Adris RC44 Cup day 1 update from Paul Cayard

by Cayard Sailing on 29 Sep 2011 Adris RC44 Cup day one report from Paul Cayard of Artemis Racing in Rovinj, Croatia:

First, this place is beautiful. I was last here in 1990 for the ACI Match Racing Regatta. The town is charming, the water perfectly clear, and the locals are very friendly and happy to host this international competition.

Today was the Match Racing day of the event. The technical committee decided to shorten the races to one lap as the fleet has grown to 15 boats and only ten teams (five pairs) can race at a time on the race course.

On board Katusha we raced in six races today and won five across the line but ended up with three points. The main reason for this was a penalty call in our first race. There are plenty of situations out there and we all get calls that go against us, but this one 'remarkable' and it cost us two points.

Anyway, we crossed the line first in five of our six matches. The one we lost on the water was against Oracle Racing. We led at the top mark but were hesitant to match them in the first gybe and they rolled us for the win.

So, it was a long day with a bit of frustration. But that's racing.

Tomorrow the fleet racing starts here and will continue through Sunday.

At the same time, Terry and some of the crew are in Nice this week for the Extreme 40 Regatta. Today was their first day of racing with four races. It was light and shifty, but they will be back on the race course tomorrow until Artemis Racing RC44 Class Association website