RC44 practice race on Traunsee, Austria. Image copyright Hans Osterauer.
by Jessica Gray
Practice day at the RC44 Cup in Austria bought some beautiful sunshine for the 13 competing teams, but little in the way of wind. Under the stunning backdrop of Lake Traunsee, the teams did manage to complete the ‘Grand Prix of Gmunden’ practice race, with No Way Back crossing the line first.
There was a new boy calling tactics for Peiter Heerema on No Way Back, Tom Slingsby (AUS) is a man on form. He is the current Laser World Champion, ISAF World Sailor of the Year and is gunning for gold at next year’s Olympics in London. Tom grew up sailing on lakes, so thinks the challenge of Lake Traunsee could suit him.
“It was my first race today so I was just getting used to the boats. It was a good fun race, it was a short course with quite a few laps and the positioning was up and down one moment you were first the next last. With positions changing all of the time, we were lucky we came good right at the end. The Laser is a very different boat to this but I love the RC44, it’s such a great boat. It's perfect for this fleet and very technical which is new for me, I'm still learning about that stuff, but we've got a great team and they know how to get the boat around the course, I just have to put us in the right position.” Tom Slingsby, Laser World Champion.
Racing starts proper at 11.30 (CET) on Wednesday 11th May, with the pro skippers getting their chance to shine at the helm for the Match Racing day.
Watch the racing unfold through live tracking and streaming click here
Results - RC44 Austria Cup -Practice Long Distance Race – 10.5.2010
1 No Way Back (NED) Peiter Heerema /Tom Slingsby
2 Team Ceeref (SLO) Igor Lah / Michelle Ivaldi
3 Aleph Sailing Team (FRA) Hugues Lepic / Mathieu Richard
4 Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (ESP) Daniel Calero /Jose Ponce
5 ORACLE Racing (USA) Steve Howe / Russell Coutts
6 Katusha (RUS) Gennady Timchenko / Paul Cayard
7 Team Nika (RUS) Vladimir Prosikhin / Tomislav Basic
8 Artemis (SWE) Torbjorn Tornqvist / Morgan Larson
9 Synergy (RUS) Zavadnikov Valentin / Evgeniy Neugodnikov
10 Ironbound (USA) David Murphy / Peter Evans
11 Peninsula Petroluem (GBR) John Bassadone / Inaki Castaner
12 AEZ (AUS) Rene Mangold / Christian Binder
13 Team Aqua (GBR) Chris Bake / Cameron Appleton
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