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After a marginal forecast left the nine strong 44Cup fleet parked at the dock until 1300, the Swedish wind gods came good allowing four races to be held in 8-12 knots on the penultimate day of the 44Cup Marstrand World Championship 2019. This helped the schedule recover following no races yesterday due to a lack of wind.

Stand-out performer today was Chris Bake's Team Aqua, which, much like Hugues Lepic's Aleph Racing on day one, scored no race worse than a fifth place. Her resounding 2-5-2-1 scoreline has left Bake's team with a useful eight point advantage going into the final day.

"The boat felt quick and the team was working well together," explained Bake. "I just think it was about not making mistakes. It was flat water so if you could get a clean lane and had your boat speed. All round, it just felt pretty good."

Team Aqua's tactician Cameron Appleton concurred that they were going fast which may have been due to their new sails. "We were very happy with our speed. The sails are phenomenal and that is a big part of it and having a few new gears. Then it was just a matter of high percentage plays and being steady and not trying to do much and being patient in situations."

Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose and unfortunately today was the latter for day two of the 44Cup Marstrand World Championship 2019.

At the skippers briefing in the morning PRO Peter ‘Luigi’ Reggio kept the crews ashore. The race committee then took to the high seas to the west of Marstrand island to check out the conditions. They kept abreast of the situation, on the hour updating crews and owners with news as they waiting patiently in the 44Cup hospitality area on Marstrand’s quayside. However when there was still no wind at 1530, Reggio pulled the plug on racing for the day.

“Forecast was for 6-7 knots and we never saw over 4 - I don’t think at any given time did we have 20 minutes where we could have been sailing, let alone racing,” described Reggio. “The wind was flicking between 180° and 280° and there was no consistency in the puffs going right and the lulls going left or vica versa. Whatever the direction was, was what it wanted to be… It just wasn’t going to work.”

Down on the dock the sailors were making themselves useful as they patiently awaited the outcome. “There has been a bit of breeze in the harbour and I haven’t been out, but I trust Luigi to take the right decision,” said Michele Ivaldi, tactician on Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing, which currently leads the 44Cup Marstrand World Championship 2019 by three points. “It is true that it is light until 10pm but you have to draw the line somewhere. 

“There was one 470 race I did in Kiel may years ago when we had a warning signal at 8pm. But this is a World Championship and it needs to be fair racing with decent breeze. Let’s hope the wind machine switches on tomorrow.”

As to why there was no breeze today, there was been much head scratching. The water temperature off Marstrand is cold while ashore it has been a hot day with brilliant sunshine - in theory the two components required for a sea breeze to develop. And yet it didn’t. 

As to tomorrow, Peter Reggio remains optimistic: “It should be a little bit better than it was today.”

The opening day of the 44Cup Marstrand World Championship 2019 was one of exceptional sailing conditions in 15 knot winds, under brilliant sunshine and usually on top of a short, sharp chop making for an exhilarating, if wet ride for the nine crews competing. 

Despite the relatively stable conditions it was an unusually high scoring day for all but Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing. Winner of the last 2019 44Cup event in Rovinj, Croatia in May, the French team claimed the opening race after winning the start and making the most of the favourable left. However in the next two races they had to fight back from poor starts. With no score worse than a fifth, Aleph Racing leads the World Championship after day one. 

Highlight of the 44Cup season, the World Championship sets sail tomorrow in Marstrand, the sailing mecca on the west coast of Sweden. Nine of the one design owner-driver monohull teams are competing and as usual in this hotly competitive class all boats in the fleet are capable of winning races but success will come down to which can string together the most consistently good score line over the next four days. 

Top of the pile could be Igor Lah’s Team CEEREF, current leaders of the 2019 44Cup. “We are prepared, ready for everything - it just depends on what the starts will look like,” says Lah who won the class’ World Championship in Sotogrande in 2016 and before that in Puerto Calero in 2013. “I love it here in Marstrand because there is more wind and waves and you can catch some surfs - that is what sailing is all about.”

Mid-July sees the 2019 World Championship event for the 44Cup fleet on familiar waters with the 44Cup Marstrand over July 9 to 13, where the locals and sailing fans on this famous Swedish summer holiday hotspot will be rooting for Artemis Racing and her Swedish owner-driver Torbjörn Törnqvist.

