RC 44 Croatia

Three races were held today for the RC44 fleet in light winds topping out at 7 knots.

Aqua continued their form from yesterday maintaining their lead in this regatta. Cereef is keeping consistent and is second overall. Aleph and Oracle had good days and are tied for third.

Artemis had a pretty good day with scores of 9, 4, 5 and are now in 5th place overall just 1 point out of 3rd place. Katusha had a good first race then struggled and scored 4, 10, 10 and are in 9th place.

Racing concludes tomorrow. The forecast is for more of the same light winds and bright sunshine.

For complete results go to www.rc44.com

Paul

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RC 44 Croatia

Rovinj

The perfect weather allowed the Race Committee to serve up 4 races again today here in Rovinj. The bright sunshine and 10 knots sea breeze made for a perfect day of racing…third in a row really. And the forecast is for the conditions to remain the same through the end of the event on Sunday.

Team Aqua had the best day today with scores of 2, 4, 1, 1 and took and handy 7 point lead in the event at 30 points. Cereef followed closely with 3,3,3,1 for the second best day and moved into a tie for third with yesterday’s co-leader Artemis, each with 40 points. Islas Carnarias scored 20 points today and is in second place with 37 points. Yesterday’s other co-leader Oracle Racing scored 26 points on the day and slipped to 5th place.

Onboard Katusha we had a bit better day scoring 26 points for the day, 12 points less than our abysmal day yesterday. Finishing second in the last race was a nice way to end the day. We moved up to a tie for 8th place with Ironbound at 64 points.

Tomorrow the President of Croatia is coming to visit the event and attend the gala dinner. There are three races on schedule for tomorrow.

For complete results go to www.rc44.com

Paul

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RC 44 Croatia

Rovinj

4 races were held today in 6-13 knots.

Artemis had a good day.

Katusha had a bad day.

For complete results go to www.rc44.com

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RC 44 Croatia

Rovinj, Croatia

First, this place is beautiful. I was last here in 1990 for the ACI Match Racing Regatta. The town is charming, the water perfectly clear, and the locals are very friendly and happy to host this international competition.

Today was the Match Racing day of the event. The technical committee decided to shorten the races to one lap as the fleet has grown to 15 boats and only ten teams (five pairs) can race at a time on the race course.

On board Katusha we raced in six races today and won five across the line but ended up with three points. The main reason for this was a penalty call in our first race. There are plenty of situations out there and we all get calls that go against us, but this one “remarkable” and it cost us two points.

Anyway, we crossed the line first in five of our six matches. The one we lost on the water was against ORACLE Racing. We led at the top mark but were hesitant to match them in the first gybe and they rolled us for the win.

So, it was a long day with a bit of frustration. But that’s racing.

Tomorrow starts the fleet racing which will continue through Sunday.

For complete results go to www.rc44.com

Paul

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RC 44 Sweden

Good sailing conditions were served up today in Marstrand. With 10-15 knots of wind from the South, Peter Reggio was able to get three races in for the RC44 fleet.

Neither Artemis Racing nor Katusha had a very good day which capped off not a very good regatta for us. Artemis finished 8th for the series and Katusha 10th.

Team Aqua rose to the occasion with a strong challenge from a much improved Ceeref. Puerto Calero sailed well in the last two days to move up to third.

Marstrand was a great host to the fleet and I would not be surprised if we’re back here next year.

Next stop for the fleet is Roving, Croatia at the end of September. I last raced in Roving in 1990 when we used to have a match race event there called the ACY Cup. Roving is a very nice little fishing village on Croatia’s West coast about three hours south of Trieste, Italy. I am looking forward to going back.

Artemis Racing will be competing the D35 event in Beaulieu, France from 1-4 September and then in the AC45 World Series event in Plymouth from 8-18 September.

For complete results go to www.rc44.com

Paul

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RC 44 Sweden

30 knots winds and 3 meter seas were waiting for the fleet this morning and forced race officer Peter Luigi Reggio to hold the fleet ashore until 1400.

Thereafter, two nice races were sailed. The first in 15 dropping to 10 knots and the second in 10 to 8 knots. The forecast had the wind moving left all day but it did the opposite.

Team Aqua had the best day with a 2, 4 closely followed by Cereef with a 5, 2.

The Artemis Racing team had a late night last night preparing for today’s racing. After the collision yesterday, the KSSS team offered their boat to Artemis for the remainder of the series as they are guests just racing in this event and Artemis is a contender for the entire season. This was a generous offer by the host club of Artemis’ entry to the America’s Cup and very appreciated.

Naturally, the crew of Artemis felt more comfortable with their mast and sails so they changed the rig last night and worked until midnight to get the boat race ready. This morning they were out sailing in the shelter of the harbor to check everything.

