The 44Cup is nothing but surprises. Day two of competition for the one-design owner-driver RC44s at the 44Cup Marstrand was forecast to be light but in fact provided further magnificent conditions, with sunshine, flatter seas than yesterday and a chilly southerly that built to 15-17 knots. This resulted in 12 happy teams returning to the dock on the picture postcard Swedish island this afternoon. It also permitted four races to be held, anticipating no racing tomorrow (Friday) when further gales are due.
At this half way stage of the 44Cup Marstand, the event has a new leader in the Pietro Loro Piana-steered Aleph Racing, although it is close as they’re only two points ahead of Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika and with just four points separating first from fourth. Aleph Racing didn’t win a race today but on a generally high scoring day, they scored no worse than six – textbook big fleet racing by tactician Michele Ivaldi.
“In the fleet of 12, if you come fourth or fifth, it’s a very good result,” commented Ivaldi. “We had all good starts apart from the last one, but we managed to keep in the hunt all the time. There were a few shifts that needed to be played, and between Paul [Wilcox, main trimmer] and I, we managed to get on the correct side… With 12 boats now the starts are crowded as is every mark. If you make a loss, it can be a big one.”
Several new teams have joined the 44Cup recently bringing the fleet up to 12, with many still finding their feet, so it was most enjoyable to see one of them, the Turkish Wow! Sailing Team, being helmed today by Mehmet Taki’s nephew Murat Edin, pop out in front on the first upwind of today’s first race and go on to lead for the first lap. “I honestly have no idea how that happened! It was unusual that there was no one there,” a delighted Edin commented later. “But I was super relaxed – I panic when there’s people around! It was good fun…”
Sadly for the Turkish team, on which Spanish double Olympic gold medallist Iker Martinez is calling tactics, it was not to last with Nico Poons’ Team Charisma pulling ahead after banging the left on the second upwind. Team Nika then pulled up to second, but WOW! Sailing Team still managed to retain third.
This was the first bullet at this event for Team Charisma, which has won here in Marstrand for the past three editions. According to tactician Andy Horton, there was much interest in the left side of the course today, especially early on, due to a predicted left shift. “We started at 210˚ and it was supposed to go to 160˚. In fact it went further left and then rebounded a little bit. I think everyone was anticipating that.”
Top scoring boat today was Igor Lah’s Team CEEREF Vaider, which won today’s second and fourth races. “It felt much better today, I would say,” said Lah. “Obviously, we did something better than we have been doing in the last two or three events. But let’s wait to see.”
“We feel like we got our CEEREF mojo back a little bit today,” confirmed tactician Adrian Stead. “We had a couple of close ones as well where we could have done better.” In the fourth race, Team CEEREF Vaider got shunted on the start line by Team Nika holing their stern, but nonetheless went on win. “It was good to get a win having dealt with that,” Stead continued.
Team Ceeref Vaider scored 16 points across today’s four races and yet was top scoring boat. Stead reflected that this high scoring day was probably due to the enlarged fleet, but also “it’s tough out there. The course is only 1.2 miles. There are people getting pinned out to layline. It was also very easy to overstand, and in these boats with the J2s, overstanding is pretty costly as you don’t get back the extra distance you sail.”
Team Nika posted similarly mixed results today with two seconds but also an 8th and 6th. They came closest to win today’s third race, leading down the final run only to be rolled by young Markus Törnqvist’s GeMera, in a textbook match racing move.
“It was a very tough day compared to yesterday,” commented Markus Törnqvist. “Our boat handling and boat-on-boat tactics were not the best today. We made a few wrong calls and had a few issues, especially on the downwinds in the bear aways (in one their spinnaker halyard wasn’t attached…) “But even with these problems, we’re not falling behind too far.”
Of their race winning move, he added: “It was fantastic. It was a beautiful move by Francesco (Bruni – GeMera’s tactician) It was a great overlap and roll-by.” At the previous event in Porto Cervo, GeMera and Artemis Racing, skippered by Markus’ father Torbjörn Törnqvist had spent much of the time locked in contention. In today’s third race this seemed to be taking place again, with GeMera leading Artemis Racing around, the two having close mark roundings, but not as close as Artemis Racing’s leeward gate rounding in today’s first race when they got themselves speared by Jan Scholtes’ Warp 5, leaving their hull holed on the starboard side (although she successfully completed the day with it this way).
With further gales forecast for tomorrow, the decision has already been made to cancel racing but an earlier than scheduled start is anticipated for the event’s last day on Saturday.
About the 44Cup:
Five-time America’s Cup winner Russell Coutts conceived the design of the light-displacement, high-performance one-design RC44 with naval architect Andrej Justin in 2005. Created for top level one design racing in international regattas under strictly controlled Class Rules, the concept and design features of the RC44 are aimed at the amateur helmsmen with professional crews.
Photo Credit: Nico Martinez
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