Thursday 14 October 2010

RC44: RC44 Worlds struggle through light-air day

Match racing portion set to conclude tomorrow morning


17 and Artemis. Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44 World Championship.

by RC44 media

When competitors yesterday said the winds were going to be light and shifty for Day 2 of the RC 44 World Championship Islas Canarias Puerto Calero Cup, they probably had no idea just how light it would be.

Today’s schedule for the round robin was thrown into disorder by a cold front that stalled out over Lanzarote. The fleet first took the water about 1200 hours, but returned to shore after three and a half hours and only one completed flight.


BMW ORACLE Racing and Katusha. Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44 World Championship.

That flight, however, set up the match racing finals with these pairings, the winner being the first to 2 points:

17 (Jimmy Spithill) vs. Artemis (Terry Hutchinson)
BMW ORACLE Racing (Russell Coutts) vs. Katusha (Paul Cayard)
Team Aqua (Cameron Appleton) vs. No Way Back (Ray Davies)
Ceeref (Rod Davis) vs. Sea Dubai (Markus Wieser)
AEZ RC 44 Racing (Christian Binder) vs. Mascalzone Latino (Vincenzo Onorato)

One race was held in very streaky, shifty conditions and the winners were 17, BMW ORACLE Racing, Team Aqua, Ceeref and AEZ RC 44 Racing.


PRO Peter Reggio (in red). Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44 World Championship.

“The wind was very patchy and unsettled, you couldn’t forecast what was going to happen next," said Cameron Appleton of Team Aqua. “But you have to keep winning races and we won the ones we had to."


AEZ RC44 Sailing Team (AUT) against Team Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (ESP). Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44 World Championship.

The match racing is scheduled to conclude tomorrow morning, with the first warning signal scheduled for 1000 local.

The weather forecast, however, is calling for more light winds. There may be some weak north/northeast trade winds in the morning, but they are expected to die away and veer to the east/southeast and be very light in the afternoon.

Video highlights of RC44 match racing Day 2:



Puerto Calero. Image copyright Nico Martinez/RC44 World Championship.

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