Saturday, November 17, the third day of the final regatta of the season in RC44 class, which is now in the Portuguese Cascais, acting under the Monegasque flag Charisma Dutchman Nico Punch with ray Davies as a tactic brilliantly won both races of the day and led the final standings of the regatta, scoring 28 points. Reports Elena Tekina:
© Elena Tekina
In second place with 5-m and 3-m sprints and 31 points and is the British Team Aqua, the third – in case of equal points the Slovenian Ceeref c 4th and 2nd wards.
Unfortunately, for the leader of the first half of the race the Russian Team Nika’s Vladimir Prosikhin – the day was very difficult. Came 6th in the first race and finishing last in the second, the team fell to 4th place with 33 points.
In the South-East wind in the afternoon increased to 25-27 knots and three-meter high wave, in the conditions close to survival with numerous bracingly and breakdowns, two races were held, before the weather really deteriorated, and the competition was stopped.
In the first race of Charisma was able to rise from 3rd place at the first rounding in first place in the second diffraction, and then to the finish. Nika had a great start, but then the boat all the time was not fast enough. According to the steering in the first race, they did not get into the settings are unable to effectively switch with light winds the first two days on the Saturday storm conditions.
In the end, at the first sign of Nika was the second-last and tried to go to the left, the first full course, but it did not help much. The second sign she was 6 and tried again to make up for the second full course, but remained on the 6th place.
Despite the false start, the Russian team Bronenosec Kirill Frolov was able to spend a very good race, moving up from last place at the first mark to 3rd at the finish.
For the second race Nika still maintained the lead with a margin of two points before the left on the second place Charisma, but then… In the second race team Niko Punch won the start from the pin and perfectly spent the race. Ceeref also started on the left, finished second. British Aqua first tacking half a mile left left Lalin and “rolled” back the boat Vladimir Prosikhin, which started well and was also on the left.
Dean Barker still managed to convince the British boat finally turn on port tack, and Nika could go on the first sign of a third.
But then, on the Russian boat – apparently from a particularly strong impact on wave – broken removable stem, which protects the nose. Not only that, the part of the broken part started to really slow down the boat bottom, so besides from-for the formed hole Nika scored inside a couple of tons of water which is radically weighted the boat, depriving it of its speed and handling.
Plus at the gate on a strong gust of wind tangled string-line, which helps to remove the gennaker, and unplanned manual cleaning the sail went into the water. Lost minutes on retrieving the gennaker out of the water, breaking the bow and water in the body has led to last place in the race and 4th position in the overall. “Well, we have another day, tomorrow will begin to fight for the new”, – concluded the day steering.
Pleased with such a successful sequel to such a bad beginning of a regatta helmsman and the owner of Charisma Nico Punch said that the day had given him uneasy. “Complex was not only wind, but also sea state, well, that was only two races. At 22-23 knots it was more survival than competition.”
Tactics Charisma, the famous winner of the America’s Cup ray Davis commented on the day: “It was fantastic! We had two lovely start, especially in the second race when we won the pin, which was higher than 10°. This immediately raised, you guys been great with the boat. Despite the fact that the conditions were difficult with heavy waves from different directions”.
Bronenosec again had a good race and came 4th, which helped to rise from 7th to 6th place in overall. According to Kirill Frolov, he loved racing day. “It was great! We waited for this weather, before it was just awful. We love it when more wind, I feel better, that was our conditions. Sunday will be more difficult with a higher wave and a weaker wind.”
According to the forecast on Sunday, the final day of the regatta and the season, the expected wave height of 6 meters and a weakening of the wind. To follow the races in real time on the official website of the regatta – www.rc44.com.
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