Adam Minoprio and his BlackMatch Racing team will be sailing on board BMW ORACLE Racing next week, during the Al Maktoum sailing Trophy RC 44. Image copyright Raffaello Bastiani/RC 44.
by Bernard Schopfer
The first regatta of the RC 44 Championship Tour 2010 will take place next week in the United Arab Emirates. Organised by Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC), the Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy RC 44 will reassemble nine world Class teams and sailors including Ray Davies, Terry Hutchinson, Cameron Appleton, Rod Davis and many more.
Unable to attend the event due to their America’s Cup post-victory commitments, Russell Coutts and Larry Ellison have decided to give the opportunity to an up & coming team to test its skills at the world’s top level. Adam Minoprio and his BlackMatch Racing team - the winners of the World Match Race Tour 2009 - have been chosen; they will sail onboard BMW ORACLE Racing for this event.
"The boys and I are really looking forward to sailing on an RC 44 yacht" said Adam Minoprio. "I have heard so many great things about the class, so it’s going to be really exciting to finally venture into the class with my core team from the match racing circuit. Even though it’s just for one regatta, we are still going to go out there to win. Sailing in the RC 44 class is an amazing opportunity for us as we will be racing some of the best teams in the world. We feel very fortunate to be given this opportunity from BMW Oracle and very humbled to be asked by Russell to take over and get them a good result while they are busy."
Adam Minoprio will be steering BMW ORACLE Racing during the match races on Monday and Tuesday, whilst will Mike Perris will be at the helm during the fleet regatta (Thursday – Saturday). Other members of the team include David Swete (main), Collin Orsini (grinder), Tom Powrie and Lorenzo Deflice (trim) as well as Revelin Minihane (pit) and Nick Blackman (bow). As for Russell Coutts, he will be back on his boat for the next regatta: “I will be re-joining the RC 44 circuit at the following event in Austria", he said. "After the demands of the AC, I am very much looking forward to it."
Other new faces in the circuit include Terry Hutchinson, who joins the RC 44 Class for the first time on board Artemis and Raimondo Tonelli, who will steer Team Sea Dubai in the fleet races.
The teams involved in the Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy RC 44:
Team No Way Back (Pieter Heerema / Ray Davies)
Artemis (Torbjorn Tornqvist / Terry Hutchinson)
CEEREF (Igor Lah / Rod Davis)
BMW ORACLE Racing (Mike Perris / Adam Minoprio),
Team Aqua (Chris Bake / Cameron Appleton)
Team Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (Daniel Calero / José Maria Ponce)
Katusha (Paul Cayard)
Team Sea Dubai (Raimondo Tonelli / Markus Wieser)
Team Austria (René Mangold / Christian Binder)
RC44
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