RC44 Championship Tour, Team Ceeref a un passo dalla perfezione
RC44Vela 12 Dicembre 2008 Zerogradinord 0
[singlepic=1086,250,170,,left] RC44 Championship Tour – Puerto Calero – Non si ferma il vento di Lanzarote. Dopo due giorni di uno contro uno caratterizzati da condizioni meteo piuttosto complesse, anche le prime regate di flotta si sono svolte in venti nodi di brezza. Unico rimpianto è il netto dominio di Igor Lah e James Spithill che, impegnati a bordo di Team Ceeref, l’hanno fatta da padroni sin dalle battute iniziali, dominando, dopo l’evento di match race, anche le prime quattro regate di flotta.
Troppo forte lo scafo sloveno per gli avversari. Dopo quattro manche BMW Oracle Racing (Larry Ellison al timone e Marc Mendelblatt alla tattica), secondo, è lontano cinque punti, Team Aqua sette. Prematura uscita di scena, invece, per gli svedesi di Artmeis che, finita la prima prova, hanno rotto la trozza del boma e sono stati costretti al ritiro.
Domani, tempo permettendo, sono in programma altre due regate sulle boe e la lunga sposorizzata dal Trofeo DHL.
RC44 Championship Tour
Puerto Calero RC44 Gold Cup, regate di flotta, classifica provvisoria
1 – Team Ceeref, 1,1,2,1, pt. 5
2 – BMW Oracle Racing, 4,3,1,2, pt. 10
3 – Team Aqua, 2,2,4,4, pt. 12
4 – Banco Espirito Santo, 5,4,3,3, pt. 15
5 – Islas Canaria Puerto Calero, 6,5,5,5, pt. 21
6 – Artemis, 3,7,7,7, pt. 24
IGOR LAH STEERS TEAM CEEREF NEAR PERFECTION IN THE FLEET RACING
[RC44 Press Release] The wind just never seems to stop in Lanzarote, not that anyone’s complaining in the RC44 fleet. Why would you, when you’ve got 20 knots of breeze against a stunning backdrop that looks like you’ve landed on another planet?
If there is any cause for complaint, it’s that Igor Lah and James Spithill have a stranglehold of this event, and they appear to be almost as dominant in the fleet racing as they proved to be in the match racing series. Off the start line of the first race today, Team Ceeref made a bad start and were forced to tack on to port as the fleet sailed away to the Lanzarote shore. However the Slovenian boat found a good right-hand windshift after a couple of minutes, Spithill called for a tack and Igor Lah’s crew turned a losing position into a lead, which they would hold to the finish.
Team Aqua were lying second at the first mark, had a poor downwind leg and dropped to fourth at the leeward mark. With the leading bunch going left up the final beat, Cameron Appleton liked Aqua’s angle on port tack on the seaward side of the course. Owner Chris Bake banged the corner and came right back into the fight, rounding just behind Artemis in third place at the final turning mark.
On the final run to the finish Artemis broke the gooseneck fitting on the mast, and they managed to nurse the boat across the line in third, having yielded second place to Team Aqua. It was an all-too-short outing for Artemis owner Torbjorn Tornqvist who was forced to retire from racing for the remainder of the day as the crew of the Swedish boat set about fixing the carbon gooseneck in time for tomorrow.
Although no other team could match Ceeref for consistency, everyone had their moment at the front at some point. Best of the rest was BMW Oracle Racing, with Larry Ellison steering his boat to victory in race three, aided by new tactician Mark Mendelblatt. Russell Coutts, who had been Ellison’s tactician for the match racing, switched over to Banco Espirito Santo for the fleet racing. The Kiwi tactician found some good shifts on the shore side of the course but couldn’t fully unravel the mysteries of the shifty and gusty race track. Owner Patrick de Barros said there didn’t seem to be any way up the middle of the course. It was a matter of picking your side and throwing all your chips on one corner, and hoping that you’d picked the right one.
The combination of shifts and gusts made for an interesting time downwind. Islas Canarias Puerto Calero were competitive against the more experienced teams on the upwind legs, but poor crew work let them down on many of the offwind legs. They shredded four spinnakers in the course of the day, and owner Daniel Calero joked that he would be introducing corporal punishment to the crew tomorrow, hoping that the threat of the cane would stem the flood of boat handling errors.
Tomorrow the fleet racing contest continues with two windward/leeward races followed by the long distance race for the DHL Trophy.
RC44 Championship Tour
Puerto Calero RC44 Gold Cup, fleet races, ranking
1 – Team Ceeref, 1,1,2,1, pt. 5
2 – BMW Oracle Racing, 4,3,1,2, pt. 10
3 – Team Aqua, 2,2,4,4, pt. 12
4 – Banco Espirito Santo, 5,4,3,3, pt. 15
5 – Islas Canaria Puerto Calero, 6,5,5,5, pt. 21
6 – Artemis, 3,7,7,7, pt. 24
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