Well, the good fortune of Katusha fell a bit today but Artemis Racing held up well with scores of 8, 3, 3 and now lies third in the regatta with 31 points.

The wind dropped considerably from the last two days. This made the racing much tighter. We got three races in before the wind dropped and became unstable enough for

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

One race here in Austria on the final day for the RC44 fleet. It was a rainy and cold day….temperature about 10C. It hailed at one point.

Oracle Racing continued their dominance of the event by winning the only race of the day. Onboard Katusha, we had our worst race of the event finishing 10th and finished up 6th overall. For sure it has been a frustrating three days since our good start last Thursday. Lake Traunsee is always an extremely tricky venue and this year I did not do a good job of figuring it out.

Artemis had a tough regatta and finished 11th.

Oracle Racing with Russell Coutts as tactician really did a great job and always seemed to be in the right place at the right time and that was quite a feat considering the wind was shifting 90 degrees regularly and 150 degrees at times.

Aqua, a brand new boat for this event got on form also in the last couple of days to finish second.

We are looking forward to the next event in Cagliari, Sardinia June 28-July 3.

For complete results go to www.rc44.com

Paul

A tough day today on Katusha and we are now fourth overall. Three races were held and Oracle had great scores in the second two of the three so is well in front now. I did not sail well today as tactician and got pretty frustrated by it all. Our helmsperson for this regatta is Sarah Gundersen and on top of steering the boat well, she is doing a good job of keep my attitude upbeat through all that happens out there.

The first race of the day was a classic Lake Traunsee. Wind shifts of 180 degrees, flat calms and puffs of 6 knots and in the end only 6 boats finished within the required 10 minutes of the winner. We were not one of the first seven boats, neither was Oracle. Team Aqua sailed well and won this classic.

In the second and third races it seems we had a bit of a bullseye on our backs and we got tacked on pretty hard. We had to live in thin lanes the whole time and this made our races pretty difficult. We finished 8th and 7th respectfully.

So after 7 races, Oracle is leading with 19 points, Team Aqua is second with 24, No Way Back is third with 29 and we are 4th with 37 and the US boat Ironbound is 5th with 38.

The forecast for tomorrow is not special so it could be more racing like the first one today.

For complete results go to www.rc44.com

Paul

Today was match racing on Lake Traunsee. Five flights were held in 7-10 knots of wind.

We had an ok day on Katusha with a score of two wins, two losses that felt very frustrating as we were winning the two we lost.

Our first race against Puerto Callero we led the entire way. In our second race, against ORACLE, the start was slightly to their favor but they could not tack and cross us. As they approached on port, we dialed them down and they got penalized. We then squandered the lead and they got enough distance on us to do their penalty turn at the finish line.

Race 3 was against our team mates on Artemis. The start was fairly even but we were able to get out ahead enough to tack and cross them and that was about it.

In our last race, we had a slight collision in the prestart with Cereef, them to windward, our shroud against the leech of their main. Both boats flew flags but no penalty was issued. From there it was close to the top mark. At the top mark, Cereef on the inside luffed us head to wind and we both parked. As they bore away we followed and had a better set and rolled them. They gybed and parked. We stretched, and gybed once our air was clear. Their side was hugely favored and they crossed ahead the next time. The course was onesided for the second lap and that was that.

Artemis had a very good day with owner Tornjorn Tornqvist steering his boat to a 2 win and 3 loss day. That a nice result for him. More owners are starting to steer their boats in the match racing now which is good.

The wind died at 345pm and that was it for the day.

Aqua won the day with 5 wins.

For complete results go to www.rc44.com