Sea Dubai and No Way Back. Image copyright Nico Martinez.
by Sharon Allison
Rain set a damper on the day as Sea Dubai battled in the opening matches of day two of the RC44 Copenhagen Cup in Denmarks capital. The choppy Baltic Sea teamed with grey skies and variable wind for the final four races which placed Sea Dubai 7th in the match race ranking.
A premature start blighted the first race against Team Aqua, which was virtually impossible to recover from although they gained serious ground on Aqua who has blitzed this match racing series on fine form. There followed more close racing against No Way Back, 17 and Islas Canarias Puerto Calero with great performances from all the teams displaying an incredibly high level of sailing, which is really a pleasure to watch.
‘Racing was very close today and we sailed really well as a team. We were over the line with Aqua and we got messed up by boats in the other matches around us which could have happened to any of the teams out there,’ said Eberhard Magg, who is the Pitman at the centre of the boat. ‘The level of the racing is so high and when you look at the names on the crew lists, it’s like a who’s who of the sailing world, it’s amazing to be racing at this level and doing so well. It felt good out there today even though our scores weren’t so good.’
Sea Dubai and Team Aqua. Image copyright Nico Martinez.
‘Yesterday we got caught up in the sink line on one of the marks, we weren’t the only ones either, we didn’t do that today but there were other factors in play, our sailing was great though and we were satisfied with our performance, if we weren’t in the lead we were very close to the boat in front, even with Aqua after our false start,’ said Hartwell Jordan, the team's mainsheet trimmer.
There is a practice race next and although the race doesn’t count in the overall ranking it is valuable in terms of experience and Harm Muller Spreer will take over the helm with Jes Gram Hansen taking the role of tactician.
The RC44 Copenhagen Cup is being staged at the Royal Danish Yacht Club whose patron is Queen Margrethe of Denmark and her son Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, who is a keen sailor, will sail with BMW Oracle during the regatta.
Fleet racing starts on 11th June at 1130.
Results:
1) Team Aqua (Cameron Appleton), 8/1 - 8 points
2) BMW ORACLE Racing (Russell Coutts / Larry Ellison), 6/3 - 6 points
3) Artemis (Terry Hutchinson), 6/3 - 6 points
4) Team No Way Back (Pieter Heerema / Ray Davies), 6/3 - 6 points
5) 17 (James Spithill), 5/4 - 5 points
6) CEEREF (Rod Davis), 5/4 - 5 points
7) Team Sea Dubai (Jes Gram Hansen), 4/5 - 3 points
8) AEZ RC 44 Sailing Team (Christian Binder), 2/7 - 2 points
9) Katusha (Paul Cayard), 2/7 - 2 points
10) Team Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (José Maria Ponce), 1/8 - 1 point
Sea Dubai
RC44
