Second stage of 44Cup comes to Croatia

Rovinj, Croatia (May 29, 2019) – Nine teams will compete in the Adris 44Cup Rovinj, with racing to begin tomorrow for the second stage of the 44Cup, a five-stop international racing tour throughout Europe.

This week the boat to beat will be the one with the golden wheels, signifying it as the 2019 44Cup’s leader – currently Igor Lah’s Team CEEREF. Tactician Adrian Stead admits this is his first time racing here: “The forecast says we’ll be getting 5-14 knots of sea breeze, which should be good. This season we have one win under our belts. We’d like to feel we can put in another strong performance here to go into the Worlds feeling confident about our speed.”

At the first event of the season in Montenegro, Stead says they learned that no 44Cup teams are weak, as demonstrated by Pavel Kuznetsov’s Tavatuy Sailing Team. Despite starting out on its first full season on the circuit, the Russian team finished half way up the leaderboard.

There, finishing uncharacteristically at the bottom of the leaderboard, was Nico Poons’ Charisma. To prevent this recurring, the team has acquired a ‘big gun’ tactician in America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race winner John Kostecki.

“Last year we had Ray [Davies] and we were having different thoughts about where to go. Now we are trying out this setting,” explains Poons. Kostecki has sailed once previously with Charisma and Poons hopes the chemistry will be good. Kostecki arrives here fresh from winning the Menorca 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week with Platoon.

So what is Kostecki’s view of the 44Cup? “It has always been very competitive and the level keeps getting higher and higher. It is good to see,” he says. As to whether he can continue his winning streak, he is less confident. “The RC44 is such a different boat. There are different techniques and styles to sailing it. It isn’t going to be easy.”

First warning signal for racing tomorrow will be at 1200. Racing is planned from May 30 to June 2.

44Cup Details – Team list – Facebook

Launched in 2007, the RC44 Class enters its 12th season on the 44Cup, a five-stop international racing tour throughout Europe.

44Cup Events Schedule 2019
44Cup Porto Montenegro – Montenegro – April 10 to 14
Adris 44Cup – Croatia – May 30 to June 2
44Cup Marstrand – Sweden – July 9 to 13
44Cup Cascais – Portugal – October 2 to 6
44Cup Palma – Spain – Nov 13 to 17

About the RC44 boat
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. For its thirteenth season in 2019, the RC44 Championship Tour was rebranded the 44Cup.

Source: 44Cup