RC44 Championship Tour, un dieci perfetto
RC44Vela 11 Dicembre 2008 Zerogradinord 0
[singlepic=1062,250,170,,left]RC44 Championship Tour – Puerto Calero – Una grande giornata di vela quella che si è da poco conclusa a Lanzarote, dove si sono svolti i voli che hanno chiuso l’ultimo evento di match race dell’RC44 Championship Tour 2008.
Al pari di ieri, il vento non ha accennato a mollare e i sei equipaggi in gara si sono dati battaglia fronteggiando condizioni meteo piuttosto impegnative. Al termine del Round Robin, a guidare la classifica a punteggio pieno è Team Ceeref di Igor Lah e James Spithill che, oltre ad alzare al cielo il trofeo riservato al vincitore della frazione, si sono aggiudicati il successo nella classifica assoluta di specialità anticipando BMW Oracle Racing.
Secondo al termine dei primi cinque match, a Lanzarote lo scafo di Larry Ellison si è dovuto accontentare del quarto posto. A tradirlo la trozza del boma che rompendosi all’inizio del primo match ha impedito a Russell Coutts e compagni di prendere parte ai duelli odierni.
Con gli statunitensi fuori causa, a conquistare il secondo posto grazie a uno score di sette vittorie e tre sconfitte, è stato Team Aqua di Cameron Appleton. A Dean Barker, infatti, skipper di Artemis, non è bastato il successo nello scontro diretto per scalzare il connazionale dalla piazza d’onore. Terzo, quindi, è finito proprio lo scafo svedese, che a quattro sconfitte ha contrapposto sei successi.
Domani, meteo permettendo, è previsto lo svolgimento delle prime tre regate di flotta.
RC44 Championship Tour
Puerto Calero RC44 Gold Cup, match race, classifica finale
1 – Team Ceeref (Spithill) V10 P0, pt. 10
2 – Team Aqua (Appleton) V7 P3, pt. 7
3 – Artemis (Barker) V6 P4, pt. 6
4 – BMW Oracle Racing (Ellison) V3 P7, pt. 3
5 – Islas Canaria Puerto Calero (Ponce) V2 P8, pt. 2
6 – Banco Espirito Santo (Mendelblatt) V2 P8, pt. 2
PUERTO CALERO RC44 GOLD CUP, A PERFECT TEN FOR TEAM CEEREF
[RC44 Press Release] More wind and more drama on the Atlantic race course for the concluding day of match racing at the Puerto Calero RC44 Gold Cup. Before the start of racing, BMW Oracle Racing broke the gooseneck fitting on their mast, preventing owner Larry Ellison from competing in today’s five heats.
The first big match of the day was between Banco Espirito Santo and Team Aqua, with Cameron Appleton bringing his customary aggressive pre-start tactics to bear against Mark Mendelblatt helming for the Portuguese team. Appleton trapped Mendelblatt in coffin corner, leading off the port end of the start although still finding himself with a fight on his hands from Mendelblatt. In the end, however, Aqua pulled clear and won their match.
Appleton also got the better of Dean Barker in the pre-start, just as he had in their match on the previous day. However Barker was unflustered by his early mistakes and kept Artemis in the match, rounding bow-to-stern with Team Aqua around the top mark. They went round the bottom mark overlapped, with Appleton claiming the inside but failing to round up quickly enough, according to the umpires who gave him a penalty.
With the wind blowing around 20 knots and the RC44s planing at more or less windspeed, Appleton felt there wouldn’t be time for him to complete his penalty just before the finish line, so instead he elected to gybe on the final upwind leg. Appleton hoped that he might just be able to keep Team Aqua’s nose in front, but the Swedish boat rolled over the top of the United Arab Emirates team and Barker stole the win back from his Kiwi rival.
While Mendelblatt had suffered at the hands of Appleton earlier in the day, the American helmsman got the better of James Spithill in the pre-start, relegating Team Ceeref to the unfamiliar position of being last off the start line. The Australian helmsman initiated a tacking duel against Banco Espirito Santo, trying to wriggle clear of Mendelblatt’s close cover. Half way up the beat, Spithill went for the duck, bearing away behind the Portuguese transom and breaking into clear air to the right of the race track. The two boats separated, and when they converged it was Igor Lah’s Slovenian crew who had found the better wind on the right. Spithill was back in control and his clean sheet remained intact.
Meanwhile in the other match of flight 9, Artemis was leading Daniel Calero’s local team on his chartered RC44, Islas Canarias Puerto Calero. The Spanish team’s lack of RC44 experience showed when they trawled their spinnaker in a poorly executed hoist. Helmsman José Maria Ponce rounded the boat up into the wind, as the crew fought to get the big blue fishing net back on board. Eventually one of the crew stripped down to his Speedos and dived into to free the halyard from the head of the wayward sail. Calero quipped that they had always meant to go trawling, as the fishing in this area is excellent, so he claimed.
Calero retired from that race with the ‘fishing’ incident, but the Spanish team got their act together for the final match against Banco Espirito Santo. The Portuguese crew led the locals all the way round the race track until the final hoist, when a small tear in the spinnaker resulted in the sail exploding just seconds after the final hoist of the day. The Puerto Calero team seized their moment, rolled over the top of the wounded Portuguese and won their first match on the water, to go with the bye which everyone earned against the absent BMW Oracle today.
So it was a good day for the new team in the RC44 fleet, but an excellent one for Igor Lah, James Spithill and the whole Team Ceeref crew. They sailed a perfect day, winning the match racing event in Lanzarote and securing the 2008 match race season by an emphatic margin from BMW Oracle Racing, who finished second in the year’s rankings.
Tomorrow the fleet racing contest begins, with three races scheduled.
RC44 Championship Tour
Puerto Calero RC44 Gold Cup, match race, final results
1 – Team Ceeref (Spithill) W10 L0, pt. 10
2 – Team Aqua (Appleton) W7 L3, pt. 7
3 – Artemis (Barker) W6 L4, pt. 6
4 – BMW Oracle Racing (Ellison) W3 L7, pt. 3
5 – Islas Canaria Puerto Calero (Ponce) W2 L8, pt. 2
6 – Banco Espirito Santo (Mendelblatt) W2 L8, pt. 2
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