The picturesque island of Marstrand, with its New England-style architecture, has been a regular host of the RC44s which have visited annually since 2011, with the exception of 2016. In 2017 and 2018 it was the venue for the RC44 World Championship, which was won both times by Vladimir Prosikhin and Team Nika making them the first ever team to win a hat-trick of 44Cup World Championship titles.   

What to expect from Marstrand

In the far west, where the archipelago ends and the open sea begins, you find the island of Marstrand with Carlsten Fortress at the top. The sailing town and seaside resort Marstrand is a favourite with visitors. It is home to a harbour filled with all kinds of boats, cosy homes along car-free streets, top restaurants and cafées, sun and salty swims, music and spectacle.

A short ferry ride across the strait brings you to the island. On Marstrand, visitors can find both nightlife and quiet tranquillity depending on when they choose to go. Its cosy block, tiny alleys and nooks, the dominating fortress and ocean views at every turn, stir strong emotions. The jetties of Sweden’s largest guest marina are filled to the brim with boats of all sizes and Match Cup makes Marstrand the sailing capital of Sweden.

HOW TO FOLLOW THE RACING 

Make sure you don't miss a moment of the 44Cup World Championship 2019 with our how to watch the racing guide: 

ON THE DOCK

The boats will be moored next to the ferry terminal on Marstrand Island from Monday 8 July. Take a seat close to the shore and listen to the shouts from on board the boats as the fleet fight-it-out just metres in front of you. Practice racing will take place on Tuesday 9 July in preparation for the five days of ultra-competitive racing.

Event schedule 

Tuesday, 9 July
10.00 Practice race briefing 
11.30 1st warning for practice racing 
18.15 Welcome drinks, Marstrands Havshotell

Wednesday, 10 July
10.00 Fleet race briefing 
10.30 VIP morning briefing 
11.00 VIP boat dock out 
11.30 1st warning signal for fleet racing 
16.00 Aftersail buffet 

Thursday, 11 July
10.00 Fleet race briefing 
10.30 VIP morning briefing 
11.00 VIP boat dock out 
11.30 1st warning signal for fleet racing 
16.00 Aftersail buffet 

Friday, 12 July
10.00 Fleet race briefing 
10.30 VIP morning briefing 
11.00 VIP boat dock out 
11.30 1st warning signal for fleet racing 
20.00 44Cup Marstrand Gala Dinner, Sillsalteriet

Saturday, 13 July
10.00 Fleet race briefing 
10.30 VIP morning briefing 
11.00 VIP boat dock out 
11.30 1st warning signal for fleet racing 
15.30 Last warning signal 
16.00 Prize giving ceremony + buffet on the dock 

GUEST EXPERIENCE

The 44Cup Tour was an early adopter of the innovative VIP experience and offers guests the unique opportunity to experience the thrill of high-performance yacht racing from right in the middle of the action.

For selected guests, the opportunity to be onboard during racing is a once in a lifetime experience. Guests are transferred by RIB onto the RC44 boats where they will meet the team and take their place at the back of the boat. They then sit back and enjoy the ride as the best sailors in the world battle for their position on the race course. 

The 44Cup ask all guests wishing to go out on the water to bring practical shoes and a waterproof coat. 

FOLLOW THE RACING ONLINE 

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The blog will be active on the 44Cup homepage as soon as the event starts. 

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Next week nine RC44 teams, from six nations, will compete in the Swedish sailing mecca of Marstrand for the hotly-contested 2019 44Cup World Championship title.

The top boat over the season so far, after two light wind events in the Adriatic, is two time 44Cup champion Igor Lah and his Team CEEREF, but only just. With only a two point gap to bridge to first place, three teams are tied on 8 points. Aleph Racing with Michele Ivaldi as tactician, Team Nika with Tom Slingsby calling the shots and Peninsula Petroleum featuring Ed Baird on tactics will all be in the hunt and Team CEEREF’s British tactician Adrian Stead knows they will have to be on their game to stay ahead by the end of the week. 

