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Baptism of fire for the Class newcomers on day one of the Puerto Calero RC 44 Cup
Luis Doreste, Karol Jablonski, Pieter Heerema and many other top sailors participated in their first RC 44 regatta today in Puerto Calero. The conditions were light and unstable, leading to some surprises and upsets. Puerto Calero, February 25, 2009 – The RC 44 Championship Tour 2009 started today in Puerto Calero with the first matches of Round Robin one. It was also the baptism of fire for Pieter Heerema’s Team No Way Back and Carlos Morales’ Team Puerto Calero Islas Canarias 2. The Dutch boat had an excellent day, with two victories over the two Spanish boats. On the contrary, the local entries didn’t have such a good day, suffering respectively from a trim tab failure and a broken crash box following… a crash.
Luis Doreste, Karol Jablonski, Pieter Heerema and many other top sailors participated in their first RC 44 regatta today in Puerto Calero. The conditions were light and unstable, leading to some surprises and upsets. Puerto Calero, February 25, 2009 – The RC 44 Championship Tour 2009 started today in Puerto Calero with the first matches of Round Robin one. It was also the baptism of fire for Pieter Heerema’s Team No Way Back and Carlos Morales’ Team Puerto Calero Islas Canarias 2. The Dutch boat had an excellent day, with two victories over the two Spanish boats. On the contrary, the local entries didn’t have such a good day, suffering respectively from a trim tab failure and a broken crash box following… a crash.
Many top sailors also discovered the Class today, including Olympic champions Martin Kirketerp or Luis Doreste and veteran America’s Cup sailors Yann Gouniot and Christian Scherrer. The conditions weren’t too difficult for an initiation, although the breeze’s lack of consistency made Race Officer Peter Regio’s life difficult. At the end of the day, two and a half flight could be completed, most probably putting an end to the event organiser’s desire to complete two round robins in two days.
Winner of last year’s match race ranking, Igor Lah’s Ceeref is still the team to beat, with three victories in as many matches today. Sébastien Col is Ceeref’s substitute driver in James Spithill’s absence. Needless to say that he did a great job, particularly during a fantastic regatta against Organika, who were sailing for the first time with their new match race helmsman Karol Jablonski. Leading the race by half a boat length, Organika couldn’t stop Ceeref’s come back, until the Slovenian spinnaker touched the Polish boat’s runners.
With a penalty to complete, Séb Col and his team had to attack, which they did in style, taking the lead and increasing it just enough to complete their penalty turn before crossing the arrival line.Pieter Heerema and Philippe Presti’s team No Way Back and Russell Coutts’ BMW ORACLE Racing are also unbeaten so far, however with one less match under their belt.
Team Aqua and Cameron Appleton had an excellent match against Artemis, inflicting a penalty to their opponent at the start and winning the race, before loosing an important match against Ceeref. Finally, Dean Barker’s Artemis won two matches against Organika and Jose Maria Ponce’s Team Puerto Calero Islas Canarias 1. Organised by Puerto Calero, a superb real estate development on Lanzarote's seafront, the RC 44 Cup consists in two days of match racing followed by three days of fleet racing. - http://www.rc44.com/
Team Aqua and Cameron Appleton had an excellent match against Artemis, inflicting a penalty to their opponent at the start and winning the race, before loosing an important match against Ceeref. Finally, Dean Barker’s Artemis won two matches against Organika and Jose Maria Ponce’s Team Puerto Calero Islas Canarias 1. Organised by Puerto Calero, a superb real estate development on Lanzarote's seafront, the RC 44 Cup consists in two days of match racing followed by three days of fleet racing. - http://www.rc44.com/
