"The Spirit of the Future... The Soul of the Past" – is the essence of the W-Class Yacht Company.

Founded in 1998 by owner and president Donald Tofias from Boston Massachusetts, the W-Class Yacht Company's concept of rejuvenating one-design match racing has grown in popularity and ambition.

W-Class Racing Yachts are a powerful new breed of modern classics, inspired by the memories and materials of the past and built using present day technology. They are the sleek descendant of the legendary New York 50 day racers that competed at the turn of the century. And are intended to revive the excitement of big-boat one design match racing.

The W-Class Yacht Company today actively promotes two W 76's, "Wild Horses" and "White Wings", on the Mediterranean, Caribbean and USA racing circuits. W46's "Zebra", "Equus" and "Arion" campaign in their home waters of Maine. After three years of competitive sailing and match racing, the W-Class has captured the imagination and admiration of a world wide audience and has re-kindled the spirit of early 20th Century Corinthian racing when the goal was glory.

The W-Class lines were drawn by Joel White, a highly respected Maine naval architect who specialised in reincarnating the long, low profiles and overhangs of traditional racing vessels. Like any designer, he favoured the latest construction techniques and used cold moulded, epoxy saturated strips of wood over a form resulting in a hull lighter than fibreglass and twice as strong.

The name of the class was created in memory of Joel White who sadly died prior to the launch of the first W76 "Wild Horses". His son Steve White has continued the family legacy at Brooklin Boat Yard in Maine where the smaller W46 day racers are built.

The marketing campaign has always focused on an "on the water" approach with a philosophy of "Right Time, Right Place, Right Boats, Right People". This marketing strategy actively promotes the sailing and more precisely the racing of this new one-design class of racing yachts.

Over the past two years the W-Class Yacht Company has joined forces with worldwide regatta organisations to sponsor individual events such as: Antigua Classic Yacht Regatta, and Les Voiles dÕAntibes. In September during Les Regates Royales de Cannes, the W-Class Yacht Company will host a busy tent providing shelter for many international friends and visitors here in Europe for the Prada Classic Yacht Challenge.

Donald Tofias, president of the W-Class Yacht Company LLC sums up his one-design concept: "The vision that propelled me to develop these inspiring vessels was the ideal to compete in big, identical boats with identical equipment so that at the end of an exciting, close and competitive race – the best sailor wins. This is boat-on-boat, crew-on-crew competition."