Having tried out the 44Cup in Marstrand in 2018, enjoying their first full season on the high performance one design monohull circuit this year is Pavel Kuznetsov’s Tavatuy Sailing Team. 

While there are at present two other Russian 44Cup teams, on board Team Nika owner Vladimir Prosikhin is one of just two Russians among the crew while on Bronenosec Sailing, there is a Kiwi tactician and Italian pitman. In comparison Tavatuy Sailing Team’s crew is 100% Russian. In the past this might have seemed to be a disadvantage, however over the years so much Russian skill and knowledge has been acquired through successful, winning campaigns such as Bronenosec Sailing and Synergy, that the pool of experienced Russian RC44 sailors today is extensive. Many of the sailors on board Tavatuy Sailing Team for example, including tactician Evgeny Neugodnikov, Russia’s leading match racing skipper, were part of the Synergy campaign. And the prospect of Tavatuy Sailing Team getting to the top of the pile soon in the 44Cup is a very real one. The team comes to the circuit having won back to back World Championship titles against international crews in the highly competitive Melges 32 class. 

As the cutting edge of sailing technology continues to pursue flying boats, faster speeds and ground breaking design you many wonder how much longer a 12 year old one-design monohull racing class like the 44Cup can hold on?

But hold on it does, and much more than that, it is still regularly attracting the likes of Tom Slingsby, Ray Davies, Dean Barker. For 2019 America’s Cup and multiple TP52 championship winning helm Ed Baird returns to the fleet as tactician for John Bassadone’s Peninsula Petroleum, taking the place of Italian tactician Vasco Vascotto, who steps away after nine years with the team to focus on his America’s Cup campaign with Luna Rossa.

Baird is no stranger to the 44Cup having raced in the past with Synergy Russian Sailing Team, Team Nika and Katusha. 

So what draws him back? “For me the reason people are dedicated to classes like the 44Cup and the TP52s is for the level of competition, it’s not for the technology. There is a different group of people for the full speed foiling boats, of a different mindset, that like the heavily technology-orientated type of sailing. Some of those people crossover and do both, but just because there is more technology and something can go faster it does not make the racing better. 

“In the 44Cup what you see is people like Slingsby, Iain Percy, Cameron Appleton and myself here because the racing is very good and we are getting phone calls from people in the America’s Cup teams that are wishing they could sail more because the Cup boats right now don’t exist, they are just in their computers. The racing is happening here.

“One of the great things about the 44Cup concept is the mix of amateurs and professionals in the crew. The amateurs are very good and so when the owners come to these races, they get on the boat and everything works very nicely for them. It’s a simple process for the owners to step on and go racing.

“It is essential to understand the skill of the owner, what they are comfortable and uncomfortable doing, so we can place the boat in the best position on the race course, as we can. Each of us is also trying to damage the position of the other teams at the same time which makes it an interesting game and very special in this class. 

“To be a tactician on an owner driver racing circuit is not easy. It requires a very specialised skill set, as you are essentially racing the world’s best sailors through the hands of an amateur owner who often has limited sailing experience, very little free time and business commitments tugging at his attention throughout the day. It’s a tough job.

“Another highlight of the 44Cup is we race in these amazing venues and we see the high competition every time. As tacticians our job really is to manage all of the key pieces of information for a new venue; to prepare ahead of the event, to take in the new race course and to learn quickly what works.  

“Lots of people ask us about the comparability between the 44Cup and the America’s Cup and new circuits like SailGP, but it is a very different set-up. The primary difference to an America’s Cup campaign is that in the Cup you come to work every day trying, with limited time, to out-perform every other smart person in the world in a technological game. 

“In the 44Cup every single day the guys come down and look to have an enjoyable experience on the water and do their best on the race course, but also be friendly and happy at the end of the day, so the intensity is very different. There isn’t the everyday pressure or secrecy - here the teams are very open with each other. They work together but when we race, we race hard. 

“It’s also important to remember that the amateur guys on each boat are taking time out of work to be here to do what they enjoy. They will not be perfect but they will try their hardest and that is really fun to watch and to be part of. It’s a different way of thinking”.  

