Tom Foucher of France won the 2026 Dublin Match Cup at the National Yacht Club in Dún Laoghaire, sealing the title with a near-perfect record after officials and competitors made an early call to cram the entire knockout stage into a single day.
With Sunday's forecast threatening winds from 15 knots up to gusts beyond 37, the decision was taken at 9am on Saturday to run the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final back to back rather than risk losing the back end of the event.
Racing got underway with the first start at 10:20am. Boats raced in 8 to 18 knots on Dublin Bay, the wind direction holding steady even as the pressure swung between sharp, physical gusts and softer lulls that tested every crew on the water.
Foucher was untouchable for most of the week. He topped Group B with a perfect 6-0 round robin, then beat compatriot Victorien Eon 2-0 in the quarter-finals. His only hiccup came in the semi-finals, a 2-1 win over fellow Frenchman Timothée Rossi that could easily have gone the other way. He didn't drop another race, closing out the final 3-0 for a 13-1 record across the regatta.
The local story was Ruairi Finnegan.
He organised the event and sailed in it too, finishing third in Group B on 3-3 before beating Finland's Jon Eriksson 2-0 in the quarter-finals. He then whitewashed the Netherlands' Lennard Bal 3-0 in the semis to reach the final on home water. Second place is Finnegan's best result on the World Match Race Tour to date, and it came at a regatta he helped bring to life as an official stage of the world tour.
Rossi picked up third place with a 2-0 win over Bal in the petit final.
The Dublin Match Cup remains the only World Match Race Tour event held in Ireland, hosted by the National Yacht Club and organised with the Irish Match Racing Association, with support from Sport Ireland. This was only the event's second edition, but it carried World Sailing Grade 2 status, with 14 teams from eight nations racing J/80 keelboats from 24 to 27 September.
Final standings:
1. Tom Foucher (FRA) 2. Ruairi Finnegan (IRL) 3. Timothée Rossi (FRA) 4. Lennard Bal (NED) 5. Victorien Eon (FRA) 6. Martin Allix (FRA) 7. Jon Eriksson (FIN) 8. Patryk Zbroja (POL)
