Big surprise on day one of the RC44 Portoroz Cup

[Source: RC44] The 2007 RC 44 racing season started today in Slovenia with the Portoroz Cup. Seven boats were on the starting line, two new teams having joined the Class during the winter: Chris Bake’s Team Aqua (UAE) and Team Ekipa 44 from Slovenia.

The first regattas consisted of three short coastal races sailed alongside the beautiful (but short – only 45 kilometers) Slovenian coast. The format was a premiere in RC 44 events, and was hugely appreciated by the teams. To spice up the game, the races started with a short double windward – leeward course, providing a great show to the spectators and a lot of fun (if not grey hairs) to the sailors.

Unsurprisingly, Cro-A-Sail, dominator of the last season, won the first regatta. However, Team Aqua’s second place was a surprise. “It was the beginner’s luck”, commented Chris Bake. Two races later, nobody believed in this statement anymore, his team having achieved two more second places and taken the overall lead of the event. “I knew that they would be a good team”, commented Tomislav Basic, the local expert and tactician onboard Cro-A-Sail. “What I didn’t know is how good they would be. Now we all know!”

The RC44 fleet rounding the mark. Portoroz, 29 March 2007. Photo copyright Portoroz Cup

The wind increased slightly for the second race, allowing a perfect and spectacular race. Team Magia, with Fabio Appolonio at the helm, took a great start and dominated the whole race. Ekipa 44, the new Slovenian team (brilliant third of the first race) was competing for the lead again but suffered from a bad mark rounding and a knot in the spinnaker, loosing precious ground and finishing sixth.

The third regatta tuned out to be a fantastic tacking dual between Team Omega (with Patrick De Barros at the helm), Cro-A-Sail and Team Aqua. Adopting a genoa in the increasing breeze (whilst its competitors chose a smaller jib), Team Omega managed to take the lead and control its opponents until the arrival, to win the race.

Team Aqua’s solid performance, and Ekipa 44’s moments of glory proved that a new team can adapt quickly to the class and get good results thanks to the Class’s strict one-design concept. The professionalism of the crews is also an important factor. Indeed, Bake sails with the kiwi pro Cameron Appleton whilst Ekipa 44 benefits from Gasper Vincec’s experience. Vincec is one of the world’s best Finn sailors. As for Chris Bake, he is a newcomer in the RC 44 class but also in competitive sailing. “I grew up in Spain and sailed with my family. But it was social sailing”, he explains. “Then I joined the University of Texas Sailing Team and began racing on J 24’s against people like Ken Read. I learnt a lot. Later on this allowed me to be involved with teams sailing in the Solent, doing Cowes week etc… But always as a crew. When I discovered the RC 44 last year, I thought this is the boat that will get me back into competitive sailing. Here we are…”

The RC44 fleet up. Portoroz, 29 March 2007. Photo copyright Portoroz Cup

Tomorrow and Saturday, the RC 44’s will sail the match race contest, with pro sailors at the helm, before concluding the fleet race and overall ranking of the event on Sunday

They said:

Chris Bake, Team Aqua:
“I was very nervous this morning; I didn’t know how I would perform… Now I am relieved. I achieved this result by focussing on the essentials. I didn’t look much around and concentrated on our performance. I was also hugely helped by our whole team, who did a great job.”

Janko Kosmina, Ekipa 44:
“We were very happy at times, but not all the time… The racing was great. The RC 44 is very interesting to sail, nervous, sensitive and demanding.” (Janko Kosmina competed in the Olympic Games in 1960 in Rome, in the Star Class. He finished 8th).

Morten Henrikson, Beecom:
“I have mixed feelings. We usually took good starts but our speed wasn’t very good. We have some trimming problems. But we’ve been working on them and we are improving race after race. We have suffered from the start of season syndrome but we will get better by the end of the week!”

Fleet Race results after day 1

Name of team, name of helmsman, result Race 1, Race 2, Race 3, Points after 3 races

1) Team Aqua, Chris Bake, 2 2 2, 6
2) Cro-A-Sail Miroslav Reljanovic 1 3 3, 7
3) Team Magia Fabio Appolonio 4 1 6, 11
4) Team Omega Patrick De Barros 6 5 1, 12
5) Mascalzone Latino Giovanni Arrivabene 7 4 4, 15
6) Ekipa 44 Janko Kosmina 3 6 7, 16
7) Beecom Isao Mita 5 7 5, 17