Sea Dubai. Image copyright Nico Martinez/Sea Dubai/RC44.
by Sharon Allison
A disappointing end to three days of match racing at the RC44 World Championship Islas Canarias Puerto Calero Cup had a positive effect on the Sea Dubai Sailing Team as they entered the fleet racing with a fight and purpose fit to take on all the conditions that the deep waters and weather patterns of the Eastern Atlantic Ocean could through at them. Scoring a fourth and a first place in quick succession with some exceptional control they ended the day in overall third place even after problems in the last race of the day left them with a 12th position.
‘Spirits are really high now,’ said match race skipper Markus Wieser. ‘The match racing knocked us a bit as we were doing great but due to the number of boats in this round and then light winds and postponements we had to enter a ‘sudden death’ situation and we ended up in seventh place for the match part of this inaugural World event. But if nothing else it’s really fired us up for the fleet racing and the team finished today feeling much happier.’
‘The boat is sailing beautifully now after some much needed attention. Once the Valencia Cup was over she stayed on and Holger Lehning our shore manager and Eberhard Magg our pitman stayed on to do some much needed maintenance and they did a great job,’ said Harm Müller-Spreer, fleet race skipper. ‘We were lucky enough to have the use of Team Germany’s America's Cup base and we can’t thank them enough.’
The second day of fleet racing will commence today (Friday) and the competition will conclude tomorrow.
Sea Dubai. Image copyright Nico Martinez/Sea Dubai/RC44.
Results:
RC 44 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ISLAS CANARIAS PUERTO CALERO CUP
Fleet Racing (after 3 races)
1. BMW ORACLE Racing (USA) Juan Jose Calero/Russell Coutts – 2-5-2 – 9 points
2. 17 (USA) Anders Myralf/Jimmy Spithill – 3-11-1 – 15
3. Team Sea Dubai (UAE) Harm Müller-Spreer/Markus Weiser – 4-1-12 -- 17
4. Artemis (SWE) Torbjorn Tornqvist/Terry Hutchinson – 10-3-5 – 18
5. Mascalzone Latino (ITA) Vincenzo Onorato/Francesco Bruni – 1-9-9 – 19
6. No Way Back (NED) Pieter Heerema/Ray Davies – 5-6-8 – 19
7. Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (ESP) Daniel Calero/Jose Maria Ponce – 7-2-13 – 22
8. Peninsula Petroleum (ESP) John Bassadone/Inaki Castaner – 12-4-6 – 22
9. Ceeref (SLO) Igor Lah/Rod Davis – 11-8-3 – 22
10. Team Aqua (UAE) Chris Bake/Cameron Appleton – 6-10-7 – 23
11. AEZ RC 44 Sailing Team (AUT) René Mangold/Christian Binder – 8-13-4 – 25
12. Katusha (RUS) Guennadi Timtchenko/Paul Cayard – 13-7-10 – 30
13. Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS) Maxim Logutenko/Evgeniy Neugodnikov – 9-12-11 – 3
Dubai International Marine Club
RC44
