,000), with the winner set to earn MYR 310,000 (approx USD100,000).
Racing starts on Tuesday at 10am local time (GMT+8), with livestream scheduled in the Eastern Standard Timezone for Mon Nov 25, 2013 9:00pm EST – Tue Nov 26, 2013 4:00am EST.
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