Cagliari RC 44 Cup: a gathering of the best amongst the best

[Source: RC44] With recently crowned World Champions Mateusz Kusznierewicz (Star) and Vincenzo Onorato (Farr 40), the second regatta of the RC 44 Championship Tour 2008 promises to be a fantastic sailing event. Indeed, Ben Ainslie, Russell Coutts, James Spithill, Sébastien Col, Larry Ellison, Cameron Appleton and many more will fight hard for the title on board ten strict one design RC 44’s in the superb venue of Cagliari.

Just one day to go until the start of the second event of the RC 44 Championship Tour 2008! The tension is rising on the pontoons of Cagliari. Indeed, this regatta - organised by Yacht Club Cagliari with the support of the City of Cagliari - assembles some of the world’s best sailors on board ten strict one design RC 44’s.

Two of the competitors, Mateusz Kusznierewicz (Team Organika) and Vincenzo Onorato (Mascalzone Latino) have won prestigious world champion titles last week, in the highly competitive Star and Farr 40 Classes. Two fantastic achievements and an extra motivation for the other teams to beat them!

Team Hiroshi - Città di Milano (Armando Giulietti and Sébastien Col), the current leader of the Championship Tour and winner of the first season regatta in Dubai, will lead the charge. Also in Cagliari with great ambition, Chris Bake and Cameron Appleton - winners of last year’s Championship Tour - will be keen to climb on the podium after their fourth place in Dubai last month.

Triple Olympic medallist Ben Ainslie will discover the RC 44 yachts on board Patrick de Barros’s Team Banco Espirito Santo. So will Larry Ellison, helming both the fleet and the match race and sailing for the first time with Russell Coutts on a BMW ORACLE Racing branded RC 44.

The Cagliari Cup will start on Wednesday April 23 with the match racing event. Unbeaten in match racing since two regattas, Team Ceeref (Igor Lah / James Spithill) is the logical favourite of this event. After a full round robin, hopefully completed in two days, the team owners will take the helm for three days of fleet racing; a contest that is probably more open than the match. A long distance race - the DHL Trophy - will allow the fleet to discover the beauties of Cagliari's surroundings. The winner of this race will be awarded with the DHL Trophy, whilst the points of the regatta will be incorporated in the fleet race ranking.

Other teams will look for precious points on the Championship Tour, such as Miroslav Reljanovic’s Cro-A-Sail, dominator of the first RC 44 season in 2006, DIMC’s Team Sea Dubai with Marcus Wieser at the helm, or Isao Mita’s Team Beecom (JAP).

The teams involved:

(Name of team, owner, pro sailor)

Team Hiroshi - Città di Milano, Armando Giulietti / Sébastien Col
Team Banco Espirito Santo, Patrick de Barros / Ben Ainslie
Team Aqua, Chris Bake / Cameron Appleton
Team CEEREF, Igor Lah / James Spithill
Cro-A-Sail, Miroslav Reljanovic / Morten Henrikson
Sea Dubai, DIMC, Markus Wieser
Team Beecom, Isao Mita / Jesper Radich
BMW ORACLE Racing, Larry Ellison / Russell Coutts
Team Organika, Maciej Nawrocki / Mateusz Kusznierewicz
Mascalzone Latino, Vincenzo Onorato / Jes Gram Hansen