Aleph Racing takes Adris 44Cup Rovinj

Rovinj, Croatia (June 2, 2019) – Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing posted a 1-4 today to take victory at Adris 44Cup Rovinj, the second stop on the 44Cup, a five-stop international racing tour throughout Europe.

This was a considerable step up from their struggles at the first 44Cup event of the season but more so, it was the first time since joining the class nine years ago that Aleph Racing has ever won an event on the high performance one design circuit.

“It is an amazing feeling,” said Lepic. “I like the class very much – the boat, the crews, the owners and the format, but I have never managed to get to this level. It is great to have this for the first time.”

The team, which has Italian Michele Ivaldi calling tactics, rallied after closing day one in eighth place. What was the difference? “All of our starts were good – starting fast and with good space helped a lot,” explained Lepic. “Then it was a case of executing, not losing our cool, and making sure that everything we have learned over the years came together. We had a bit of luck as well…”

Ivaldi has said over the previous days that getting the boat set up well for light conditions and practicing starts also helped.

Anticipating a difficult forecast today, Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio sent the boats out an hour earlier and ultimately managed to lay on two races in a light northwesterly, albeit with a long intermission between the two and having to finish the second prematurely after the second upwind leg.

In the latter, another crew scored a prominent result. Tavatuy Sailing Team, on their inaugural 44Cup season this year, won their first ever race. This week Pavel Kuznetsov’s team, on which leading match racer Evgeny Neugodnikov calls tactics, has been first to the weather mark only to lose the lead subsequently.

In today’s first race for example, the Russian crew got a blazing pin end start, gaining enough of an advantage banging the left to cross the fleet on port. They rounded first only to lose the lead on the run to Artemis Racing. But in race two this wasn’t case and as the wind began to fade and the course was shortened, they were still in front at the line.

“I can say that this hasn’t been our regatta,” admitted Kuznetsov. “We had good starts and a few times we led at the top mark, but after that we did all kinds of things to lose our position. But we won the last race so we are happy.”

Looking at the nine years it has taken Aleph Racing to win an event, Kuznetsov observed: “I hope we will be a bit quicker.”

Banging in podium positions in both today’s races was enough to earn Nico Poons’ Charisma second overall, a fine turnaround from their last place in April. “The team is fine – the boys are working hard. You need a good team but it is also people like JK that make a difference,” said Poons, referring to America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race winner John Kostecki, the team’s new addition.

“I’m very pleased! Personally going into it I was hoping for a top five. So we’ll take a second all the way!” said Kostecki. “We also have a great coach in Morgan Reeser. He really painted a picture out there of every race for us and was more or less correct every time. Today was about trying to keep it simple, being patient, and not panicking.”

Charisma’s performance was enough to displace Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing into third. With Sarah Gundersen standing in for Törnqvist here, the Swedish team has had a generally outstanding four days and at the end of day two was tied on points for the overall lead. However, a deep result in today’s first race, caused them to finish a point behind Charisma.

After their soaring performance yesterday, Peninsula Petroleum had an indifferent outing today, while as Aleph Racing was on the ascent Team CEEREF, leader at the half way stage of the Adris 44Cup Rovinj, was heading the opposite way.

Chris Bake on Team Aqua did enough to keep Bronenosec Sailing Team astern of them, but was unable to keep up with Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika which posted an improved 2-5 today.

“It doesn’t feel like the results show our efforts,” admitted Bake. “We were never in the right place at the right time. There were fingers of breeze everywhere that got the better of us. It just wasn’t our regatta at the end of the day.”

Racing was held from May 30 to June 2. Next event is the 44Cup World Championship 2019 on July 9-13 in Marstrand, Sweden.

44Cup Details – Results – 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