The field is set for the 2023 Congressional Cup.

American skipper Christopher Weis and his crew won this year’s Ficker Cup on Sunday, April 16, beating New Zealander Megan Thompson in the finals of the annual sailing competition in Long Beach.

But both Weis and Thompson will set sail in their Catalina 37 yachts off the Long Beach coast again this week, since their teams will fill out the 10-crew Congressional Cup, considered the grandfather of match racing.

The Congressional Cup will begin on Tuesday, April 18, and run until Saturday.

The Ficker Cup acts as a qualifier for the final two Congressional Cup slots.

Weis and Thompson beat out six other skippers and their crews to reach the Ficker Cup finals on Sunday.

The others were Peter Holz (USA), Nicole Breault (USA), Pearson Potts (USA), Jeffrey Petersen, Dave Hood (USA) and Ruairi Finnegan (Republic of Ireland). Besides Hood, none of those skippers will compete in the Congressional Cup.

Thompson beat Breault in the first semifinal earlier Sunday while Weis beat Petersen in the other.

Weis then beat Thompson 2-1.

The two Ficker Cup finalists will compete against eight other skippers during the Congressional Cup. Besides Hood, those skippers are: defending champion Ian Williams (Great Britain), No. 1-ranked Chris Poole (USA), 2009 Congressional Cup winner Johnie Berntsson (Sweden), Jeppe Borch (Denmark), Eric Monnin (Switzerland), Nick Egnot-Johnson (NZL) and Harry Price (Australia).

Freelancer Jo Murray contributed to this report.