Everyone getting a swig at 44Cup Cowes

Cowes, UK (August 14, 2021) – The third day at 44Cup Cowes saw summer return as a 10 knot breeze, flat seas and largely flat water made for a very different race course from 24 hours before. But with more south in the wind direction for the opening race, the breeze was spilling over the Isle of Wight making life tricky at the top mark.

Then, as is always the case in the Solent, there was the tide to contend with. Today, racing took place on either side of high water ensuring that nothing could be taken for granted as the current direction switched from flood to ebb.

So, while on the face of it the day looked straightforward, it was anything but, as the scoreboard confirmed. Three races, three different winners and by the end of the penultimate day, three teams on equal points all fighting for third.

John Bassadone’s Peninsula Racing team was the first to enjoy success having read the conditions up the first leg perfectly. From there, they never looked back.

“In this class when you get a little bit ahead things do become easier,” he said. “You can tack when you want to and choose your own route. The second and third races didn’t go so well, and I’d like to think that those two sevenths aren’t ours, but unfortunately they are.”

His tactician Ed Baird was more blunt. “John was having a good day and I wrecked it for him!”

The next race reinforced how fortunes can swing both ways in this fleet when you least expect as Artemis went from last in the first race to first in the next, but when the team least expected it.

“We broke our port runner block in the first race and were debating whether we should start the second race,” said Torbjorn Tornqvist. “We managed to make a repair but we couldn’t load it up fully which costs us about 0.3knts of speed.”

But having stretched out a decent lead on the good tack they had distance in hand to deliver their second win of the series.

By the final race of the day the tide had switched to ebb delivering a new scenario to consider. Against all the evidence of the rest of the fleet scrapping for the left, Pavel Kuznetsov’s Atom Tavatuy set their heart on the right hand side of the first beat. Untroubled by anyone else, they scorched across the start line at the committee boat end, tacked, banged the corner and came out on top at the windward mark. From there, no one got close to challenging their lead.

Their strong performance had launched them into third place overall, sharing the position with team Aqua and Charisma.

“This a very strong fleet and it’s impossible to plan your path to the podium because everything can hang on the last race,” said tactician Evgeny Neugodnikov. “Our strategy will be to sail for ourselves. It’s great that we have two bullets. We now know that when we are winning we are quiet on the boat, it’s much better, we like it.”

Three race winners evened things up on the dock too.

“One of the great things in the 44 fleet is that each race winner gets a bottle of champagne,” said Artemis racing tactician Iain Percy. “So, during the course of an event everyone gets a swig.”

Race 7 – 10kts SSW – Flood tide
To provide the fleet with deeper water to sail in the start area was moved further east towards Gilkicker Point. With the SSW breeze the course axis was across the tide and towards the Isle of Wight where the breeze was shiftier, all of which gave the tacticians plenty to work with. And while there were plenty of ladders on the race course there were also some snakes.

From the start John Bassadone’s Peninsula Racing was one of the few boats to take the right hand side of the first beat where the tide got under their bow and helped to sweep them up to the first mark. Conversely the bulk of the fleet that had gone left ended up over standing the first mark leaving Peninsula to round in the lead.

After that, despite some private battles in the fleet, nothing challenged Bassadone’s early lead and his team went on to take the win. Pavel Kuznetsov’s Atom Tavatuy took a well earned second with Ceeref delivering a third.

Race 8 – 10-11kts SW – Slack tide
With more depth now available on the Hill Head Plateau, the racing was relocated to this more open and slightly breezier race area.

The race kicked off with another even start as the fleet hit the line as one. With the tide now virtually slack and the breeze steady in strength, conditions were also even, at least that’s how it looked. In reality there were still shifts and puffs to play with and while this didn’t result in a festival of tacks up the beat, changing gear was critical.

Here, it was Artemis that came out on top at the weather mark. Despite damaging their port running backstay blocks in the previous race preventing them from getting full rig tension, they managed to keep sufficient pace on the good tack to see them take the lead.

With space to go where they wanted they developed their advantage into a win come the finish.

But as an example as to how quickly you can slip from the front to the back in this fleet, Peninsula Racing and Atom Tavatuy found themselves in 7th and 8th respectively.

Race 9 – 10kts – Flood tide
Knowing which side of the course you want and executing a plan to get it is the perfect way to start any race as Atom Tavatuy demonstrated in the final race of the day.

While the wind had remained largely the same, the tide had now turned and was starting to head out to the west. It was early days but the hint of more favoured current along with the additional apparent wind that it promised was enough for Kuznetsov’s team to make this their plan.

Ignoring the fact that the bulk of the fleet was fighting for the pin end and heading out to the left must have been hard but the team held its nerve and was rewarded with the lead come the windward mark. From here they could sail their own race, go where they wanted and extend their lead while the chasing pack fought things out among themselves.

After two laps it was clear once again just how tight the scrap had been as the bulk of the fleet crossed the finish in a matter of seconds.

Racing is from August 12-15.

Series information – Event details – Results

2021 44Cup Schedule
May 19-23 – 44Cup Portoroz, Slovenia
June 30-July 4 – 44Cup Marstrand, Sweden
August 11-15 – 44Cup Cowes, UK
October 6-10 – 44Cup Scarlino, Italy
November 17-21 – 44Cup Calero Marinas, Puerto Calero, Lanzarote

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. https://www.44cup.org/

Source: 44Cup