Today
Towering one above the other
The second race day of the penultimate, fourth 44Cup regatta held in Cascais, Portugal, did not bring any changes to the position of the Russian teams in the table. Says Elena Otekina:
© Elena Otekina
Team Nika by Vladimir Prosikhin remained in 4th place with 8th, 2nd and 3rd finishes in three races of the day. In fifth place is Tavatuy by Pavel Kuznetsov: after the last two places in the first two races of the day, the team managed to win the third race and the first of the Russian teams in this Cup to earn award champagne. And the 7th line in overall continues to be occupied by “Armadillo” Kirill Frolov (4-7-6).
Among the leaders of the Cup there was a small castling. From second to first place, the British Team Aqua Chris Bake rose with Cameron Epton as a tactic (6-1-4). The leader of the first day, Monegasque Charisma, Nico Punsa is tied to her on points and is now on the second line (3-4-5). French Aleph kept the third place (1-5-2).
Although the northwest wind was weak at the beginning of the day, by the third race it rose to 15-16 knots and turned out to be quite stable. From noon to three in the afternoon the Race Committee managed to conduct all three planned races. At the start and at the approach to the signs, the boats literally towered one above the other, breaking even higher waves than the day before, and from the outside it looked incredible! Fortunately, the wave was very long, but the resulting 3D distance still brought a lot of difficulties to the crews.
Nika in the first race again did not get into the settings and walked slowly, and only in the second race the helmsman managed to disperse the yacht well, come to the first mark second and finish also 2nd. In the third race, after a not very successful start, Nika was able to be 5th in the first mark, and then at a good rush of 20 knots the team perfectly completed the full course and was already 3rd at the gates, saving this place to the finish line. According to Vladimir Prosikhin, he was able to taxi to the second race, and there was more wind – so it became easier to cope with the wave. “I hope we are in a rut. We had 15 points yesterday, today 14, but it is very important in what order they are. Now it’s 8-2-3. ”
At Tavatuy, Pavel Kuznetsov, the first two starts failed. In addition, in the first race, the boat caught a fishing trap for crabs and was forced to stop and free. But a great start from the kick and high speed in the third race allowed the team to lead the entire distance and finish by a couple hundred meters ahead of the entire fleet.
According to the steering team “Battleship” Kirill Frolov, on Friday everything was generally better than the day before, but there were still difficulties. In the third race, his yacht went third, but on the first round, he piled on the mark and was forced to work out a fine, so only the 6th finished the race, which did not allow the team to improve their overall position.
Today, October 5, the first start is scheduled for 12:00 local time. Follow the races at www.44Cup.org
Full results –
https://44cup.org/results
38 Today # 9531
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