Rule change to be tested at RC44 Worlds

The uber professional RC44 Class provides elite one design racing for those that can afford it, with the class organizing events and logistics around the world to deliver a high quality owner experience.

But this class has never been the domain of women, though changes to the rules for 2023 sought to make it beneficial to do so. This is done with crew weight, with maximum benefit given to an all-female crew.

This will be put to the test at the 2023 RC44 World Championship which will have its first all-female team. The nine teams competing will include the class loaner boat campaigned by well-known Cowes skipper Louise Morton on August 9-13 in Cowes, UK.

Although new to the high performance RC44 one design, Morton is far from new to racing with an all-female crew and has enjoyed much success ‘beating up the boys’. Most significantly, against stiff competition, including her vastly experienced husband Peter, she has won, not once but three times, the highly prestigious Quarter Ton Cup on Bullet.

She is also a four-time winner of the Women’s Open Keelboat Championship. Otherwise, her sailing has been extensive from transatlantic and Fastnet Races and numerous RORC seasons, to 30+ Cowes Weeks and inshore regattas from the St Barths Bucket, Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Sardinia, to the Rolex China Sea Race and Phuket King’s Cup. Most recently she has taken to yacht racing in the 5.5mR keelboat class.

“I am really looking forward to it – it is something different,” says Louise. “All of the crew immediately said ‘yes’. For them it is a really exciting opportunity.” Like her last Quarter Tonner, her RC44 will be called Bullet.

With former Olympian Lucy Macgregor as tactician, Louise will be migrating her regular crew across to the new boat, although she has had to expand this. The Bullet crew will comprise Lucy Macgregor, her capable sisters Kate and Nicky; Annie Lush on mainsheet; Dutch Ocean Race sailor Laura van Veen; Annabel Vose; Midge Watkins; Mary Rook, and Abby Childerley.

While with the new rule for 2023, RC44s now typically sail with nine, all-female teams can sail with 10 and their combined crew weight can be 760kg compared to 730kg. However according to Lucy Macgregor they won’t be anywhere near these figures: “We are going to be wildly underweight. We will be ‘eyes wide open’ to work out our own way of sailing the boat, because we won’t have the power that some of the guys have in terms of body weight.”

Up until this year RC44s were regularly sailed with eight, so Lucy says: “I think effectively we’ll have two floaters – someone floating between bow and pit for example and another at the back of the boat.

“We will work all of this out as we go – I’m sure it will be one of those events where we’ll finish the last race wishing we were starting the event again, because we will have learned so much.”

Significantly for Lucy, this regatta will not only reunite her with her sisters but also with her past crew line-ups. She match raced with Lush and younger sister Kate in the Elliott 6m at London 2012 and with Lush and both her sisters when she won the last of her four Women’s Match Racing World Championship titles in 2018.

Both Lucy Macgregor and Louise Morton are impressed by the level of support they have had from other teams and individuals in the 44Cup. Like all the other RC44s, the ‘black boat’ had the same Harken winch and pedestal upgrade.

Over winter she also received a full new paint job, non-skid plus standing and running rigging replacement. On top of this the regular teams are lending them good quality racing sails.

Lucy Macgregor notes how the RC44 has always been on her list of fleets to sail in. “It is a bucket list item for me to have this opportunity to race and race with our own team as well,” she shared. “We’ll be quick learners – we’ll need to be because there are a lot of established teams and some seriously high quality talent across the fleet. We are just looking forward to getting stuck in and trying to make some impact in the class. I can’t wait.”

The 44Cup Cowes starts with practice racing on August 9 with racing proper from August 10 to August 13.

Series Information – Event Details – Facebook

2023 44Cup Schedule
March 1-5 – 44Cup Oman, Muscat
June 28 – July 2 – 44Cup Marstrand, Sweden
August 9-13 – 44Cup Cowes, UK
October 18-22 – 44Cup Alcaidesa Marina, Gibraltar Straight
November 22-26 – 44Cup Calero Marinas, Canary Islands

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