[singlepic=2591,300,204,,left]RC44 Championship Tour – Lago Traunsee – Vincendo il match decisivo contro Team Ceeref di Paul Cayard, Team Aqua di Cameron Appleton e dell’armatore Chris Bake si è aggiudicato l’evento di match race dell’RC44 Austria Cup.
Ringraziando quel pò di fortuna che come si sa aiuta sempre gli audaci, il team di Bake, vincitore di 7 degli 8 match disputati, allunga così la serie positiva di successi e lo fa anticipando Team Organika, Artemis e il già citato Team Ceeref, tutti finiti a quota 5.
Serie a fasi alterne per BMW Oracle Racing, guidato dall’esperto Rod Davis, mentre, anch’esso con 4 punti, non è andata male per No Way Back di Pieter Heerema, presente tra le boe del logo Traunsee con ben altre aspettative rispetto agli uomini di Larry Ellison.
Da oggi iniziano le regate di flotta, valide ai fini della classifica generale del circuito al pari di quelle uno contro uno.
RC44 Austria Cup, results after 5 flights
1. Team Aqua, Cameron Appleton 7/1, 7 points
2. Team Organika, Karol Jablonski 5/3, 5 points
3. Artemis, Dean Barker, 5/3, 5 points
4. Ceeref, Paul Cayard, 5/3, 5 points
5. BMW Oracle Racing, Rod Davis, 4/4, 4 points
6. No Way Back, Pieter Heerema, 4/4, 4 points
7. Team Sea Dubai, Markus Wieser, 3/5, 3 point
8. Puerto Calero Islas Canarias, José Juan Calero, 3/5, 3 points
9. Team Austria, Christian Binder, 0/8, 0 point
[flashvideo filename=video/rc44/RC44Austria_day2.flv /]
Video courtesy RC44.
RC44 CHAMPIONSHIP TOUR, TEAM AQUA GRABS THE MATCH RACE TITLE IN AUSTRIA
[RC44 Press Release] When asked what the key to his success was, Team Aqua‘s pro skipper Cameron Appleton was humble enough to answer “a huge amount of luck”. But luck doesn’t explain all and it is fair to say that Team Aqua sailed very well and that the team grabbed all the opportunities available – and there were many.
Following a successful ride against Team No Way Back, Aqua won the match that would be the decisive one in Flight 8, against Paul Cayard’s Ceeref. Despite loosing the start and incurring a penalty, Aqua managed to come back during the first downwind leg, taking advantage of a massive right shift to grab the lead. Appleton and his team then perfectly executed their penalty on the arrival line, finishing a couple of seconds ahead of Ceeref.
Two teams were still in a position to beat Aqua at this stage: BMW Oracle Racing and Organika. The Americans blew their last opportunity during the pre-start of Flight 9 against Organika, incurring a penalty and crossing the line prematurely.
With one last race to go, Karol Jablonski’s Polish team was the only one still in a position to beat Aqua. In order to achieve this, Jablonski had to win its last race against No Way Back and Team Aqua to be beaten by BMW Oracle Racing. Cameron Appleton made it very clear in the pre-start sequence that the event was his, taking an early lead over the Americans and extending throughout the race to win the match and the event.
No Way Back, with Ray Davies at the helm for the starting sequence and owner Pieter Heerema taking over for the rest of the race managed to beat Organika “for the honour”, as the result had no influence on the final outcome. The two teams had an interesting windward mark rounding, carrying on for at least two hundred meters after the mark, looking at each other like cat and dog and waiting for the opportunity to make the break. A fantastic match racing moment.
There were many other exciting matches today, including a superb dual between Team Sea Dubai and BMW Oracle Racing in the seventh flight. The team from the UAE had successfully inflicted a penalty to its opponent and dominated most of the match but could not prevent one of those come backs that only Lake Traunsee seems to allow.
Not used to sail on a lake, the Spanish team Puerto Calero had some good moments too, beating Organika, BMW Oracle Racing and Team Austria but this was not enough to finish any better than eighth overall.
As for Team Austria, still learning the subtleties of match racing, they had some very good and close matches but haven’t managed to win a race. A tough result that certainly doesn’t reflect their talent.
The fleet racing event starts tomorrow. The strict one-design concept of the RC44 Class and the shifty weather will open up more opportunities to the less experienced teams. It will with no doubt be a very interesting regatta.
They said:
Cameron Appleton, helmsman, Team Aqua: “We’ve had a huge amount of luck. We sailed very well in those races that we won fair & square. But I confess that we were lucky at times. I don’t know any other place that offers such opportunities to come back. The qualities that were necessary to win today are: patience, focus and belief.”
Dean Barker, helmsman, Artemis: “I am not very happy with our day. The conditions don’t make for great matches. You think you are doing things right and five minutes later you’ve been overtaken by your opponent without having done any mistake. This lake is really hard to read”.
RC44 Austria Cup, results after 5 flights
1. Team Aqua, Cameron Appleton 7/1, 7 points
2. Team Organika, Karol Jablonski 5/3, 5 points
3. Artemis, Dean Barker, 5/3, 5 points
4. Ceeref, Paul Cayard, 5/3, 5 points
5. BMW Oracle Racing, Rod Davis, 4/4, 4 points
6. No Way Back, Pieter Heerema, 4/4, 4 points
7. Team Sea Dubai, Markus Wieser, 3/5, 3 point
8. Puerto Calero Islas Canarias, José Juan Calero, 3/5, 3 points
9. Team Austria, Christian Binder, 0/8, 0 point
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