44Cup Porto Cervo - Day 3
by 44Cup 17 May 12:40 PDT
12-18 May 2025
44Cup Porto Cervo day 3 © Nico Martinez / 44Cup
After yesterday's stomach churning washing machine of a day, the Costa Smeralda turned the glamour conditions back on again for day three of the 44Cup Porto Cervo, organised by the RC44 class and the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. The sun was out and the southeasterly erred little from 8-10 knots enabling three races to be held.
The first race saw Team Charisma make the best start at the boat end but coming into the top mark it was RC44 newbie helmsman Markus Törnqvist and his GeMera that had edged ahead to lead on to the run ahead of Nico Poons' team - a fine performance from the 44Cup's latest team. GeMera gybed early which might have let Charisma in but, gybing back, they successfully crossed Charisma to lead into the port leeward gate mark. But it was not to last - on the second beat Charisma once again did well on the right, edged into the lead to take the bullet.
In race two there was a general recall and then, on the second attempt, John Bassadone's Peninsula Racing was a little too eager at the pin and had to restart. Shortly after the start out to port Igor Lah's Team Ceeref Vaider and GeMera also found themselves doing turns. Meanwhile having started fourth out from the pin and tacking early, Christian Zuerrer's Black Star Sailing Team found a clear lane out to the right, pulled ahead, from there led for the remainder of the race.
"Our first two races were good," said Christian Zuerrer of his team's day. "We try to stay in the pack and to avoid extreme wins or losses. Being in the middle is really a step forward for us. Even in these difficult and different wind conditions, on every day we've found the groove, the trim, and the steering through the waves, and we've always had enough pressure in the sails to bring the boat forward."
The third race saw Peninsula Racing over early once again with GeMera and Vladimir Prosikhin's Team Nika claiming the favoured right. Coming in from the left Torbjörn Törnqvist's Artemis Racing encountered Team Nika on starboard and was bounced back to the left, but this in fact paid handsomely and when the Swedish RC44 tacked back, after a little wiggling she just managed to round the top mark ahead of Hugues Lepic's Aleph Racing.
Behind there was carnage. Team Ceeref Vaider came up to lay the mark forcing GeMera to come up as well, both coming to a near standstill, but particularly affecting Team Charisma and Chris Bake's Team Aqua directly astern of them. Team Ceeref Vaider and GeMera maintained just enough way to edge around the mark, but Team Aqua and Charisma were less fortunate and came to complete standstill, Team Aqua drifting down on to the mark and having to carry out a penalty turn.
Meanwhile those astern, such as Black Star Sailing Team, had to take extreme avoiding action. Christian Zuerrer explained: "We were hoping that it would be all cleared up before we got there, but Charisma and Aqua were stuck, so we had to gybe around and go behind them to stay free to do our top mark rounding. You definitely wanted to stay away from trouble like that."
Ahead Artemis Racing and Aleph Racing split at the bottom gate with the Swedes ahead but then tacking to cover, but they had done enough to lead round the final lap and take the win. Team Nika came home fifth which was enough to see them lead into the final day but by only a point from a charging Artemis Racing, with Black Star Sailing Team 10 points behind them in third with GeMera a further five back.
"Today was tough," commented Team Nika tactician Nic Asher. "It was hard to execute and get off the start line where you wanted to given the line bias and then getting to the right where there was more pressure and a bit of a right bend. But we still had the second best day."
While Artemis Racing had the best day on the water, Black Star did well too. "They seem to be going well upwind," observed Asher of the Swiss. "We had a few opportunities today to put some pain on them which we did. Sometimes if you get the opportunity to do it, you've got to do it because it's so close. So there were a couple of times we pushed them back a bit."
Also finally getting their act together today was Daniel Calero's Lanzarote Calero Sailing Team, who after a 10th in the first race posted much more respectable fifth and third places.
"It's a really good feeling," commented Calero. "When you work hard and the good results don't come, you have one feeling, but today was completely different. The second race was a pity because we were third and then we dropped the spinnaker into the water. But we recovered the situation and managed to get a fifth. Then in the third race today, we got a third. So the crew is very happy because they have been working super hard to be competitive. At least we are now in the good position."
