STRONG START IN LIGHT CONDITIONS AT THE 44 CUP BAIONA

10/05/2024

From some way out the opening day of the 44Cup Baiona, the second event of the 2024 circuit for the high performance owner-driver RC44 one designs, was looking light. At the skippers’ briefing held at 14^th century Monterreal Castle, home to the host club, the Monte Real Club de Yates de Baiona (MRCYB), a two hour postponement was announced and it wasn’t until 1415 that the first race got underway. At this point, as forecast, the grey sky gave way to sun and a light northwesterly finally filled in.

Race one saw John Bassadone’s Peninsula Racing and Christian Zuerrer’s Black Star Sailing Team OCS as Igor Lah and his Team Ceeref Vaider won the pin and Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing was closest to the race committee boat, tacking on the line and heading right. The right was to prove popular. Rather than going all the way the layline, Artemis Racing tacked early on a shift leaving Charisma furthest right. This proved a winning move, allowing the Swedish RC44 to pull on to the starboard layline ahead of the traffic a nd lead round the top mark ahead of Charisma and Aleph