The TENZOR Middle East Cup will span the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, linking Europe, Asia and the Gulf through a single championship structure. It's a big claim for a first-year series, but the backing and infrastructure on offer suggest it's being taken seriously.
Three venues will share the load across eight acts. Royal Yacht Club in Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE hosts four of them: Act 1 from 10-13 September, Act 2 from 8-11 October, then Act 7 from 11-14 March and Act 8 from 8-11 April. Bahrain Sailing Club in Manama hosting takes Act 3 (5-8 November) and Act 4 (10-13 December), while Amaala Yacht Club in Saudi Arabia hosting Acts 5 (14-17 January) and Act 6 (11-14 February).
Behind the series is Tenzor Sailing Club, an international sailing community that describes its mission as shaping the future of the sport through world-class events, professional race management and building a broader sailing culture. It presents the Cup not merely as a regatta, but as a platform spanning sport, business, tourism and global sailing culture.
Two race management systems set this series apart. MarkSetBot's robotic buoys will handle the marks, allowing near-instantaneous course adjustments for optimal sailing angles regardless of conditions.
The other is the VAKAROS Atlas 2 RaceSense system, making its Middle East debut in J/70 racing. It offers live online race tracking, automated start-line crossing detection and automatic results calculation, and is described as the standard for world-class racing. The system has already run the J/70 Worlds, Star Worlds, the Star Bacardi Cup, E-Scow Nationals, A-Scow Nationals, M32 Worlds, M32 Europeans, M32 Midwinters and J/70 Midwinters among others, covering more than 90 classes and over 200,000 starts worldwide.
For a series only in its first year, that combination of geographic reach, dedicated venues and proven race technology marks the TENZOR Middle East Cup out as a championship with genuine ambition behind it.
