RC 44 Season championship win to BMW Oracle Racing

by Bernard Schopfer on 13 Dec 2010 Oracle RC 44 Cup Miami - Larry Ellison and his BMW ORACLE Racing crew wrapped up the 2010 RC 44 Season Championship with a second-place finish in the fleet racing portion of the Oracle RC 44 Cup Miami.

Coupled with the team’s sixth place in the match racing portion of the regatta, BMW ORACLE Racing placed fourth overall in the Miami regatta, which equated to a 2-point victory over Artemis Racing for the season championship.

'We were up and down. We’ve had good regattas and sometimes things didn’t go so well, but overall the team did a great job sailing,' said Ellison. 'We came first in fleet racing and first overall. We had a rough match racing regatta here in Miami, but the fleet was good enough and we’re happy with the result.'

Ellison and crew, including tactician Russell Coutts, finished 3-4-3 today but had to pull a few rabbits out of their collective hat.

They started one race early and found themselves constantly battling back on a day with very shifty winds. In particular they gained a few places in the last half of the runs to the finish that kept their score low enough for the championship.

'We do better when it’s breezy,' said Ellison. 'There are more opportunities to pass downwind. I’ve got a lot of experience sailing on San Francisco Bay and we love the breeze.'

While Ellison got the spoils for the season championship, Vincenzo Onorato’s Mascalzone Latino won the Oracle RC 44 Cup Miami title.

Mascalzone Latino showed great improvement at this regatta after rejoining the class in July. The Italian crew placed third in both the match and fleet racing for the overall victory with the low score of 6 points.

'Winning this event is special meaning for me because the past three years have been difficult for me in my life and in sailing,' said Onorato, a six-time world champion in yacht racing.

'Russell asked us to come back to the class and we couldn’t be happier with this result. We’ve worked hard to regain our form and we will do our best in the future to perform in this class,' Onorato said.

Yet a third winner today was William 'Doug' Douglass aboard the RC 44 World Champion yacht 17. Douglass, sailing with Australian James Spithill as tactician, won the fleet racing portion of the Oracle RC 44 Cup Miami with the low score of 39 points.

'The class seems extremely well organized. It was good, we had a lot of fun out there,' said Douglass, a veteran of the Farr 40 and Melges 32 classes. 'Today was a little windy and we saw how the boats could get wicked up and go.'

The 2011 RC 44 Season Championship begins in March in San Diego, Calif.

RC 44 2010 Season Championship
1. BMW ORACLE Racing (USA) Larry Ellison/Russell Coutts – (8)-1-1-4-2-4 – 12 points
2. Artemis Racing (SWE) Torbjorn Tornqvist/Terry Hutchinson – 1-(8)-4-2-5-2 – 14 points
3. 17 (USA) William Douglass/James Spithill – (11)-3-5-3-1-3 – 15 points
4. No Way Back (NED) Pieter Heerema/Ray Davies – 2-2-3-5-3-(6) – 15 points
5. Team Aqua (UAE) Chris Bake/Cameron Appleton – 4-6-2-1-(8)-5 – 18 points
6. Team Sea Dubai (UAE) Harm Müller-Spreer/Markus Wieser – 3-4-6-7-6-(9) – 26 points
7. Katusha (RUS) Guennadi Timtchenko/Paul Cayard – 6-5-(8)-6-4-8 – 29 points
8. Ceeref (SLO) Igor Lah/Rod Davis – 5-7-7-(9)-7-7 – 33 points
9. Mascalzone Latino (ITA) Vincenzo Onorato/Francesco Bruni – 11-(12)-12-11-9-1 – 44 points
10. Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (ESP) Daniel Calero/Jose Maria Ponce – 7-9-10-8-(11)-11 – 45 points
11. AEZ RC 44 Sailing Team (AUT) René Mangold/Christian Binder – 9-10-9-10-10-(14) – 48 points
12. Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS) Maxim Logutenko/Evgeniy Neugodnikov – 11-12-12-(13)-13-10 – 58 points
13. Peninsula Petroleum (ESP) John Bassadone/Inaki Castaner – 11-12-12-(13)-12-12 – 59 points
14. Ironbound (USA) David Murphy/Ian Williams – 11-12-12-13-(15)-13 – 61 points

Oracle RC 44 Cup Final Standings
(Boat, match racing-fleet racing – total)
1. Mascalzone Latino, 3-3 – 6 points
2. Artemis Racing, 2-5 – 7 points
3. Yacht 17, 7-1 – 8 points
4. BMW ORACLE Racing, 6-2 – 8 points
5. Team Aqua, 1-9 – 10 points
6. No Way Back, 8-4 – 12 points
7. Ceeref, 10-6 – 16 points
8. Katusha, 9-7 – 16 points
9. Sea Dubai, 5-11 – 16 points
10. Synergy Russian Sailing Team, 4-12 – 16 points
11. Islas Canarias Puerto Calero, 13-8 – 21 points
12. Peninsula Petroleum, 12-10 – 22 points
13. Ironbound, 11-13 – 24 points
14. AEZ RC 44 Sailing Team, 14-14 – 28 points

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