Before the 14 teams competing for the RC44 World Championships in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote can commence battle, there was one other matter to be decided, who will be crowned 2011 RC44 Match Race Champion?
At each event the RC44s have one match race day, the only chance for the pro skippers have to take the helm.....unless their owner has got the match racing bug!
Team CEEREF’s owner Igor Lah came to sailing later in life, the former competitive dancer who now runs a business empire in Slovenia has been on the RC44 circuit since 2008. Having built an excellent team around him led by Italy’s Michele Ivaldi, Lah is now confident about taking on some of the best match racing talent in the world.
“The level of match racing in the fleet is at an all time height, you just need to look up and down the dock and the level of tacticians in all the teams, it is just quite incredible, the class has really developed in to a tough fleet.” Cameron Appleton Tactician and match race helm on Team Aqua.
Last year the team from Slovenian finished eighth in the match race rankings, Team Aqua (GBR) lifted the trophy. This year the Lah and his team are well positioned for a place on the podium, whether they can knock Aqua off the top spot remains to be seen.
With ORACLE Racing out of the game, busy with the AC45 World Series in San Diego, Lah effectively goes into tomorrow’s match racing in second, three points behind the mighty Appleton, and only one point ahead of Russia’s Katusha, who have recruited the current ISAF World ranked number one match racing skipper Francesco Bruni to stand in for Paul Cayard, also in San Diego overseeing Artemis Racing in his role as CEO.
Bruni will hope to get the team on the podium before heading straight from Lanzarote to Malaysia, where he will be fighting it out to be crowned 2011 ISAF Match Racing World Champion at the Monsoon Cup.
10 flights are planned for the RC44 class, all scores will be added to their existing score sheet from the previous five events this season; the team with the highest score (subject to any ties being broken) will lift the trophy.
The class have also amended the format of the match racing at the request of the team as Cameron Appleton explains. “We've got a game changing situation ahead where the match racing now is going to have a one lap course and a two minute starting sequence to save some time to get more racing in. It’s going to add a new dimension to the game and it will be all about keeping on your toes and adapting. We played around with the new match race format today with the Puerto Calero Team and it can quickly go against you.”
The match race leader-board may look very different tomorrow evening, but it is for Team CEEREF and Aqua to lose, and their loss would be Artemis Racing (SWE) and the home team Islas Canarias Puerto Calero gain who are both snapping at their heels for a podium place.
With the weather looking to strengthen from today’s 12-16 knots NNE/NE breeze, Peter Reggio and his race management team will be hoping to complete all 10 flights, but the teams are not expecting an easy ride as Team CEEREF tactician Michele Ivaldi explained after their day testing on the water. “The offshore breeze will mean not everything will be in the start so we will see some change in the lead and some tricky conditions tomorrow.”
Follow the racing evolve on the live on the water blog at www.rc44.com
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Who will be crowned 2011 RC44 Match Race Champion? 15th November 2011