RC44 Cagliari Cup

Another great day for Artemis Racing/Katusha. It was a full 25 knot mistral on the race course and two races of the planned three races were held as most of the newer boats in the fleet suffered some sort of damage. The fleet has now grown to 15 boats which makes for very interesting and exciting racing.

Katusha, with owner Gennadi Timchenko driving for the first time since last October, has a 2, 6 in the windy conditions. After a great start at the committee boat, we were actually leading for a short time in the first race. TeamAqua sailed very well and passed us up the second windward leg. Still, we were very happy with the second place.

In the second race Katusha got to the first windward mark in 5th place but our bowsprit broke on the first run and we lost a few boats. Up the second windward leg, we passed two boats back while our crew jury rigged our bowsprit. We hung on down the final run to finish 6th. Very good job by our crew.

Artemis Racing meanwhile sailed very consistently finishing 4, 3. Torbjorn Tornqvist is very experienced at sailing in the strong winds of Cagliari and it showed today.

TeamAqua’s performance of 1, 4 showed that keeping the team together for so many years is valuable. Danny Calero sailed his Puerto Calero very fast as well, getting a 3, 2 and ending the day tied with TeamAqua for the top spot.

The forecast for tomorrow is continued mistral. Hopefully, it won’t be too strong. Racing continues through Sunday.

For complete results go to; www.rc44.com

Paul

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RC44 Cagliari Cup

Great day for Artemis Racing. Both Artemis and Katusha won all their matches today, four wins for Katusha and three for Artemis. This puts Katusha in a tie with TeamAqua for first place at this event and Artemis in a tie with ORACLE for third place. Not sure at this time how the ties will be broken.

The are now 15 boats in the fleet, so five boats sit out any given flight of races while ten battle.

The wind today was a mild Southeasterly that never built over 12 knots and softened in the afternoon. Nothing too spectacular to report. We were a little rusty on Katusha in the first match but were lucky enough to win and get better as the day went on.

Tomorrow a Mistral is forecast to arrive and last for three days. The Mistral brings 20-30 knots of wind from the Northwest. This should make for exciting sailing with 15 of these RC44s on a short course.

For complete results go to www.rc44.com

Paul

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Bol d’Or

Geneva,

It was a pretty fast race this year as a strong south westerly breeze pushed the fastest boats, the D35’s down to the east end of the lake in 2,5 hours, right on record time. However the way back was slower as the wind died in a few spots.

Over 500 boats started this classic lake geneva race on four different staring lines.

Alinghi led the D35 class early and won the race while being challenged by Foncia most of the way. There was a bit of shuffling but not huge parking lots.

On board Artemis Racing we did not do well at all, beating just one boat in our class. We did not sail particularly fast nor the right way in a few key moments.

At the east end of the lake the wind came up to 22 knots and the waves were about 1 meter. That is a difficult sea way in these light air machines. We dug the bow in pretty hard a couple of times.

Now there is a summer break for the D35 racing and the last two regattas of the season will be in the south of France, the first one the first weekend of September.

For complete results go to www.Vulcaintrophy.com

Paul

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D35 Sogeti Cup

Geneva,

Artemis Racing had two excellent scores in the first two races of the day with a 2, 4 and had taken the lead in the regatta.

At the first mark of the third race, Okalys, crashed into us while on port tack and that ended our day. As we were on starboard tack, we applied to the jury for redress and it was granted. The jury has quite wide discretion as to how they award redress. They could have averaged our points of the regatta to that point, discarding the worst score as that was how the scoring was done at that point. We would have been awarded 2.6 points per race in that case. The other extreme was to award us the average of all our scores including the discarded race. That would have resulted in 3.8 points per race. They chose the later and we finished second for the weekend.

With four regattas now complete, Artemis Racing is tied for second place with Volti Group in the D35 season championship with Focia winning. This being our first season in the class, we have to be pretty happy with that!

Next Saturday is the Bol d’Or, the race that will start in Geneva, take the fleet to Montreux at the opposite end of the lake some 50 miles away and back to Geneva.

This race can take anywhere for 5 to 25 hours. Drifting for hours followed by thunder squalls is not uncommon. Boats leading the entire race and then falling out of the wind 1 mile from the finish is also not uncommon. It will be my first Bol d’Or and it should be interesting.

For complete results go to www.vulcaintrophy.com

Paul

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D35 Sogeti Cup

Geneva, Switzerland

I did not realize that yesterday’s Geneve-Rolle-Geneve was a stand alone race and counts in the season championship as a regatta, same value as the first two regattas were we finished 3rd and 5th respectively. So after yesterday’s 2nd place, Artemis Racing was tied for first place in the season with Foncia and Velti Group. That was pleasant news but there is still a long way to go for the season.

Today was the first day of the Sogeti Cup. The wind was very light on Lake Geneva and only two races were held. Onboard Artemis Racing we managed a 2, 7 and are in 3rd place on the leader board for the Sogeti Cup, 2 points behind Okalys and Velti Group.

The winds were 6 knots max and mostly 3-4 knots. Still the D35s sail at twice the wind speed so the racing is fast and fun. Torbjorn continues to enjoy the catamaran sailing and is learning fast.

Tomorrow racing continues at 1300.

For complete results go to www.vulcaintrophy.com

Paul

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D-35 Geneve-Rolle-Geneve

Geneva

Great day for Artemis Racing today on Lake Geneva. With Torbjorn Tornqvist at the helm, we finished second in the 28 mile “offshore” race known as the “Geneve-Rolle-Geneve”. 300 boats participated in the classic which has taken place for more than 60 years. The starting line was 1 mile long and divided into three parts to spread the fleet.

There was less than 2 knots of wind at the start and the fleet made slow progress during the first hour. Foncia, with Michele Desjoyeaux at the helm, took the lead early and never relinquished it. Lady Cat of Donna Bertarelli was up at the front for the first half of the race along with Julius.

But it was the run back to Geneva that proved to be decisive. Yvan Ravussin, headsail trimmer onboard Artemis Racing, called for sticking close to the western shore on the return and this prove to be a winning move. Yvan has lived and raced his whole life on Lake Geneva and knows the winds as well as anyone. Yvan is also the world speed record holder for sailing as part of the Banque Popular crew that set the record of 908 miles in 24 hours a few years ago while setting the transatlantic record at 3 days 15 hours.

On the run back, the wind built to 11 knots and we were hitting 21 knots of boat speed. Torbjorn’s was not able to hide his grin and that was before we passed 8 boats to finish second! Todays race had a 1.5 factor which is nice.

Tomorrow and Monday, racing continues in front of Geneva with windward leeward courses, up to four races per day.

For complete results go to www.vulcaintrophy.com

Paul

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