This morning Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing scored their third bullet out of four races, increasing their five point lead at the day’s start to a massive 10. Ultimately a fourth place in today’s second and final race handed the French team victory at the Adris 44Cup Rovinj. This was a considerable step up from their third to last place at the first 44Cup event of the season in Montenegro in April. But more spectacular was it being 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, dripping after taking his victor’s plunge in the water of the ACI Marina Rovinj. “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.”

What a sensational night for the Adris 44Cup Rovinj with dinner around the infinity pool of the newly opened Maistra Collection's Grand Park Hotel Rovinj and  an unforgettable open air concert by legendary Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, while our world-renowned cello player Stjepan Hauser has made a perfect concert overture on Monte Mulini Bay. 

While conditions seemed similar to yesterday with a light northwesterly, results on day three of the Adris 44Cup Rovinj demonstrated how fortunes between the slippery, high performance RC44 one design monohulls and their ultra-competitive crews can change in a heartbeat. 

London-based Frenchman Hugues Lepic's Aleph Racing was top scorer in yesterday's three races, just. But today, the bit between her teeth, she was runaway leader. 

In race one Torbjörn Törnqvist's Artemis Racing, this week helmed by Sarah Gunderson, was a nose in front at the windward mark, but on the first run Aleph Racing benefitted from hanging on to starboard longer and by the leeward gate were in front. They maintained their position while Artemis Racing's second propelled her in to the lead overall as Team CEEREF's fortunes plummeted, coming home eighth. 

Aleph Racing proved this was no fluke when in the second race they started well and made the most of the left this time taking the lead on the first beat. Once again they clung on, scoring their second bullet.

After yesterday’s multi-faceted single race, conditions settled down with a 10-12 knot northwesterly allowing three races to be held on the second day of the Adris 44Cup Rovinj. With Rovinj’s picture postcard old town forming the backdrop, the sun out and a relatively stable breeze, the 2019 44Cup’s Croatian stopover lived up to tourist board promises. 

Despite the much more stable conditions compared to yesterday, the racing served up some unusual results, although the sole constant is the resilient grip the local heroes from nearby Slovenia, Igor Lah’s Team CEEREF, hold on first place. 

A difficult opening day of the Adris 44Cup Rovinj saw just one race completed and a worthy winner in Igor Lah’s Team CEEREF. But perhaps never in the history of the 44Cup have so many different teams led during one race. 

As Peninsula Petroleum tactician, America’s Cup winning helmsman Ed Baird observed: “There was a lot going on – everyone had a taste of the lead and everyone had a taste of not leading.”  

 After a southeasterly had developed enough to cause the fleet to be called out of their berths in ACI Marina Rovinj, the wind died, but the race officials spotted an area of northerly breeze up 

For the nine teams due to set sail tomorrow in the Adris 44Cup Rovinj there have been two distractions today – the torrential rain, forecast to depart the Istrian Peninsula before the start of racing tomorrow, and the ancient, densely spaced terracotta-roofed buildings and giant baroque basilica of St Euphemia of Rovinj’s old town. 

This view – the Croatian tourist board’s top image illustrating ‘Istria’ - will form the backdrop to this week’s four days of 44Cup racing. Exploiting this magnificent view is also key to the architecture of Maistra’s brand new Grand Park Hotel Rovinj, the opening of which is the reason the 44Cup is here.

Since the high performance one designs last visited Rovinj for their World Championship in 2012, Adris Group’s hotel company Maistra has constructed this 5 star masterpiece. The Grand Park Hotel Rovinj is also located by the new ACI Marina Rovinj, which features 196 berths for regular boats and superyachts. Both hotel and marina are being formally launched with celebrations this Saturday. 

Local organiser Marko Misura explains: “They have built a new hotel and a new marina here, so it seemed a natural place to organise a sailing event celebrating that, because we want to make this a sailing destination in the future.”

While there are no Croatian teams, several crew who live just an hour away in Slovenia sail on board Team Nika. Owner Vladimir Prosikhin is also a Rovinj fan. “It is a good place to sail and it’s beautiful - both are important. Sometimes it is a bit light, but generally it is very good, with a good marina which is close to the course.” Prosikhin is reeling from a bad result in a Melges 20 event recently – will that motivate him to do better now that he’s back in his favourite class? “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger,” he says, quoting Nietzsche.   

