44Cup World Championship makes its debut on Swiss lake next week

by 44Cup 16 Aug 2024 06:52 AEST 21-25 August 2024

Brunnen, Switzerland © Nico Martinez / 44Cup

For the second time this season, the 44Cup is to visit a new venue. After racing in Baiona, Spain in May, for its fourth and penultimate event, the high performance owner driver one design class will compete for its annual World Championship next week out of Brunnen on Lake Uri (Lake Lucerne) in the heart of Switzerland.

A unique selling point of the RC44 is its design cleverly allowing it to be squeezed to the size of a 40ft container, thereby enabling cost-effective transportation both on land or by ship. This makes lake racing very possible for the 44Cup, although this is the first time the circuit has done so since Lake Traunsee in Austria in 2012. In fact this is not the first time that the 44Cup has raced in Switzerland - at the very dawn of the class in 2007, an event took place on Lake Lugano in the Italian part of Switzerland. However the 44Cup World Championship Brunnen will be the first occasion the RC44s have raced on Lake Uri, where the 44Cup is being hosted by Christian Zuerrer and his Black Star Sailing Team.

44Cup - photo © Nico Martinez / 44Cup

Brunnen is situated in one of the oldest parts of Switzerland. Opposite Brunnen is where the country's oldest official document - the Federal Charter (a pact between the cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden) - was signed in 1291. The village is located on the outside corner of a 90deg bend on Lake Uri which means the racing area can be adapted to suit conditions. The lake is surrounded by mountains and the wind is largely thermal, building typically to 12-18 knots in the afternoon but occasionally to as much as 25 knots, with flat water.

"It is a little like the top part of Lake Garda, but a bit narrower," explains event host Christian Zuerrer. "In 1998 we had the A Class catamaran European Championship there. I have done a lot of sailing there in the past. During Covid we spent one month training there with a foiling Catamaran and out of 30 days we sailed for 28!" These days the lake is a favourite for wing and kite foilers, and also hosts many national and international Sailing Regattas, such as World, European and National Championships.

44Cup - photo © Nico Martinez / 44Cup

Zuerrer has set up the event with the 44Cup Brunnen Association and the support from the council. On the one hand he is keen to demonstrate the hotly contested 44Cup racing to visitors in this popular holiday town, while also showcasing the magnificent lake to the RC44 teams. "We want to show you how beautiful the area is - surrounded by rocks and forest with the green lake, white horses on top of the water and good wind conditions.

"The whole event and the technical area will be in the middle of the village and open to the public. My aim is to show the population how much work goes into it before we go sailing. When we've sailed there before there was a lot of interest from the public, with people looking around and asking what we were up to."

The 44Cup owners are excited by the prospect of going to another new venue. "It is not a huge lake and I have never sailed there. It is great for the class to go to somewhere new and Christian is very excited about it. He is promoting it hard, so I am definitely looking forward to it," commented Team Aqua's Chris Bake, the 44Cup President.

44Cup - photo © Nico Martinez / 44Cup

Artemis Racing's Torbjörn Törnqvist is Swedish but lives in Switzerland, however he too admits: "I have never been there [to Brunnen]. To sail on a lake is very different and the wind can be anything, so obviously local knowledge probably will be a factor. But I look forward to that. It is something new for the class and I welcome that."

In fact outside of the Black Star Sailing Team, there is precious little previous experience of racing on Lake Uri. One exception is Charisma's American tactician Andy Horton. His sole visit was in 2002 when he was coaching Shirley Robertson prior to the World Championship that was held there for the Olympic Yngling keelboat class (prior to Robertson winning Yngling gold at Athens 2004). In fact the Yngling World Championship is to return to Brunnen in 2027.

44Cup - photo © Nico Martinez / 44Cup

"I did the work-up but I wasn't there for the regatta," reminisces Horton. "Switzerland is amazing and I love the lakes and the mountains there. I can't wait to get into it. I remember it being a windy-ish place, when the sun gets to the right side of the mountain."

The 44Cup World Championship Brunnen will take place over 21-25 August but boats will be practicing on the lake from the 20th.

A press meeting is scheduled for 21st St August at 1030, prior to the official practice race. The first warning signal for racing proper will be at 1200 on 22nd August.