A new yacht with similar lines and performance to the America’s Cup class yachts has been designed for the Swedish Match Tour. The Swedish Match 40 is a new custom built match racing yacht designed by Swedish sailing legend Pelle Petterson.

Petterson commented: “I was very excited about the prospect of designing a boat that will be sailed by the world’s top match racing teams at events around the world. The Swedish Match 40 is a unique design based on the most recent America’s Cup class yachts. It provide sailors and teams with a perfect tool to develop their match racing skills on the road to the next America’s Cup in 2007.”

After relying on event-supplied yachts for the first four years of the Swedish Match Tour, a desire arose to design and build an exclusive fleet of boats for the Swedish Match Tour that could provide a consist quality of yacht from event-to-event. The boat also needed be of a “grand-prix” nature, utilizing the latest technology and designed in way that would continue the Swedish Match Tour tradition of holding the racing on short courses in shore-side venues, allowing spectators to see, first-hand, sailing at the highest level. She’s also been designed to fit in a 40ft container allowing a fleet of Swedish Match 40s to be shipped to each event on the tour.