This week the boat to beat will be the one with the golden wheels, signifying it as the 2019 44Cup’s leader - currently Igor Lah’s Team CEEREF. Tactician Adrian Stead admits this is his first time racing here: “The forecast says we’ll be getting 5-14 knots of sea breeze, which should be good. We will be in for another event of incredibly tough racing. This season we have one win under our belts. We’d like to feel we can put in another strong performance here to go into the Worlds feeling confident about our speed.” 

At the first event of the season in Montenegro, Stead says they learned that no 44Cup teams are weak, as demonstrated by Pavel Kuznetsov’s Tavatuy Sailing Team. Despite starting out on its first full season on the circuit, the Russian team finished half way up the leaderboard. 

There, finishing uncharacteristically at the bottom of the leaderboard, was Nico Poons’ Charisma. To prevent this recurring, the team has acquired a ‘big gun’ tactician in America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race winner John Kostecki. 

“Last year we had Ray [Davies] and we were having different thoughts about where to go. Now we are trying out this setting,” explains Poons. Kostecki has sailed once previously with Charisma and Poons hopes the chemistry will be good. 

So what is Kostecki’s view of the 44Cup? “It has always been very competitive and the level keeps getting higher and higher. It is good to see,” he says. As to whether he can continue his winning streak, he is less confident. “The RC44 is such a different boat. There are different techniques and styles to sailing it. It isn’t going to be easy.”

First warning signal for racing tomorrow will be at 1200. On Sunday the 44Cup fleet will have a sail-past off the Grand Park Hotel Rovinj while on Friday and Saturday the finish line of the last race will be within the harbour. 

After a successful start to the 2019 44Cup last month in Porto Montenegro, the nine one-design RC44s have travelled 840km north up the Adriatic coast to Rovinj, Croatia, for event two: The Adris 44Cup Rovinj. over the 30 May– 2 June.

Having first raced off the picturesque, historic town of Rovinj in 2011 and then returned again in 2012 for the World Championship, many of the teams will have a good feel for what to expect. Especially as, typically for the RC44 fleet, many of the original crews are still racing together.

In fact, of the 2012 World Championship winning team Peninsula Petroleum, who snatched the title from Team Aqua on the final day of racing with a clear flush of race wins, four of the seven crew - German Panei, Robin Imaz, Pablo Rosano and Mikel Pasabant Quintian - are still racing alongside owner John Bassadone. 

For 2019 Peninsula Petroleum has seen their effervescent Italian tactician Vasco Vascotto step away after seven years to focus on his America’s Cup campaign with Luna Rossa, to be replaced by legendary American tactician Ed Baird. The America’s Cup-winning helmsman is looking forward to the upcoming event: “My experience in Croatia, generally, has been mostly light winds.  Having said that, there can always be days that bring more breeze and the racing has always been challenging, with different conditions nearly every time.  It requires the whole team to stay alert and work through a variety of conditions, but that’s why we like it,” explains Baird.

Main rivals to Peninsula Petroleum this year are Igor Lah’s Team CEEREF, Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika and Chris Bake’s Team Aqua which currently hold the podium positions respectively on the 44Cup leaderboard.

The event will once again be supported by Adris and hosted in total luxury as the 44Cup becomes part of the opening ceremony for the impressive new Maistra Collection Grand Park Hotel Rovinj and ACI Marina. 

 “It is a beautiful place for sailing, the conditions are normally quite benign rewarding good light wind technique.The fact that the boats perform great between 5 and 25 knots which means we always get lots of racing,” added Iain Percy, main trimmer on Artemis Racing. 

With the opening of the Grand Park Hotel Rovinj in April 2019, Adris grupa completes the Monte Mulini area building project, one of the most luxurious tourist areas in the Adriatic. The area, which is located in the immediate vicinity of the Old Town of Rovinj, includes hotels Monte Mulini (2009), a boutique hotel tailored to the highest standards of luxury leisure guests and Lone, the first Croatian design hotel opened in 2011. The recently renovated Hotel Eden completes the list.

