Nostalgic 12m match racing in UK waters

Three America's Cup boats will meet up tomorrow and battle it out for the Royal Thames Imperial Trophy

Three America's Cup Twelve Metres will pick up where they left off almost 15 years ago in Fremantle when they match race each other off Lymington for the 1904 Royal Thames Imperial Trophy.

The 1986/87 British challenger Crusader will meet US66 from the New York YC - now called Ecosse - the radical 'two-rudders' boat which finally pipped the Brit for a semi-final place. These two will be joined by the Italian challenger of that era, Italia owned by Don Woods. Crusader, owned now by Richard Matthews, will be steered by Harold Cudmore, her skipper in Fremantle and while at the helm of Ecosse will be Edward Warden-Owen, the man Cudmore has said he really wanted as his helmsman in the British challenger all those years ago. In Fremantle, Warden-Owen steered the British tune-up boat.

Ironically, this will be the first time Twelve Metres have match raced in British waters since Brighton in 1979 with Lionheart, Constellation, Columba, Gretel, Sveria, War Baby and others. In the days when Twelve Metres were used in the Cup, the British challengers were shipped abroad as soon as they were built, and did their match racing in Newport or Fremantle.

The event is organised by the Royal Thames Yacht Club with the assistance of Berthon Marina and takes place over two days - 11 and 12 July. There will be four races per day. In the event of too much wind then the races will be pushed back a day and run until Friday. The two days of match racing is a prelude to the Berthon Source Regatta which will give three days of fleet racing for up to 70 boats, including the Twelves and at least three of their modern replacements, the International America's Cup Class (IACC) yachts which raced for the Cup in Auckland, New Zealand.