So far, and yet so close

MONDAY-22ND-FEBRUARY-2010 | WWW.TEAMAQUA.ORG

The first match races of the RC 44 Championship Tour 2010 took place today, and immediately brought the confirmation that the racing will be tougher in 2010 than it ever was. Indeed, Team Austria (10^th last year) won its first race against Ceeref (winner of last year’s match race ranking) whilst Sea Dubai (9^th in 2009) got a bullet against Paul Cayard’s Katusha. As for Team Aqua, it didn’t have a good start in the event with two losses against Puerto Calero and Team Sea Dubai, followed by a convincing victory against BMW ORACLE Racing and another loss to Artemis.

Markus Wieser and Team Sea Dubai won their five matches, concluding the day undefeated. “It’s not that we sailed badly in the past”, commented Markus Wieser at the end of the day. “But we were always making one or two little mistakes and this is what made the difference between winning and finishing in the middle of the ranking. We trained hard over the winter and managed to avoid mistakes today. The result is immediate.”

Competing for the first time in the RC 44 Class, Terry Hutchinson (Artemis) and Adam Minoprio (BMW ORACLE Racing) didn’t need much time to get into the groove. Minoprio got convincing wins against No Way Back (Pieter Heerema / Ray Davies) and Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (José Maria Ponce), loosing to Team Aqua and Artemis. “The boat is new to me and I need some more time to get my bearings”, explained Minoprio. “The RC 44’s are very fast and they accelerate super quickly. Normally, with this type of wind I sail at 5 knots and the accelerations are slow. But here we are immediately at 7-8 knots; it makes a big difference and requires some time to adapt.”

Used to sailing on big and fast boats, Terry Hutchinson and his Team Artemis were in a different situation. The American helmsman won four races in a row; also concluding the day undefeated – yet one point behind Team Sea Dubai. The match between Artemis and Team Sea Dubai, scheduled in Flight 7 tomorrow, will be an interesting one to look at!

Today’s races took place in a very pleasant sea breeze and a fairly choppy sea. The wind grew from 6-7 knots to 10-12 by the end of the afternoon, allowing the race committee to complete five flights. The conditions should be similar tomorrow, with a light sea breeze and a flatter sea.

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