The Swedish Match 40 was created by legendary Swedish designer Pelle Petterson, who designed and helmed Sweden’s Sverige challengers for the America’s Cup in 1977 and 1980.



Petterson’s brief was to create a yacht that would be inexpensive to build and maintain, easily commissioned and decommissioned, transported in standard 40-foot containers, and with enough performance to be interesting to spectators and sailors alike.

The new design bears a striking resemblance to an America’s Cup Class sloop. It is slab-sided, narrow and has a large sail plan. The cockpit is wide open and runs nearly half the length of the boat and with easy access to all the ropes in the cockpit area.

The fleet consists of six identical SM’40 that are carefully maintained.

These boats require a crew of five elements (including the helmsman) for the men regatta and six elements for women’s.

SPECIFICATIONS LOA — 39’4” (12.0 m) LWL — 31’6” (9.6 m) Beam — 7’6” (2.3 m) Draft — 6’10” (2.1 m) Displacement — 8,377 lbs. (3,800 kg) Mainsail — 430.5 sq.ft. (40 sq.m.) Genoa — 344.4 sq.ft. (32 sq.m.) Jib — 215.2 sq.ft. (20 sq.m.) Spinnaker — 1076.3 sq.ft. (100 sq.m.)