BMW Oracle ready for the next RC44 event

[Source: BMW Oracle] BMW ORACLE Racing will compete in the fifth event of the RC 44 Championship Tour 2008 starting tomorrow in Trieste, Italy. Larry Ellison (USA) will be helming and Russell Coutts (NZL) will be calling tactics.

“Our team looks forward to lining up against some of the world’s best match racers in the Golfo di Trieste this week,” said Russell Coutts who is CEO of BMW ORACLE Racing. “With these competitors in this fleet, we expect some very close racing. The teams to watch are Torbjorn Tornqvist’s Artemis with Dean Barker and Team Ceeref with Morgan Larson.”

On board with Ellison and Coutts will be BMW ORACLE Racing’s Dirk de Ridder (NED), mainsail trimmer; Ross Halcrow (NZL), trimmer; and Alan Smith (NZL), bow.

BMW Oracle racing in the Malcesine SLAM Cup. Malcesine, 9 July 2008. Photo copyright Gilles Martin-Raget / BMW Oracle

Other BMW ORACLE Racing team members competing in Trieste include Michele Ivaldi (ITA) and Joe Newton (AUS) with Team Ceeref; and Daniel Fong (NZL), Alberto Barovier (ITA) and Julien Di Biase (SUI) will sail on de Barros’ Team Banco Espirito Santo.

Following two days of match racing, the regatta shifts to fleet racing on Thursday 9th October. Peter de Ridder joins BMW ORACLE Racing as helmsman for the fleet racing with BMW ORACLE Racing’s Hamish Pepper (NZL) as tactician. Coutts will join Patrick de Barros’s team.

Partners of the RC44 Class are BMW (Official car) and BMW ORACLE Racing Official Apparel Supplier SLAM (official clothes). This is the fourth RC Championship event for the BMW ORACLE Racing team this season following regattas in Cagliari, Sardinia; Lake Traunsee, Austria; and Malcesine, Italy.

On Sunday 12th October, most RC 44s will participate in the Barcolana regatta, one of the world’s biggest regattas, with over 1,500 boats lining up at the start line.