Can Team Nika keep her precious Golden Wheels?
by 44Cup 5 Feb 06:31 AEDT
4-8 February 2026
44Cup © Nico Martinez / 44Cup
The 19th season of the 44Cup sets sail from the familiar setting of Puerto Calero Marina in Lanzarote tomorrow (Thursday 5 February). What is unfamiliar is that due to heavy rainfall recently Lanzarote's usually barren landscape - frequently compared to the surface of the moon and a favourite with sci-fi film makers - has become lush and green, full of life and new vegetation. In addition, thanks to a massive double-centred depression (its centre an ear-popping 968mB) that is currently spanning the breadth of the North Atlantic, the 'Azores high' has been pushed a long way south and thus instead of the usual northeasterly trade winds, for which the Canary Islands are famous, the forecast has the wind from the southwest for tomorrow's season debut.
Ten teams are due to take part in the 44Cup this season, which following on from Puerto Calero is set to visit Puntaldia (Sardinia), Marstrand (Sweden) and Cowes (UK) before concluding in mainland Cartagena (Spain) in November. As usual in this hotly competitive high performance owner-driver one design class all teams are capable of winning races, but winning consistently is key.
Coming in as defending champion is Team Nika and owner Vladimir Prosikhin has no intention of relinquishing his beloved golden wheels - bestowed upon the 44Cup's present leader (akin to the Tour de France's yellow jersey).
"We want to keep the golden wheels as long as we can," maintains Prosikhin. "Last year we lost them for one regatta but we won them back at the next one. It is very important. They are very attached to Nika... But they are very popular - everyone wants them..."
As to which team he views as the main threat, Prosikhin is unsure: "It is difficult to stay at the top because the competition is fierce and the boats are very equal. The crews are very strong and very experienced, as are the drivers and tacticians. It is such an established class it is very difficult to be competitive and to win. We will do our best, as usual, but it depends on inspiration, concentration, a bit of luck, boat captain's work - everything has to come together; all the stars have to be aligned."
Prosikhin is looking forward to racing off Puerto Calero this week. "It is a very nice place. We have been here so many times and we have returned because it is so nice, so clean, so special. This time it was a huge surprise - I looked out of the window of the plane when we were about to land and it was all green. I thought I had come to the wrong island!"
Team Nika's tactician Nic Asher adds: "I think we're in a good position. Obviously it gets harder each year. A lot of the teams have made changes. So we'll see how it works out." As defending champion Team Nika has a target on its back but Asher says this doesn't overly concern him: "We're really just concentrating on ourselves. We know there are areas where we can improve, so we've just got to trust our process and keep doing it, because that's been working for the last couple of years."
On board they have one change with Britain's Hannah Peters stepping into the floater role. She has a background in J/70s, Etchells and in 2014 won the FISU World University Match Racing Championship in Italy before taking up kite boarding, becoming part of the British team.
In 2025 Team Nika was the runaway leader but the remaining places on the podium were ultra-close with Hugues Lepic's Team Aleph second, just a point ahead of Markus Törnqvist's GeMera. Team Aleph is back in 2026 with Pietro Loro Piano taking the reins for all of this season, having previously co-skippered the French-flagged RC44 with Lepic.
If there is a team on a charge it is certainly GeMera which won the final event of the season in Calero Marina's Marina Jandía last autumn. Markus Törnqvist's GeMera is part of a two boat Swedish RC44 stable with his father Torbjörn's Artemis Racing.
"We've made a few switches for this event, but it's a very promising start to the season and I think we can do quite well with the set-up we have," says Markus. "Winning the last event everyone's quite confident, less and less mistakes are being made. Having not sailed for a while, it's obviously quite difficult with the movements. You have to get used to making very small adjustments on the wheel and being very in sync with the team. If you practise and if you're consistent in these events, it makes a difference, especially steering. People tend to underestimate how much of a connection there is between the crew and the steering itself. It's definitely a team event - especially in this class."
The changes on GeMera are not extreme -Luke Muller and Neil Hunter have simply swapped boats, with Hunter now on Artemis Racing.
"There were a few reasons for that," states GeMera tactician Francesco Bruni. "Our crew weight was probably too close before and we have a new pitman. It's all going well. It's impressive how Markus can come back and knows the game." During today's practice racing, GeMera was in the top two in the first two races before being OCS in the third.
With GeMera on the ascent, it is certain that Artemis Racing will not be far behind having finished fourth behind their team mates at the end of last season, reaching the podium in Marina Jandía.
Racing starts tomorrow at 1200 UTC with the promise of highly mixed conditions over the next four days.
www.44cup.org