World Match Racing Tour season's earnings

The world's top tennis and golf players can earn millions of dollars in prize money. For example, the 2010 US Open featured the richest purse in tennis history. This year's US Open purse topped US$ 22.6 million, an increase of US$ 1 million over last year's record purse. Across the Atlantic, the Wimbledon tennis championship awarded this year a record GBP 13.7 million and for the first time ever the prize for the singles champion reached GBP 1 million.

In sailing, the only professional circuit that awards prize money is the World Match Racing Tour. This year it consists of nine events and will award over US$ 1.5 million in prize money. In addition, there is a US$ 250,000 overall prize pool for the top nine teams with a US$50,000 bonus for the outright winner.

The WMRT made public the breakdown of the prize money for the 2010 and 2009 season (tables below). The figures are in US dollars and are approximate since the prizes are mostly given in the local currency of each event.

Adam Minoprio, the reigning ISAF World Match Racing Champion, made a cool 220,000 dollars in 2009, although I suppose this amount has to be split among his team. Second placed Torvar Mirsky earned exactly half of what his kiwi opponent did while third placed Ben Ainslie pocketed close to 175,000 dollars.

This clearly shows that you can very well end up second overall at the end of the season if you finish second or third in each event but you can earn much more if you win a number of events, even if you don't take part in the entire circuit. Ainslie took part in only 4 of the 2009 events, scoring two wins, a third place and an all-important second in the season's grand finale in the Monsoon Cup. On the other hand, Mirsky took part in all events, won only one and had a string of bad results like an 8th and even a 10th.

This year, the same pattern holds true and Mathieu Richard and Ben Ainslie top the earning charts, thanks to 3 and 2 victories, respectively.

World Match Racing Tour earnings in 2010 (as of October 18th)

No.	Skipper	Country	Team	Points	Prize Money
1	Mathieu Richard	FRA	French Match Racing Team	105	US$ 145,112
2	Adam Minoprio	NZL	ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing	90	US$ 86,305
3	Ben Ainslie	GBR	TEAMORIGIN	88	US$ 104,744
4	Torvar Mirsky	AUS	Mirsky Racing Team	76	US$ 73,117
5	Ian Williams	GBR	Team GAC Pindar	72	US$ 94,048
6	Jesper Radich	DEN	Gaastra Racing Team	60	US$ 42,000
7	Francesco Bruni	ITA	Team Azzurra	53	US$ 54,172
8	Peter Gilmour	AUS	YANMAR Racing	51	US$ 51,000

World Match Racing Tour earnings in 2009

No.	Skipper	Country	Team	Points	Prize Money
1	Adam Minoprio	NZL	ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing	138	US$ 219,050
2	Torvar Mirsky	AUS	Mirsky Racing Team	97	US$ 111,800
3	Ben Ainslie	GBR	TEAMORIGIN	95	US$ 173,250
4	Peter Gilmour	AUS	YANMAR Racing	93	US$ 127,400
5	Mathieu Richard	FRA	French Match Racing Team	89	US$ 118,800
6	Ian Williams	GBR	Team Pindar	83	US$ 118,150
7	Sebastien Col	FRA	All4One	59	US$ 96,200
8	Damien Iehl	FRA	French Match Racing Team	48	US$ 59,700
9	Paolo Cian	ITA	Team Shosholoza	31	US$ 72,600
10	Philippe Presti	FRA	French Spirit	26	US$ 33,400