44Cup Nanny Cay - Day 2
by 44Cup 15 Feb 14:20 AEDT
12-16 February 2025
Big Breeze and Yee-Haw conditions
After the opening day of RC44 competition in the British Virgin Islands was lost to excess winds, the breezy relentless easterly trade winds abated enough on day two of the 44Cup Nanny Cay to permit three races to be sailed in winds ranging from 18 to 28 knots and shifting by up to 40 degrees. While the highly variable conditions on Tortola's St Francis Drake Channel challenged tacticians, the big wind and short sharp waves rewarded crews with the best boat and sail handling.
Ultimately, after waiting for the conditions to settle down, racing got under way at 1240. In the first race Nico Poons' Charisma won the pin and gained enough on the far left to reach the top mark a nose in front of 2024 44Cup champions Vladimir Prosikhin's Team Nika and Torbjörn Törnqvist's Artemis Racing. The Dutchman's team, back-to-back 44Cup winners in 2022-23, then clung on, to be rewarded when they picked up the first bullet of the 44Cup's 2025 season.
"It felt pretty good," commented Charisma's tactician Andy Horton. "The boys sailed really well. We had a good start at the pin - the left side was pretty favoured on the beat. It was hard to call what was going to happen with the clouds and everything. In the second race we got caught by a huge righty off the starting line so it looked like everyone that got flushed out ended up doing well - we came back nicely in that one." Charisma followed their victory with a 3-4, ending the day second overall.
Owners and crews alike came ashore in Tortola's Nanny Cay marina beaming after their full-on day of big breeze, waves and blistering sun, typical for a Caribbean regatta. "It was epic, awesome. It was full-on, but not unsaleable," Horton continued. "Another three knots and it might have started to be difficult. Everyone was fully ripping, just holding on, the back of the boat packed with people and water over the deck the whole time..."
However the day otherwise belonged to Aleph Racing. With Hugues Lepic back behind the wheel, the French team won today's second and third races to end the day leading by a slender point from Charisma. After a fifth place in the opening race, "we settled in," as Italian tactician Michele Ivaldi put it. "We had two good starts, played a couple of good shifts going up the beat. The boat was going really well up and down, so it made my life a lot easier."
In the second race the French RC44 led around the top mark just ahead of the newbies on GeMera and Igor Lah's Team Ceeref Vaider and hung on from there. The third race appeared to belong to Chris Bake's Team Aqua until Aleph Racing got the inside berth on them at the final top mark rounding to lead into the finish, scoring her second bullet. "We were going really well, and we got a tiny shift inside them on the very last mark," Ivaldi explained. "Then we decided to gybe early, which paid a bit. Going into the finish we had half a boatlength lead over them."
On board Aleph Racing, Ivaldi said they had seen 16-23 knots, the wind direction spanning 68-100 degrees. "There were big shifts to play, with a long oscillation and small shifts inside the oscillations," Ivaldi continued. "It was fun, it was an open course, boat speed, tactics and crew work - everything was involved to get a good result. The only thing that bothers us a little bit with these boats is the length of the waves - if they're short and high, you just need to keep the heel angle stable and try to pass through, and not worry if the boat speed drops a bit, because it will come back..."
Some teams were a little too enthusiastic on the start line today and were called OCS. Igor Lah's Team Ceeref Vaider was over in the first race, but fought back to salvage a third, following this with a 2-5 in the day's subsequent races to end the day third. "It was good, although we had a little bit of a problem with hydraulics in the last race," explained Lah. "Otherwise, I think the boat speed is really good. I must say, I really enjoyed it. I was amazing sailing, especially downwind and even upwind, it was kind of like a railway - incredible. This is what we are here for. It is really fun, fantastic."
However when it came to OCSes they were outshone by Chris Bake's Team Aqua which started prematurely, in today's first two races. "Most of the time I'm late and then this week I ended up being early - which is not our usual operating way," mused Bake. While Ceeref had bounced back to third in the first race, Team Aqua recovered to finish second. "We got a few good shifts on the first leg. I think in those sort of conditions you have more opportunities... It was challenging with the sea state - fairly intense. It was definitely full-on."
Racing will continue tomorrow with a first warning once again at 1100 local time.
Follow the live tracking here tractrac.com/event-page/event_20250208_CupNannyCa/3099
44Cup Nanny Cay Results after Day 2:
1. Aleph Racing - 5 1 1 - 7pts
2. Charisma - 1 3 4 - 8pts
3. Team CEEREF Vaider - 3 2 5 - 10pts
4. Team Aqua - 2 7 3 - 12pts
5. Team Nika - 4 6 2 - 12pts
6. Peninsula Racing - 7 5 6 - 18pts
7. GeMera - 8 4 8 - 20pts
8. Artemis Racing - 6 9 7 - 22pts
9. Calero Sailing Team - 9 8 9 - 26pts