44Cup: It’s never like this…

Puerto Calero, Lanzarote (February 10, 2022) – Sadly no water passed beneath the keels of the ten-strong 44Cup fleet on the opening day of their first regatta of the 2022 season.

There was a small hope of the wind filling in early afternoon, but this was too little and of too short duration, explained 44Cup Principal Race Officer Maria Torrijo, who cancelled racing for the day at 1400 UTC. “Today, it was a very easy decision because there was no wind at all. We had a gust of up to five knots, but it was just for five minutes and then it dropped completely. It was like a mirror. So we decided to stop. We will try to race tomorrow.”

As usual, among the teams there was much anticipation to get the 2022 44Cup season started with a bang today. Michele Ivaldi, the tactician on board Hugues Lepic’s Team Aleph, the defending champion here in Lanzarote after winning the event here in November, added, “There was an opportunity early on today, but it is a funny [weather] system, because there is very strong breeze on the other side of the island [Lanzarote], but nothing here. It is a bit unfortunate, but that is the way sailing is.”

America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race winner, Team CEEREF’s mainsheet trimmer Dirk de Ridder added, “It was going to be sailable at 1200 and then it was going to decrease to nothing. There was a puff at 1200 and then it disappeared.”

For tomorrow, some forecasts are indicating that we could be in for more of the same, although others are saying 5-10 knots, which, if it transpires is more than adequate breeze in which the nimble RC44s can meaningfully race.

The good news will come at the weekend, predicts the PRO, “We are expecting the trade winds coming from Saturday when we will have very good conditions,” said Torrijo.

This is in line with what the sailors are seeing. “It will be good at the weekend with the trade winds coming in,” confirmed Ivaldi. “We might see ‘normal Lanzarote’ then with an offshore, shifty breeze.”

Forecasts are predicting breeze of up to 18 knots for the weekend as the northeasterly trade winds re-establish themselves. In theory racing will start tomorrow at midday UTC.

Series Information – Event Details – Results

44CUP CALERO MARINAS ENTRY LIST:

ALEPH RACING (FRA17)
Hugues Lepic (FRA) – Owner / Driver
Michele Ivaldi (ITA) – Tactician
Skip Baxter (NZL) – Main trimmer
Jon Gundersen (NZL) – Headsail Trimmer
Lara Poljsak (SLO) – Offside Trimmer
Jaro Furlani (ITA) – Pit
Cian Guilfoyle (IRL) – Grinder
Paco Lepoutre (FRA) – Floater
Greg Gendell (USA) – Bow

ARTEMIS RACING (SWE44)
Torbjorn Tornqvist (SWE) – Owner / Driver
Andy Horton (USA) – Tactician
Iain Percy (GBR) – Main trimmer
Maciel Cichetti (ITA) – Headsail Trimmer
Emanuele Marino (ITA) – Offside Trimmer
Nils Akervall (SWE) – Pit
Kalle Torlen (SWE) – Grinder
Markus Tornqvist (SWE) Trimmer Assist – Floater
Piet Van Nieuwenhuijzen (NED) – Bow

ATOM TAVATUY (RUS21)
Pavel Kuznetsov (RUS) – Owner / Driver
Evgeny Neugodnikov (RUS) – Tactician
Aleksandr Ekimov (RUS) – Main trimmer
Anton Sergeev (RUS) – Headsail Trimmer
Denis Gribanov (RUS) – Offside Trimmer
Pietro Mantovani (ITA) – Pit
Egor Larionov (RUS) – Grinder
Evgeny Egorov (RUS) – Bow

ARTTUBE (RUS18)
Valeriya Kovalenko (RUS) – Owner / Driver
Igor Lisovenko (RUS) – Tactician
Vitaly Rozhkov (RUS) – Main trimmer
Victor Serezhkin (RUS) – Headsail Trimmer
Sergey Avdonin (RUS) – Offside Trimmer
Denis Rozhkov (RUS) – Pit
Francesco Rubagotti (ITA) – Grinder
Alexey Kulakov (RUS) – Bow

CEEREF POWERED BY HRASTNIK 1860 (SLO1)
Igor Lah (SLO) – Owner / Driver
Adrian Stead (GBR) – Tactician
Dirk de Ridder (NED) – Main trimmer
Javi De La Plaza (ESP) – Headsail Trimmer
Tine Lah (SLO) – Offside Trimmer
Andreas Axelsson (SWE) – Pit
Jelle Janzen (NED) – Grinder
Matteo Auguardo (ITA) – Bow

CHARISMA (MON69)
Nico Poons (NED) – Owner / Driver
Vasco Vascotto (ITA) – Tactician
Chris Hosking (AUS) – Main trimmer
Ross Halcrow (NZL) – Headsail Trimmer
Dimitri Simmons (NED) – Offside Trimmer
Ryan Godfrey (AUS) – Pit
Robin Jacobs (NED) – Grinder
Ivan Peute (NED) – Bow

LA PERICOLOSA (GBR41)
Micheal Hund (ITA) – Driver
Nic Asher (GBR) – Tactician
Elliot Willis (GBR) – Main trimmer
Will Ryan (AUS) – Headsail Trimmer
Jas Farneti (ITA) – Offside Trimmer
Vittorio Zaoli (ITA) – Pit
Michi Muller (GER) – Grinder
Matteo Ramain (ITA) – Bow

PENINSULA RACING (GBR1)
John Bassadone (GBR) – Owner / Driver
Giles Scott (GBR) – Tactician
Robin Imaz (ESP) – Main trimmer
German Panei (ARG) – Headsail Trimmer
Mikel Pasabant (ESP) – Offside Trimmer
Matthew Barber (GBR) – Pit
Facundo Olezza (ARG) – Grinder
Gonzalo Morales (ESP) – Bow

TEAM AQUA (GBR2041)
Chris Bake (NZL) – Owner / Driver
Cameron Appleton (NZL) – Tactician
Andrew Estcourt (NZL) – Main trimmer
Christian Kamp (DEN) – Headsail Trimmer
Aaron Cooper (GBR) – Offside Trimmer
Jonas Hviid-Nielsen (DEN) – Pit
Ben Graham (GBR) – Grinder
Juan Marcos (ARG) – Bow

TEAM NIKA (RUS10)
Vladimir Prosikhin (RUS) – Owner / Driver
Francesco Bruni (ITA) – Tactician
Sean Clarkson (NZL) – Main trimmer
Pierluigi De Felice (ITA) – Headsail Trimmer
Mitja Margon (SLO) – Offside Trimmer
Nikolay Kornev (RUS) – Pit
Iztok Knafelc (SLO) – Grinder
Matt Cornwell (GBR) – Bow

2022 44Cup Schedule
February 9-13 – 44Cup Calero Marinas, Lanzarote
May 11-15 – 44Cup Cascais, Portugal
June 29-July 3 – 44Cup Marstrand, Sweden
October 12-16 – 44Cup World Championship Portoroz, Slovenia
December 7-11 – To be announced

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