RC44 Portoroz Cup. Image copyright Ales Fevzer/RC 44 Class Association.
by Bernard Schopfer
The last regatta of the RC 44 Championship Tour 2009 will take place next month in Dubai. The ten RC 44 teams involved in the Championship Tour will participate in the event and fight hard to maintain or better their position in the rankings.
The Sea Dubai RC 44 Gold Cup is the season’s most important regatta: four titles will be awarded at the end of the regatta and the points count double. The titles at stake are: the overall championship title, the match race and fleet race season titles as well as the DHL Trophy.
The RC 44 match race has become the toughest in the world over the years, with three times America’s Cup winner Russell Coutts sailing against Team New Zealand's helmsman Dean Barker, Cameron Appleton, Paul Cayard, Ray Davies, Karol Jablonski, Markus Wieser and many more. During the last regatta, held in Portoroz in September, the three leaders of the annual ranking (Barker, Col & Appleton)finished no better than fifth, sixth and seventh, illustrating the level of the competition and leaving precious points to Karol Jablonski’s Organika and Paul Cayard’s new team Katusha. Nothing’s acquired yet in this contest: four team are still in a position to win the title: Artemis (9 points), Ceeref (11 points), Team Aqua and No way Back (12 points).
In the fleet race ranking, Torbjorn Tornqvist and Dean Barker’s Artemis sit two points ahead of Chris Bake and Cameron Appleton’s Team Aqua whilst third placed BMW ORACLE Racing and No Way Back are in their wake, with three more points. Vincenzo Onorato will be at the helm of BMW ORACLE Racing in this event whilst Pieter Heerema, Torbjorn Tornqvist and Chris Bake will steer their boat as usual.
The DHL Trophy ranking is even hotter, with four teams separated by four points: Artemis (7 points), Team Aqua and No Way Back (8 points) and BMW ORACLE Racing (9 points).
The most coveted title is the overall Championship Tour ranking. Team Aqua leads this contest with a three points margin over Artemis (9 points), No Way Back (13 points) and BMW ORACLE Racing (14 points).
Organised by Dubai International Marine Club, the Sea Dubai RC 44 Gold Cup will start on Tuesday 24 November with the practice Race and media day. The match race event will take place on 25 and 26 November whilst the fleet regatta will take place from Friday 27 November till Sunday 29 November.
The teams involved:
(Name of team, owner, pro sailor)
Team Aqua, Chris Bake / Cameron Appleton
Team Ceeref, Igor Lah / Rod Davis
Sea Dubai, Yousef Lahej, DIMC / Markus Wieser
BMW ORACLE Racing, Vincenzo Onorato / Russell Coutts
Team Organika, Maciej Nawrocki / Karol Jablonski
Puerto Calero Islas Canarias, Daniel Calero / Jose Maria Ponce
Artemis, Torbjorn Tornqvist / Dean Barker
No Way Back, Pieter Heerema / Ray Davies
Team Austria, René Mangold / Christian Binder
Team Katusha, Paul Cayard
RC44
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