Two boat race for RC44 World title

Cascais, Portugal (September 29, 2018) – Another adrenalin-pumping, top of the range day off Cascais at the RC44 World Championship saw Igor Lah’s Team CEEREF claim two bullets from three races, enabling the Slovenian team to stay in contact with Vladimir Prosikhin’s ultra-consistent leader Team Nika.

With a forecast suggesting less brutal conditions than Friday, the race committee set up further west, with less protection from the Cabos di Raso and di Roca headlands. Here they ran one race. In this Team CEEREF edged around the top mark first while Bronenosec Sailing Team got washed down onto the mark by the current, resulting in an impressive raft-up as boats luffed or tacked attempting to avoid her. The incident, that causing collisions and penalties aplenty, later saw Bronenosec Sailing Team awarded a four point penalty.

Catching up from being OCS benefitted Nico Poons’ Charisma. As tactician Ray Davies said: “Normally coming into the top mark here you get lifted up and you lay. I think everyone was expecting that, but it didn’t happen, so everyone just piled up and stalled out and boats were tacking and there were penalties. It was a complete horror show.” Charisma avoided the chaos to round the weather mark second. “It doesn’t always work out like that.”

Another adrenalin-pumping, top of the range day off Cascais at the RC44 World Championship saw Igor Lah’s Team CEEREF claim two bullets from three races, enabling the Slovenian team to stay in contact with Vladimir Prosikhin’s ultra-consistent leader Team Nika.

With a forecast suggesting less brutal conditions than Friday, the race committee set up further west, with less protection from the Cabos di Raso and di Roca headlands. Here they ran one race. In this Team CEEREF edged around the top mark first while Bronenosec Sailing Team got washed down onto the mark by the current, resulting in an impressive raft-up as boats luffed or tacked attempting to avoid her. The incident, that causing collisions and penalties aplenty, later saw Bronenosec Sailing Team awarded a four point penalty.

Catching up from being OCS benefitted Nico Poons’ Charisma. As tactician Ray Davies said: “Normally coming into the top mark here you get lifted up and you lay. I think everyone was expecting that, but it didn’t happen, so everyone just piled up and stalled out and boats were tacking and there were penalties. It was a complete horror show.” Charisma avoided the chaos to round the weather mark second. “It doesn’t always work out like that.”

“It was a very strange run – we were going down it in 22-23 knots, but in the middle it dropped to 13-14,” said Team CEEREF tactician Adrian Stead. “You could get around either way – Nika went one side of it and turned an eighth into a fourth and we took the other side and turned a second into a first.”

With a 1-4-1, Team CEEREF was today’s top scoring boat. “Yesterday we made some mistakes, so last night we had a good look at what we were up to and some of our manoeuvres and how we get going, and our set-up and balance. Today we sailed the best we have sailed as a team so far this year,” Stead continued.

Team Aqua and John Bassadone’s Peninsula Petroleum both performed better today, each managing second and third placed finishes.

“Our boat handling was good – doing the basics well paid off today,” observed Team Aqua’s Chris Bake. “We had quite a rough third race – we got boxed out of the start and on the downwind I broached on a gybe and that put us into a bad situation and we lost a few boats. But we are in the mix. 20+ knots is always fun in these boats. They are pretty lively at that speed and there’s lots of water on board and lots going on.”

Peninsula Petroleum was runner-up in the final race. John Bassadone commented: “It was a better day for sure. In terms of how we sailed, it was completely different. I am much happier, although in the second race we were in a good position but then we wiped out without that much stress and it took an age to recover.

“It was very good fun downwind today. Conditions were definitely tricky – it was more about sailing well. These boats are so cool, because they are fast, but you are in control.”

Three more races are scheduled for the final day. Team Nika holds a five point lead over Team CEEREF with Charisma a further nine points behind in third.

Racing is planned from September 27 to 30 in Cascais, Portugal.

Class details – Event information – Facebook

Day Three Results (9 races)

2018 Schedule for the twelfth season of the RC44 Class:
February 28- March 4 – RC44 Calero Marinas Cup 2018 – Arrecife, Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain
May 9-13 – RC44 Portorož Cup – Portorož, Slovenia
June 27- July 1 – RC44 Marstrand Cup – Marstrand, Sweden
September 26-30 – RC44 Cascais World Championship – Cascais, Portugal
November 14-18 – RC44 Valletta Cup – Valletta, Malta

Source: RC44 Class