A vision shared by Oracle Team USA pair Tom Slingsby and Philippe Presti to have Bermuda host a regatta showcasing the high-performance Flying Phantom catamaran has become reality.

It was announced yesterday by the Phantom International and Royal Bermuda Yacht Club that the Flying Phantom Series finale will take place in Bermuda’s Great Sound from November 29 to December 2.

The fleet racing regatta will feature more than 15 of the one design catamarans, with boats from Europe, USA and Canada.

Oracle Team USA, defender of the 35th America’s Cup, and Artemis Racing, the Challenger, will also be represented.

The catamarans will race against each other on a course specially prepared by David Campbell James, the regatta director.

The Flying Phantom Bermuda event is based on an original idea from Slingsby, Oracle Team USA’s team manager, and Presti, Oracle Team USA’s coach, who both have first-hand experience sailing Oracle’s training fleet of Flying Phantoms, which are based at the team’s headquarters in Dockyard.

The regatta will follow close on the heels of October’s Argo Group Gold Cup and America’s Cup World Series and will conclude four days before the start of another regatta in the Great Sound featuring America’s Cup sailors in the foiling International Moth dinghy.

“Bermuda’s ideal sailing conditions has attracted a lot of interests from overseas sailing organisations since the Island won the bid to host the America’s Cup in 2017,” Sir Russell Coutts, the America’s Cup Event Authority chief executive, said.

“All of sudden we’re starting to see some of the other sailing entities coming in and say ‘hey, we want to have a regatta in Bermuda’.

“There’s a realisation of this sort of magical jewel in the middle of the Atlantic and they are starting to come here and it is certainly a goal of ours to host these sailing yachts in Bermuda.”