In another step towards re-energising the 44Cup, the rules for the International RC44 One Design class have been revised for 2023 so that going into the 44Cup Oman, which starts out of Muscat’s Al Mouj marina tomorrow, all nine teams will race with at least one female crew.
The 2023 season of the 44Cup has been unveiled, with five events scheduled for what will be the 16th season of racing between the high performance owner-driver one design monohulls.
On the concluding day of the 2022 44Cup’s final event, the 44Cup Oman, PRO Maria Torrijo defied the odds and was able to stage three races.
While racing in 44Cup events usually goes to the wire, decided in the last few metres of the final race, this hasn’t been the case this year when the dominant force has been Monaco-based Dutchman Nico Poons and his Charisma team.
A miserable day weather-wise off the west coast of Sweden turned magnificent, like the fortunes of Nico Poons’ Charisma, which after three races today claimed the 44Cup Marstrand over Igor Lah’s Ceeref powered by Hrastnik 1860 and Chris Bake’s Team Aqua. This was the Dutchman’s second consecutive 44Cup win following his massive 12 point Cascais victory in May.
Lake Neuchatel – SSL Team Antigua & Barbuda’s “Rum Runners,”SSL Team Estonia’s “Icebreakers”, SSL Team Ireland’s “Green Armada” and SSL Team Tahiti’s “Black Pears” are the first teams of SSL Gold Cup’s History to qualify to the Final Series. In Race 4, all teams of Group 1 were on the move to start, but apparently, SSL Team Bermuda...
Normally 44Cup events are decided in the final gybes of the last leg of the last race after four days of competition. But at the 44Cup Cascais, the second of the 2022 series for the high performance owner-driver one designs, the opposite was true. Charisma of Monaco-based Dutchman Nico Poons, set the benchmark high after scoring three bullets on the opening day.
Muscat, Oman, is to host the final and deciding event of the 2022 44Cup season, set to be held over 7 - 11 December.
Going into the final day of the 44Cup Calero Marinas, Igor Lah’s Ceeref powered by Hrastnik 1860 held a strong 11 point lead. Normally this would have seen them packing their bags early, having won with a race to spare. However this is the 44Cup, home of high performance one designs and owner-drivers surrounded by Olympic medallists, America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race winners and nothing is ever certain.
Over four of the most difficult days of racing in 44Cup history, an impressive seven races were still held at the 44Cup Calero Marinas Lanzarote frequently in 5-6 knots wind, conditions, frankly, in which most other yachts would have been unable to race. Nonetheless it produced two worthy winners with Team Aleph winning the event and Team Aqua the season.
A last minute manoeuvre by Nico Poons’ Charisma won them the final race of the 44Cup Scarlino World Championship by a mere second, but it was the defending champions on Chris Bake’s Team Aqua that defended their title in this 11th RC44 World Championship by one slender point.
While the forecast indicated that it might be sailable, the opening day of this 11th RC44 World Championship was blown out with the northerly winds off Scarlino, Italy regularly reaching the high 20s and gusting into the high 30s. After a wait out on the water the race committee sent the boats back to the Marina di Scarlino to see if conditions would abate and when instead the wind built, soon after 1400 racing was abandoned for the day.
The final day of the 44Cup Cowes was always going to be big. Despite the overnight seven point gap between the leaders Aleph and second placed Ceeref, experience told Hugues Lepic and his team that they should take nothing for granted.
What the opening day of the 44Cup in Cowes lacked in sunshine it more than made up for with close racing. The morning had started with just 8-10 knots of breeze and flat seas but, as the day played out a series of subtle changes took place that kept everyone from trimmers to tacticians on their toes.
It is rare even between the ultra-close RC44s for an event to go to the wire in such an extreme way as it did at the conclusion of the 44Cup Marstrand.
In an example of the high performance RC44 one design class’ typically ultra-close racing, so yesterday’s winners dropped to the bottom of the pile at the 44Cup Marstrand today as those managing to remain the most consistent rose gradually to the top.
Four magnificent days of 44Cup racing in Portoroz, Slovenia concluded with further 20+ knot winds, flat water and sun, but mixed fortunes.
Powered by: Portoroz– Gli RC44 hanno aperto la loro stagione a Portoroz, in Slovenia, con la 44th Cup Portoroz, prima regata della classe fondata da Russell Coutts dopo un anno e mezzo di stop dovuto alla pandemia. Dopo dieci entusiasmanti prove disputate in quattro giorni, la vittoria è andata a Team Ceeref dello sloveno Igor
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For the first 44Cup event in 17 months, Portorož could not have offered better conditions to date; slowly ramping up the wind strength to the third and penultimate day of racing, when the wind was at times solidly into the 20s, gusting to 25 knots.
The 2020 season is set for the 44Cup and for the first time the ultra-competitive one design owner-driver RC44 fleet will join one of the oldest and most respected regattas in the world...