Three more races are scheduled for tomorrow when, due to the wind conditions, the first warning signal will be an hour earlier at 1100.
44Cup Porto Cervo results after day 3
| Pos | Team | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | PP | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | Team Nika (MON10) | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 5 | | 27 |
| 2 | Artemis Racing (SWE44) | 2 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 | | 28 |
| 3 | Black Star Sailing Team (SUI27) | 1 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 8 | | 38 |
| 4 | GeMera (SWE30) | 5 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 4 | | 43 |
| 5 | Peninsula Racing (GBR18) | 8 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 7 | | 45 |
| 6 | Team Charisma (MON69) | 7 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 12 | | 48 |
| 7 | Team Aqua (GBR2041) | 3 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 9 | | 50 |
| 8 | Aleph Racing (FRO17) | 6 | 1 | 10 | 10 | 2 | 11 | 9 | 2 | | 51 |
| 9 | Team Ceeref Vaider (SLO11) | 9 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 53 |
| 10 | Lanzarote Calero Sailing (ESP1) | 10 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 3 | | 64 |
| 11 | Wow! Sailing Team (TUR4425) | 11 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 11 | 10 | | 84 |
Extra report from Yacht Club Costa Smeralda
The penultimate day of racing at the RC44 Porto Cervo Cup saw three different winners in as many races held in a south-easterly wind of about 10 knots, stronger than those that had been forecast yesterday.
In the morning briefing, PRO Maria Torrijo informed competitors that the start of the first race would be postponed by an hour to 1 p.m. and the third day of racing did indeed start punctually at the indicated time.
Thanks to today's performance (5-2-1), the Swedish team Artemis Racing owned by Torbjörn Tornqvist, and sailing with champions such as Iain Percy, Luke Parkinson, Maciel Cichetti and tactician Hamish Pepper, is encroaching on the lead held by Team Nika (2-6-5) hanging on to the top of the provisional standings by just one point. Third provisional position, but with a gap of 10 points from the second placed team, is for the Swiss team, Black Star, had a bit of a mixed bag of results today doing very well in the second race, but not as brilliantly in the first and last races, where they came sixth and eighth.
In the first race the fleet arrived compact at the first windward mark, rounded first by Markus Tornqvist's debutant Gemera sailing with Checco Bruni as tactician. This team finished third behind the winner Charisma and Team Nika in second place. The seventh race of the series overall, and second of the day, saw Black Star leading from start to finish. Second place for Artemis who passed Lanzarote Calero Sailing inside the mark at the leeward gate. The Spanish team tailed Black Star for half the race, simultaneously rounding the leeward gate on opposite tacks, then finishing in fifth place. Third place for team Charisma, who was seeing the best performance of the day up to this point.
The final race started with menacing dark clouds building behind Porto Cervo, but fortunately the breeze on the race course remained stable both in direction and intensity. Most of fleet headed for a rotation on the right hand side where Charisma held the lead until the approach to first windward mark, where they were sucked into the group arriving compact at the mark. First was Artemis, followed by Aleph Racing, Lanzarote Calero Sailing and Gemera. The positions of the fore mentioned teams remained unchanged until the finish line, albeit with battle for third place between Lanzarote Calero Sailing and Gemera, won by the Spanish team from the Canary Islands.
Hamish Pepper, tactician of Artemis: "It was a very positive day for the team with solid performance. Torbjörn helmed very well, especially in the maneuvers close to the other boats. We managed to reach good speeds on the race course and the guys on board helped me with perfect maneuvers. If you can make a good start and exploit the speed of the boat, you have a good chance of arriving well at the windward mark, that's what the crew did today. We are satisfied, it was a good day with excellent partials."
Tomorrow, the last day of racing with three more races to go, will be a battle for the victory of the RC44 Porto Cervo Cup. The Race Committee has chosen to anticipate the first start to 11.00 a.m. CEST and the forecast is for westerly winds of around 15 knots.
The event is organised by the YCCS in collaboration with the RC44 Class, with the support of the YCCS technical partner North Sails.