To find out more about the Adris 44Cup Rovinj or to follow the racing live join us from the 30May at www.44Cup.org or the Maistra Collection www.maistra.com.

Australian Laser gold medallist turned America’s Cup sailor Tom Slingsby has returned to the 44Cup this season after a five year hiatus to join Team Nika as tactician for Vladimir Prosikhin. This follows his time on board Nico Poons’ Charisma during the Monaco-based Dutchman’s second year in the RC44 class in which they won the first event of the season in Malta. Before that Slingsby raced with Dutch future Vendée Globe sailor Pieter Heerema on board No Way Back. 

In recent years Slingsby has been a major feature of the Larry Ellison’s Oracle Team, strategist on their winning AC72 in San Francisco and then as tactician and team manager for the team’s AC50 defence in Bermuda (thanks to his American mother he holds joint US-Australian nationality although he is ostensibly 100% Australian). Most recently he has been appointed skipper of the Australian team on the new Coutts-Ellison SailGP flying catamaran circuit. 

The good news for Team Nika is that the length of time the crew has sailed together as well as their calibre, means there is a very sound base from which to work. “Vladimir has sailed with Tomaz (Copi) and Zach (Zachary Hurst) on the trim for a long time – so there is a strong core team, they all trust each other and understand each other well. It is easy for me jumping into this.”

It was perhaps for this reason that despite having a new tactician Team Nika still finished second at the first event of the 2019 44Cup in Montenegro. There Slingsby felt they were being too ambitious: “At the starts we were fighting for the ends and we should really have taken a step away from that and gone back to the basics, looking for a bit more room on the line. I hope by the next event we’ll have that all sorted.”

Surprisingly jumping between F50 flying catamaran to RC44 to Etchell doesn’t represent a huge problem to Slingsby. “It is actually easy provided if I am sailing these boats regularly, ie I’ve sailed the RC44 in the last five years, which isn’t the case right now! But once I’ve relearned the boat I’ll be fine and I won’t find it hard to make the transition.”

More generally Slingsby says he believe he has hung up his Olympic sailing boots although he is still very keen to help the Australian sailing team in any way he can. Most recently for example he was sailing the Finn and even competed in the Finn Gold Cup but he says that this was a month long campaign and he didn’t hold much in the way of expectations for it - it was more a means of helping the rest of the Aussie Finn squad. Given that Australia holds four of the top 15 positions in the Laser, he feels that they are also looking in good shape on the run up to Tokyo 2020. “If I could help them improve I’d love to be a part of that.”

While Slingsby wants to travel less, there seems to be no let-up in his sailing in Australia. His favourite personal boat when at home in Sydney is the Moth and he is excited by the prospect of the next World Championship for the tiny flying singlehanded dinghy taking place in Perth in early December. On Sydney Harbour he also has a regular ride in the MC38 one design fleet, which like the 44Cup is a highly competitive, high performance fleet benefitting from a strong group of owners, although their competition is exclusively limited to Sydney Harbour.  

And has he offered Vladimir a ride on his Australian F50? “Not yet, although I’m sure he’d love it,” concludes Slingsby.

The 44Cup crews were taken out of their comfort zone today for the 44Cup Porto Montenegro navigator’s race, a pro-am event for the usual nine teams, but with more guest racers on board. 

After a wait for the wind to fill in, Mother Nature duly obliged with it arriving from the southeast for the first time this week. With the navigator’s race taking the boats through the narrow channel between the Bay of Tivat and the Bay of Kotur, the RC44s were set off on an America’s Cup-style reaching start – a first for this in a long time for the high performance one design monohulls. 

The boats sped towards the line, popping open their gennakers seconds before crossing – a great sight for the assembled spectator fleet and a once in a lifetime experience for the on-board guests.

The boats barrelled along towards the straight heavily pressed up, reaching - not a point of sail these windward-leeward machines often experience. Sadly as they approached the straight the wind evaporated with the onset of rain. The tacticians on board tiptoed their boats from vein of wind to vein of wind, but ultimately making little progress. To put the crews out of their misery, PRO Peter Reggio cancelled the race and the boats returned to Porto Montenegro and into the welcoming arms of the Regent Hotel. At the time the race was stopped Team Nika was out in front, ahead of Bronenosec Sailing, Artemis Racing and Peninsula Petroleum.  

