RC44 Sweden Cup - All set for Marstrand battle
by Jo Grindley on 17 Jul 2012
RC44 Sweden Cup RC44 Class/MartinezStudio.es
The RC44 Sweden Cup is set to take place from 18-22 July. This penultimate event of the 2012 RC44 Championship Tour will encompass five days of racing in Marstrand, Sweden.
The Championship is still wide open after Artemis Racing’s win on Lake Traunsee just seven weeks ago. Chris Bake’s, Team Aqua, the defending Tour champions stay at the top of the overall fleet racing leaderboard, three points ahead of Torbjorn Tornqvist’s Artemis Racing. No one team has dominated this season with three separate teams, Katusha, Aqua and Artemis, each having won an event.
At the last event in Austria the home-team, Rene Mangold’s AEZ Sailing team finished third, their best ever result since joining the RC44 Tour back in 2009.
'We had a really good regatta in Austria but the forecast for Marstrand looks tricky, we are expect very changeable and windy conditions. As I recall last year on the water it was difficult to detect a trend in the wind, so it’s difficult to have expectations for our results. If we focus on good starts and fast sailing and I’m sure the results will come. It will be an exciting week’s racing.' explains owner Rene Mangold.
Sweden’s Artemis Racing will be looking for another win on home waters.
Igor Lah’s Slovenian Team Ceeref is sitting in third overall, three points ahead of John Bassadone’s Peninsula Petroleum in sixth. The Gibraltar based Peninsula Petroleum team will have a new tactician for Sweden, a man that knows the class better than most – class founder – Russell Coutts.
There is always one day of match racing at the start of each RC44 event, where either the pro-sailors or owners choose to take the helm. This season over half the owners are opting to pit their talent against some of the top match racers in the world. Russia’s Synergy Racing Team helmed by America’s Cup winner Ed Baird sits at the top of the match race leaderboard. Their closest rival, with a two match deficit, the young French team Aleph led by Mathieu Richard. Igor Lah always at the helm of Team Ceeref, are still within touching distance of leaders in sixth.
Legendary Swedish sailor Pelle Petterson will be honored by the RC44 class on Friday 20th July. The teams will race for the ‘Tribute to a Legend Trophy’, celebrating Petterson’s 80th year.
It is the second year the class has been hosted in Marstrand, Sweden. Attracted by the reliable and regularly strong afternoon sea breeze with open sea to the west, the sailors should be greeted with some great sailing conditions along with a large audience watching from Marstrand Island.
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RC44 Championship Tour Ranking
(After three events)
1 Team Aqua – 7
2 Artemis Racing – 10
3 RC44 Team Ceeref – 15
4 Katusha – 16
5 AEZ RC44 Team – 17
6 Peninsula Petroleum – 18
7 Aleph Sailing Team -22
8 Synergy Russian Sailing Team – 22
9 No Way Back – 24
10 Ironbound – 30
11 Team Nika – 31
12 Puerto Calero – 32
13 AFX Capital Racing – 37
14 RUS7 Sail Racing Team – 37
15 Aegir – 43
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Overall Match Race Ranking
(After three events)
1 Synergy Russian Sailing Team – 15
2 Aleph Sailing Team – 13
3 Team Aqua -12
4 Katusha – 11
5 Artemis Racing – 10
6 RC44 Team Ceeref – 10
7 No Way Back – 8
8 AEZ RC44 Sailing Team – 7
9 RUS7 Sail Racing Team – 7
10 Puerto Calero – 6
11 Peninsula Petroleum – 6
12 Team Nika – 6
13 AFX Capital Racing Team – 2
14 Ironbound – 1
15 Aegir – 0
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Teams competing in the RC44 Sweden Cup 2012:
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AEZ Sailing Team (AUT44)
Rene Mangold (AUT) / Markus Wieser (GER)
AFX Capital Racing (ITA7)
Massimo Barranco (ITA) / Gabriele Bruni (ITA)
Aleph Sailing Team (FRA17)
Hugues Lepic (FRA) / Mathieu Richard (FRA)
Artemis Racing (SWE44)
Torbjorn Tornqvist (SWE) / Morgan Larson (USA)
Katusha (RUS 007)
Gennadi Timchenko (RUS) /Brad Butterworth (NZL)
No Way Back (NED 18)
Pieter Heerema (NED) / Jonathan McKee (USA)
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Peninsula Petroleum Sailing Team (GBR 1)
John Bassadone (GBR) / Russell Coutts (NZL)
RUS-7 Sail Racing Team powered by AnyWayAnyDay.com (RUS7)
Kirill Podolsky (RUS) / Sergui Chevtsov (RUS)
Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS 13)
Valentin Zavadnikov (RUS) / Ed Baird (USA)
Team Aqua (GBR 2041)
Chris Bake (GBR) / Cameron Appleton (NZL)
Team Nika (RUS 10)
Vladimir Prosikhin (RUS) / Tomislav Basic (CRO)
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RC44 website
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