Eight teams jockey for 2024 44Cup podium in BVI, as Turkish Team joins the final event of the season
by 44Cup 20 Nov 16:40 PST
20-24 November 2024
2024 44Cup © Nico Martinez
Racing sets sail Thursday out of Nanny Cay, Tortola in the British Virgin Islands for the concluding event of the 2024 44Cup. At present the battle for the season's title looks set to be between Vladimir Prosikhin's Team Nika and Igor Lah's Team Ceeref Vaider, lying first and second.
Team Nika won the opening event of the season in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote and also the 2024 44Cup World Championship in magnificent Brunnen, Switzerland at the end of August, while Lah's team from Slovenia has kept pumping out consistent top results.
But the real race is on to reach the podium, where of the nine RC44s competing, impressively eight still mathematically have the chance to end the season third. They range from Torbjörn Törnqvist's Artemis Racing currently third on 11 points (and winner when the RC44s last visited the Virgin Islands in 2015) to John Bassadone's Peninsula Racing in eighth place, but only three points behind Artemis Racing on 14.
Christian Zuerrer's Black Star Sailing Team is currently sixth, just two points off the podium. "Nothing is easy in this class - it is possible to step on the podium, but the opposite it also possible," observes Zuerrer, who hosted the last event, the 44Cup World Champion on Lake Brunnen in his native Switzerland. "It will be tight and tough racing. Hopefully we will manage to have a good one."
For Zuerrer this is his first time sailing in the Caribbean and he is being treated to one of the world's best sailing venues, with the 44Cup fleet based in Tortola's Nanny Cay, with the race area in St Francis Drake Channel, between Tortola and off-lying islands such as Peter and Norman Islands, collectively known as 'the Little Sisters'. "It is cool here - definitely a nice place to end the season and start 2025," continues Zuerrer. "It looks like we will have 9-15 knots with the potential for more wind on Sunday. But as I always say, it is the same weather for everyone and we have to make the best of it. Depending upon where the wind comes from - there should be flat water, but from some wind directions we may get some waves."
RC44 Class Association President Chris Bake, whose Team Aqua is currently seventh, agrees. "Sailing in turquoise water in November is very special. It is the best time of year - absolutely gorgeous, phenomenal weather, great breeze with wonderful sailing. It's snowing back home, so everyone hates us!"
This year Team Aqua has been getting to grips with their brand new RC44, hull #28 but rounded out August's 44Cup World Championship winning the final race. "She feels good," continues Bake of his new steed. "She has been well set up and we have now got a lot of initial teething problems sorted out." As to their prospects for the season, Bake concludes: "We'll see. We have to pull ourselves together a bit. This year has been a bit tough for us, joining the dots somehow. It would be nice if we could do well here."
Trying their hand for the first time at the 44Cup here in Tortola is a new Turkish team Wow! led by Mehmet Taki and with Spain's double Olympic 49er gold medallist and round the world sailor Iker Martinez calling tactics.
Taki, who heralds from Istanbul, has been racing for 10 years now, most recently having spent a season and a half in the ClubSwan 36 and then sailing PalmaVela in Majorca on a ClubSwan 50. He has previously campaigned a Bolt 37 race boat among others. He has only sailed the RC44 for two days but so far he is impressed: "I have never sailed such a good boat in all my life. Especially the helm - it is top. I cannot talk about the rest of the boat - the crew is struggling still, but it is a very nice boat." And of the practice racing to date, he admits: "My feet were trembling yesterday with the close racing. I am not used to racing so close to other boats! I am trusting in them and my insurance company! If I look around I am going to panic!"
He is very much enjoying the BVI as visiting them has been a long ambition. "This was the dream location of my father for vacations, but he never took me when I was younger! So I've always been intrigued with what they looked like."
Remarkably given his huge sailing background, Iker Martinez is about to have his first ever regatta in an RC44. He took Taki through the ClubSwan classes but that halted in 2022. "I didn't expect anything really, but I like the boat," says Martinez of the RC44. Most recently he has been working with Sebastien Simon's Groupe Dubreuil IMOCA campaign, currently lying second in the Vendée Globe. Martinez joins the several Olympic medallists in the 44Cup, most notably Artemis Racing's Iain Percy (2x golds 1x silver). "We've come here to test the boat but also to see the fleet and the people. The racing is at a high level but can we make it with our team?"
Racing starts Thursday with a first warning signal at 1200 Atlantic Standard Time (UTC -4).
2024 44Cup Overall Ranking: (after four events with one discard)
1. Team Nika - 1 2 7 1 - 4pts
2. Team CEEREF Vaider - 2 4 6 2 - 8pts
3. Artemis Racing - 8 1 2 8 - 11pts
4. Aleph Racing - 5 5 3 4 - 12pts
5. Charisma - 6 7 1 5 - 12pts
6. Black Star Sailing Team - 7 3 8 3 - 13pts
7. Team Aqua - 4 8 4 6 - 14pts
8. Peninsula Racing - 3 6 5 7 - 15pts
9. Calero Sailing Team - 9 9 10 9 - 27pts