On Saturday, October 5, on the penultimate day of the fourth season of the regatta draw 44Cup held in Portugal Cascais, two Russian teams of three finally managed to move up the table. From the event reports Elena Tekina:
© Elena Tekina
Team Nika’s Vladimir Prosikhin continued the positive trend and climbed to third place, coming 3rd and 6th in the first two races of the day and winning the third. Before the final day, the team is 8 points away from second place and 7 ahead of the nearest competitor – the French Aleph.
Also his first champagne for winning the race earned Bronenosec Sailing Team with Kirill Frolov on the wheel, representing the Yacht club of Saint-Petersburg (1-2-7) As a result, she soared from 7th to 5th place overall, relegating him of the Ekaterinburg command “Tavatuy” Pavel Kuznetsov, which now occupies the 6th place (7-8-2).
The British Team Aqua kept its leading position with an impressive run and is 2-1-3 with a lead of 7 points from Monaco Charisma Nico Punch, which still ranks second (5-3-5).
On Saturday, Cascais finally demonstrated its best the wind in 18-20 knots with gusts to 25, which makes it a favorite racing venue for sailors around the world. Roll forward slightly decreased, but there was a short wave, which is always accompanied by a strong North-West wind. So the crews had to readjust to the new conditions. Not without many pochinkov, because a change of wind and strong gusts came rapidly, and suffered even the most experienced crews.
Team Nika in the first race was the second on the first rounding, followed by “Battleship”. After setting the gennaker Nika wanted to protect themselves from grooving on it on the right of the British team, which also tried zavrachitsa, and Vladimir too much brought the boat, almost putting it on the water. This prolonged bracing cost the team second place, which went to Aqua.
The second race was very great left the time at the start, and eventually the whole fleet came to the line several buildings. The result is Nika got under the hand, being Packed in the left group of boats without the ability to leave in the best right side. At the first rounding the team was last, then on the second loop was able to overtake two boats and right before the finish won another place at Peninsula Petroleum.
The third race was the most interesting. At the first sign Nika came in second behind “Tatuum”, then on the left side had improved to the gate of the first position, the second diffraction failed and was third, but then made an early turn into the shore, got good wind and on the left side at very high speed was able to get to the finish line first.
“We tried very hard today, we began to turn, well, that’s one race was unsuccessful. In the first race I put the boat in bracing, there blew 24 knots, and somehow I missed it, did not obey Volume (tactics). We still somehow slowly recovered. And in the second race was very important for us three places to play; that is probably the best achievement” – commented on the day Mr Prosikhin.
Bronenosec had a great first two races, leading all the way in first and going in second position the entire second. In the third race the team was fourth at the first rounding, but then made a mistake with the party and went in a bad direction, where he lost a few places then was unable to play. Steering Kirill Frolov admitted that finally felt the joy of racing. “Start it turned out, the speed was good, got a lot of fun. Real Cascais, which we have been waiting for! With such a wave with good wind, good speed was 17-18 knots. Had everything that we love this place, it was a good first two races”.
Tavatuy after two unsuccessful races impressive start to the third. Starting with great speed, at the sign of the team came first, but then on the turn twisted the sail and the gates fell to third place. On the second tacking it again was in the lead at the top mark and immediately wanted to turn left, but again hesitated to sail, and Nika overtook her, in the end, meaning to follow her to the left was gone.
Steering Pavel Kuznetsov though in awe of Cascais, but acknowledges that an area for the team is very complicated. “A nice day, but we are not ready to such speeds and winds. We’ve got small joints, it is also necessary to train. All maneuvers is a little bit poor. We do not immediately picking up speed, it’s not very clean, one thing after another – and eventually total loss. Well, the start is not very good.”
On Sunday, the final day, the first start scheduled for 12:00 local time. It is expected the same perfect racing weather, as on Saturday, only scheduled three races. Follow them on the site www.44Cup.org.
Full results here: https://44cup.org/results
