44Cup: Big day for Ceeref

Puerto Calero, Lanzarote (February 12, 2022) – Four races were held on day three of the 44Cup Calero Marinas in perfect trade winds conditions, sun, waves and easterly winds at times gusting to 20 knots.

Discrete stars of the day were Igor Lah, tactician Adrian Stead and the crew on Ceeref powered by Hrastnik 1860. Despite never winning a race today, the 2017 and 2019 44Cup champions podiumed three times and scored no result lower than a fourth. Such consistency was rewarded with them going into the final day holding a massive 11 point lead over Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika.

As testament to the intense, but surprisingly equal racing, after six races, all ten of the RC44 teams had podiumed. After today’s final race six had won races.

The evenness of the course, in the first race especially, resulted in neither side paying, so coming into the top mark the top nine boats were separated by just 30m. Not all could fit into this space resulting in several penalties. There was also drama: Nico Poons’ Charisma was leading into the mark, when their stand-in tactician, who was holding the runner as it was released during a tack, half fell overboard.

Surprisingly it was not an experienced team that came out best from the mark gridlock, but the newbies on La Pericolosa. However Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing was close behind, split at the gate, took the lead on the next upwind, going on to take the win. “We didn’t have a very good start, but were fourth at the top mark,” explained tactician Michele Ivaldi. “We have made huge improvements with our downwind sailing – we noticed a few things yesterday which we corrected.”

The second race saw John Bassadone’s Peninsula Racing lead around the top mark only to be overhauled by both Pavel Kuznetsov’s Atom Tavatuy and Artemis Racing. Gybing early reaped dividends for Torbjörn Törnqvist’s team, which pulled into the lead and was never caught. It was hero to zero to hero, for the Swedes having won Friday’s final race and come last in today’s first race.

In the brisk conditions of race three, there was great joy when the 44Cup’s sole female owner Valeriya Kovalenko’s ARTTUBE, sailing just their third ever event in the class, won the pin, headed left, tacked and successfully crossed the fleet. Inevitably the big guns prevailed with Ceeref and Tavatuy rounding the top mark just ahead, however they were slow at the gate as ARTTUBE split right as Ceeref went left, to take the lead.

Sadly for Kovalenko and her team, including her tactician, Igor Lisovenko, there was compression coming into the finish with Atom Tavatuy taking the win from Ceeref, as ARTTUBE finished a nose ahead of Team Nika.

“I feel very tired, but happy – I am pleased with the place of the pink RC!” admitted Kovalenko later. “This weather is very difficult for me with big waves and we have old sails and an old genniker.”

The breeze had dropped to 10-12 knots for the fourth and final race, with the fleet down to eight after the previous race when Team Aleph had been rammed by La Pericolosa coming the top mark. Having retired, Team Aleph ultimately received redress, scored fifth for the last two races.

For Team Nika, finally everything aligned on the race course in the final races, their tactician America’s Cup skipper Francesco Bruni bedded in. “We were coming to it – it was well deserved – finally we got in the groove!” said owner Vladimir Prosikhin. “The last race was – nothing special. We started with speed and did two tacks to the mark and had good speed upwind and good speed downwind. We weren’t even close to anyone.” They won by a very ‘un-44Cup’ 36 seconds from Peninsula Racing.

Sadly the rest of the day had not gone so well. “In the first race, I got a penalty at the start on Ceeref because we tacked on to port and lost all steerage!” Prosikhin continued. “But somehow we were climbing, climbing, climbing and finished fourth.”

As to his new tactician Prosikhin admits: “He has a strong personality and is very demanding. He started massaging the owner, but now he is similar to Terry Hutchinson! ‘No matter what you do you, you HAVE to sail 286°!”

Slowly rediscovering their form too is Peninsula Racing’s John Bassadone, also racing with an accomplished new tactician in double Olympic Finn gold medallist turned America’s Cup sailor Giles Scott. Peninsula Racing posted two seconds today, leaving them fourth overall.

“Today was brilliant, great fun,” said Bassadone. “It was exactly what we needed – four good races in decent wind and a bit of action, or too much action at times! We are fast and we feel competitive. When you are not competitive, it is extremely frustrating.” As to Scott, he added: “Giles is a clever guy, very calm. He is a fantastic sailor and super-good guy. His integration has been seamless.”

Racing continues tomorrow at 1200 when similar trade wind conditions are forecast and up to three races scheduled.

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