First buyers for Swedish Match 40

New boats to go to Portugal for 2005

When the world stars of the Swedish Match Tour arrive in Cascais this summer for the first ever Portugal Match Cup, six Swedish Match 40 straight from the wharf, the latest thing in match racing, await their pleasure. Just recently, Justino de Sá Machado, chairman of the Portuguese race organisation, signed the contract, worth approximately 400 000 euro, together with Pehr Edström, managing director of Maxi Yachts.

"We are extremely gratified to be chosen to supply the new match racers to Cascais. This deal is a further acknowledgement of Maxi Yachts’ profile as a supplier of high performance yachts for the discerning customer," Edström comments.

"The Swedish Match 40 was an obvious choice for us," says Sá Machado. "The yachts suit us perfectly, as we’re starting a proper match race centre here in Cascais."

The new match racer Swedish Match 40, created by designer and yachting legend Pelle Petterson and the development team at Maxi Yachts, was launched this summer. The yacht is intended to be mass-produced as an advanced sports craft for the top teams in the world, primarily for use in the nine tour events around the world. Thanks to its similarities with the America’s Cup boats it can also be used by those syndicates for realistic training. The world stars in Marstrand for the Swedish Match Cup had the opportunity to try out two of the prototypes, and were full of praise. Even so, it took a
little more than six months before this first order was signed:

"This is definitely a breakthrough. Several prospective buyers who have been playing a waiting game have now stepped up their interest considerably," says project coordinator Pelle Wikman from Sailnet, the company handling marketing and sales of the Swedish Match 40 for Maxi Yachts.

Maxi Yachts’ productive capacity for the match racer will now be fully occupied for the next few months, denying us the opportunity of enjoying the new boats in the Swedish Match Cup this summer:

"Of course it would have been wonderful to show them in hot matches on our home waters in the upcoming season," Pehr Edström admits. "But we will consider it highly advantageous for the Swedish Match Cup if they take the opportunity to upgrade to our match racer for the 2005 season instead.

To read thedailysail review of the Swedish Match 40 - click here