With a front due to pass over the Solent imminently, the second day of the competition was set to be a challenging one. For PRO Maria Torrijo and the race team from the Royal Yacht Squadron led by Bruce Grant, patience proved vital and eventually paid off.
Initially, the race committee and the nine RC44 teams ventured out onto the water off Hillhead, greeted by an overcast sky and a northerly breeze that built to over 10 knots. However, coinciding with the midday warning signal, blue skies appeared, causing the wind to shift dramatically and drop off entirely. After a lengthy wait, the boats were sent ashore, while the race committee assessed the situation. The Western Solent appeared to be the most promising of the limited options available, and with the race committee boat relocating just south of the Beaulieu River, hopes were high that a southwesterly sea breeze might establish at Hurst Castle and migrate up the West Solent. Finally, just after 1600, the southwesterly filled in at Hurst, and the RC44s were called out again.
For the start, close to Lepe Middle at 1640, the wind had built to 14 knots from 230°, coinciding with the last of the ebb tide, which provided tacticians with options of heading left (towards the Isle of Wight) into deeper water or right towards the mainland.
Team Aqua of event patron Chris Bake had the best start by the committee boat, tacking immediately with the majority of the fleet. Meanwhile, Christian Zuerrer’s Black Star Sailing Team, along with defending world champion Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika and overall event leader Pietro Loro Piana’s Aleph Racing, chose to head left, which quickly proved advantageous. Having won the pin, Black Star Sailing Team was first to the weather mark and led down the run. However, at the leeward gate, they repeated their tactics, opting left again, while Aleph Racing’s tactician Michele Ivaldi chose the supposedly unfavoured right. As the two front runners converged again up the beat, the French-flagged RC44 crossed ahead of Black Star Sailing Team, leading into the top mark and scoring their second bullet of the regatta.
As a result, Aleph Racing now leads the championship at its halfway stage, four points ahead of Team Aqua, with Markus Tornqvist’s GeMera Racing another three points behind in third, and the boats from third to sixth all within two points.
A second race had been hoped for, but with the hour growing late and the tide building, this idea was abandoned. “It was good, finally to have this race,” mused Black Star Sailing Team’s Christian Zuerrer. “I was concerned this morning when the sun came out and the wind disappeared. I’m thankful that the race officers were patient to wait and send us out again. We had a beautiful race – sunset sailing.”
His Kiwi tactician Cameron Dunn shared his thoughts: “We got what we wanted on the first beat. It was not an easy place to sail, but we were pretty convinced that the current was going to be better out on the left on the first beat. There were only three of us going left, but when we tacked, it was clear we’d made a big gain.”
Dunn expressed regret over repeating the tactic on the second beat, stating, “I wanted to go right, but everyone was going left, except for Aleph, so we decided to stick with the numbers. Credit to them [Aleph] – they made a big gain because of the way the current had changed.”
Having led into racing today, Aleph Racing’s second bullet has provided them with a welcome, but not unassailable, four-point lead over the rest of the fleet. Tactician Michele Ivaldi detailed their winning tactics: “Maria [Torrijo] did a good job waiting for the westerly, and when we went out it was tricky because it was at the change of the tide, so thanks to Graham [Sunderland, of Winning Tides fame] who is helping us. We had a solid strategy and decided to go straight on the first beat, then gybe early to see the change of current on the run.”
“Then on the second upwind, we saw that the tide had changed in the main channel, so we went all the way to the right and made a good gain, passing Black Star.” Ivaldi acknowledged that they had been pushing it on the shallower right side, with water beneath their keel dropping to just one metre.
Conditions for tomorrow look similar to today, with the PRO indicating that racing will start one hour later, with the first warning set for 13:00. “Tomorrow looks pretty marginal, real soft and there’s no isobars around. I think it’s going to be a tricky day.”
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.
#44Cup #the44Cup #Cowes
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