As this was non-scoring in the 44Cup’s annual championship, some of the owner-drivers handed over the wheel. On board Team Nika for example, steering today was a mix of bowman Jeremy Lomas and tactician Tom Slingsby – who with his background in the America’s Cup and most recently SailGP is one of the sailors most experienced in reaching starts. 

Meanwhile Team Nika’s owner Vladimir Prosikhin was taking the opportunity to trim mainsheet. “The race isn’t scored so I wanted to feel the same as my main trimmer and to understand him better,”  said Prosikhin with a smile. “Also the other goal was to scream and yell at the helmsman – like they scream and yell at me!”

Most of the guest sailors today were from the Yacht Club Porto Montenegro, part of the magnificent Porto Montenegro complex.  

James Wates, Admiral of the Porto Montenegro Yacht Club said he had enjoyed the week: “It has been fantastic, a great event, really good to see the RC44s on the water, top class powerful boats having fun. The racing was pretty competitive and it was great to see. It is certainly the highest level sailing we’ve had here in Porto Montenegro. 

“We’d love to see the 44Cup come back. We’ve had a lot of fun and there’s an open invitation…” 

The Bay of Tivat came good for the final day of the 44Cup Porto Montenegro with three races held and a most worthy winner in Igor Lah’s Team CEEREF. The Slovenian team led this first event of the 2019 44 Cup from the outset. Today neither they nor Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika won a race, but showed impeccable consistency, both enjoying a trio of podium place results, elevating Team Nika from fourth to second overall. 

Today’s opening race got underway in light conditions, but eminently race-able by the nimble RC44s. In this Chris Bake’s Team Aqua won the pin and then match raced Team CEEREF for the duration, ultimately finishing ten boatlengths ahead. 

“We missed doing another two of those,” said Chris Bake. “It was a little shifty, but the boat was set up well. A big rotation of team members required work this week, but they seemed to be doing pretty well. The venue is magnificent - phenomenal infrastructure-wise.”

On Thursday, Kirill Frolov on Bronenosec Sailing should have won the first race, holding a massive lead until their spinnaker exploded. The St Petersburg Yacht Club team made up for this in today’s second race. After a giant split left and right up the first beat, they chose the favoured left and followed Team CEEREF at the top mark. Then John Bassadone’s Peninsula Petroleum took the right side of the run to claim the lead. Finally on the next upwind Bronenosec edged ahead, led at the top mark and on to the finish. 

Dramatic cloud formations over the mountains surrounding the Bay of Tivat and an overcast sky suggested that 44Cup Porto Montenegro competitors would be in for another day of adrenalin-filled competition in winds in the high teens. 

In the event the wind started dropping almost the moment the timing for the sequence was announced. As Andy Horton, tactician on Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing recounted: “We went out and there was that big black line to windward of us and we said ‘Torbjörn put on your boots we’ve seen it rain and hail here’. Because the breeze was up, we put up our J2s on and did our tune-up.” 

But then it all changed: “With the pre-start a couple of minutes away, the cloud split and one part went down the right and one went down the left and all of a sudden the wind dropped out and it was a quick fluster for everyone to get their genoas on. We didn’t hoist ours until 3.5-4 minutes out and a few were later. So we were straight into genoas with no training.”

Artemis Racing won the pin but was held up from tacking by the boats above her. Nonetheless the left side seemed to pay off up until the very top of the beat when coming in from the right the new Russian 44Cup team, Pavel Kuznetsov’s Tavatuy Sailing Team scored a major coup rounding the weather mark first with Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika also slipping in ahead of Artemis Racing, the Swedish RC44 relegated to third. 

With the wind going soft and left on the run, the course axis was adjusted and the course shortened for the next upwind. On this Tavatuy Sailing Team took the left as Artemis Racing and Team Nika went right. On this occasion the right paid with Team Nika slowly easing ahead. With the wind dropping to nothing across the bay, the race was shortened at the top mark. Team Nika and Artemis Racing ghosted across the line, the Russian team taking her second bullet of the 44Cup Porto Montenegro. 