Artemis had a reasonable day today with a 7 and a 6 to move up to 5th overall. Onboard Katusha we did not have a great day with a 11, 12 and fell to 11th overall.

Tomorrow is the last day of racing and the forecast is for nice conditions with 8 to 12 knots and sunshine.

For complete results go to www.rc44.com

Paul

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RC 44 Sweden

It was a wet and dreary day weather wise but there was a bit of wind and the Petter Reggio and his race committee managed to get in three good races.

Katusha and Artemis both had two scores in the first two races. Katusha with a 3, 2 and Artemis with a 4, 5. The wind was 6-9 knots most of the day but very volatile as the easterly wind was coming off the land. Both teams sailed well to post those scores. Aleph also sailed well in those two races scoring one point more than Katusha.

Just prior to the start of the third race, Artemis was involved in a serious collision which took Artemis out for the day. They are assessing the damage and will make a plan tonight for the rest of the series.

Onboard Katusha, we had a poor third race. We just seemed to be on the wrong side of the shifts and ultimately finished 12th.

Katusha is in 4th place over all, just 6 points out of first place, which is just fine with two more days of racing to go. There will be more heartache and frustration out on that race track before it is all said and done. So plenty of points to be gained and lost. The top 9 boats are all within 8 points!

No Way back leads with 21 points, followed by Aleph on 22, and Aqua on 26.

For complete scores and updates go to www.rc44.com

Paul

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RC 44 Sweden

The fleet racing portion of the event got underway today. Unfortunately the wind was very fickle and only allowed for one very light wind race. There was an abundance of sunshine though which made for a pleasant day.

Artemis Racing with Torbjorn Tornqvist at the helm sailed a great first windward leg and first run to hold a commanding lead at the half way point. Up the second windward leg, Artemis went to the left side while Ceref and Aleph went to the right. In the end it was the right that panned out. Mind you this all played out in 5 knots of wind.

Onboard Katusha, we were having a bit of trouble with the fickle wind and rounded the first mark in second to last place. We battled back a bit up the second windward leg and then down the final run to finish a respectable 10th. The finish is off a castle which is at the end of a narrow channel. With the wind running straight down the channel, this made for a very tricky finish with all the boats gybing on each other and bunching up. We had a bit of luck and things went our way to pass three boats in this last little bit of the race.

The forecast for tomorrow is better, in fact there could be quite a lot of wind. Gennadi had to attend to business and left after racing today so Sarah Gunderson will be our helmsperson tomorrow and through to the end of the regatta.

For complete results go to www.rc44.com

Paul

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RC 44 Sweden

Good sailing conditions were served up today for the first day of racing here in Sweden… 11-16 knots and an oscillating breeze from 170-210. Skies were overcast and even some rain this morning.

7 flights were held but for most that means 4 races and the fleet has now grown to 16 boats and only 10 (5 pairs) can race at a time.

Katusha and Artemis had average days each scoring 2 win and 2 losses. The two wins for Katusha were enough to move her into second place in the Match Racing standings for the season after Oracle had a bad day with just 1 win. Artemis won the “inter-family” derby.

Onboard Katusha we Jonas, our pit man, was down with a back injury. So we brought in a new recruit in the form of Danny Cayard. He filled in as offside tailer alongside Robbie “Battler” Naismith. It was a lot of fun to race with my son..something I will never forget.

I wont go into all the details of the racing but suffice it to say there were some things we could have done better.

The big winner of the day was Islas Canarias with 4 wins and many teams on 3 wins: AEZ, No Way Back Synergy, Peninsula Petroleum, Cereef, Aqua and Nikka.

Tomorrow the fleet racing is starting and our skipper Guenaddi is in town and ready to go.

For complete results go to www.rc44.com

Paul

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RC44 Cagliari Cup Final

Excellent day for both Katusha and Artemis Racing.

Katusha with scores of 3, 3, 1 tied for best boat on the day with Oracle. So, Katusha moved up to 6th for the regatta.

Artemis Racing had a very good day also with scores of 2, 5, 3 and that moves them up to second place for the event.

The first race was light and tricky in the dying Mistral. Team Aqua had a bad one putting them in a tie with Islas Cannarias for the lead. After 30 minutes of waiting, the Southerly sea breeze filled in and the fleet had two beautiful races in 12-16 knots of wind.

Team Aqua sailed excellently to win that second race while the Spanish were deep. That pretty much sealed the event for Team Aqua.

The next RC44 event in Marstand Sweden in mid-August.

For me it is back to Valencia tomorrow to work on our America’s Cup project, after a night in Rome with some good friends.

For complete results go to www.rc44.com

Paul

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