“When the wind is dying you have to keep moving,” explained Team Nika’s Vladimir Prosikhin. “We were pretty close to Artemis. They tacked and tried to leebow us, but in these conditions that was almost impossible. I had some boat speed and they had to go 5° lower just to accelerate to our speed for 10-15 seconds, so that created a gap and we were completely safe by the finish. For us it was a nice race. We didn’t make mistakes like we did in previous races.”

Yesterday was not the best for Team Nika - OCS in one start and picking up a penalty in another dropping them from a close second to a lowly fourth. Aside from their starting, Prosikhin attributed Thursday’s issues to bedding in the rig after having changing all their standing rigging. “We struggled with the speed a bit and the fleet is so equal that everyone comes together which shows the level of the fleet. Tiny differences can change your position from first to last. That is what makes this class so special.”

 According to Andy Horton on Artemis Racing closing on the finish there wasn’t enough wind even to tack the mainsail’s battens. The situation was far worse for the boats astern many of whom stopped dead in the water for several minute before the lightest of winds finally filled in, albeit from the north, forcing the tailenders to finish the upwind leg under spinnaker. 

After a pause the fleet was sent ashore, and after a patience wait, racing was concluded for the day. As Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio explained: “The breeze never really materialised until late in the afternoon. If we started them then the race would have turned out bad, plus the lights would have go out. Tomorrow it will be catch-as-catch-can.” Que sera sera. However to make up for the loss in schedule the time for the last warning signal has been protracted to 1700 CET, the last time a warning signal can be made. 

Today’s race has left Igor Lah’s Team CEEREF still leading but with John Bassadone’s Peninsula Petrolum now up to second ahead of Chris Bake’s Team Aqua. Fourth placed Team Nika has closed the gap on the podium down to three points.  

While the sun was out and the rain held off, Porto Montenegro presented a challenging second day of 44Cup racing, starting in 10 knots and building to 20 by the close of play mid-afternoon. A light patch around the committee boat helped create nail-biting photo finishes in two of today’s three races. 

Igor Lah’s Team CEEREF comfortably won race two and holds the lead overall by two points at this halfway stage of the 44Cup Porto Montenegro. 

Kirill Frolov’s Bronenosec Sailing appeared to have the first race squared away, with a massive lead on the final run, only for her gennaker to blow up. Frolov explained: “It wasn’t a good hoist at the second top mark. We went higher than we should have done and we were left with some big holes in the genniker. It was fine on starboard but when we gybed it was terrible.” Anticipating there might be a problem, they were all set up to peel only to discover that the spinnaker halyard was jammed at the masthead. 

As Bronenosec’s Kiwi tactician Cameron Dunn observed: “We got a massive header during the hoist, that caused the halyard jump the sheave. With the rips in the chute we thought we had a big enough lead to sail conservatively and do the run in one gybe. Unfortunately after we gybed it only lasted about 30 seconds…” The Russian team salvaged a fifth but then had to send a crew aloft to release the halyard and drop the head of the blown sail. 

This left John Bassadone's Peninsula Petroleum to win the lunge for the line ahead of Chris Bake’s Team Aqua. 

“It was a little bit of the nature of here,” expounded Bassadone of his welcome victory. “Conditions are very shifty, very tricky so you have you stick with it and, as Ed [Baird – Peninsula Petroleum’s new tactician] keeps telling us ‘be patient, be patient’. It was premeditated to delay gybing and we found more pressure but also more space to accelerate and managed to nip in ahead at the end.”

While Peninsula Petroleum is the only team so far with no result deeper than a fifth, today’s best score came from Chris Bake’s Team Aqua on which keelboat legend Peter Morton was helming, today being only his second ever in the high performance one design class. Team Aqua’s 2-4-1 made her best scoring boat, elevating her to second overall ahead of Peninsula Petroleum. 

Morton, who aside from reigniting the Quarter Ton class and dominating the first two seasonsFAST 40+ class has campaigned in most of the top one design and box rule classes over the last decades, observed of the 44Cup: “The racing is amazing. I haven’t steered a boat with a wheel for 12 years, apart from a couple of superyachts! The Team Aqua crew is fantastic and there lots of coaching, which is good.