- Stars for a second day were owner/helm Igor Lah, tactician Adrian Stead and the crew on Ceeref
Despite not winning a race on Saturday, Igor Lah’s ‘Ceeref powered by Hrastnik 1860’ completed a 4, 3, 2, 3 scoreline.
Such consistency was rewarded with them going into the final day holding a massive 11 point lead over Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika.
As testament to the intense, but surprisingly equal racing, after six races, all ten of the RC44 teams had podiumed. After Saturday’s final race six had won races.
Four races were held on day three of the 44Cup Calero Marinas in perfect trade winds conditions – sun, waves and easterly winds at times gusting to 20 knots.
In the first race (R4) coming into the top mark the top nine boats were separated by just 30m. Not all could fit into this space resulting in several penalties.
Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing (tactician Michele Ivaldi) took the lead on the next upwind, going on to take the first win.
The second race saw John Bassadone’s Peninsula Racing (tactician Giles Scott) lead around the top mark only to be overhauled by both Pavel Kuznetsov’s Atom Tavatuy (Evgeny Neugodnikov) and Artemis Racing.
Gybing early reaped dividends for Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing (tactician Andy Horton), which pulled into the lead and was never caught.
In the brisk conditions of race three, there was great joy when the 44Cup’s sole female owner Valeriya Kovalenko’s ARTTUBE (tactician Igor Lisovenko), sailing just their third ever event in the class, won the pin, headed left, tacked and successfully crossed the fleet.
Inevitably the big guns prevailed with Atom Tavatuy taking the win from Ceeref, as ARTTUBE finished a nose ahead of Team Nika.
The breeze dropped to 10-12 knots for the fourth and final race, and for Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika (Tactician Francesco Bruni) finally everything aligned on the race course in the final race.
They won by a very ‘un-44Cup’ 36 seconds from John Bassadone’s Peninsula Racing.
Racing continues . . .
2022 44CUP Calero Marinas Lanzarote (after 7 races)
1st CEEREF powered by Hrastnik 1860 – 3 1 5 4 3 2 3 – 12 pts
2nd Team Nika – 2 6 7 6 4 4 1 (2) – 32 pts
3rd Team Aqua – 1 3 6 5 6 5 7 – 33 pts
4th Peninsula Racing – 10 2 3 8 2 6 2 – 33 pts
5th Artemis Racing – 6 5 1 10 1 7 4 – 34 pts
6th Aleph Racing – 5 4 9 1 5 5RDG 5RDG – 34 pts
7th Atom Tavatuy – 8 7 4 3 8 1 8 – 39 pts
8th Charisma – 4 9 2 7 10 8 5 – 45 pts
9th ArtTube – 7 8 10 9 9 3 6 – 52 pts
10th La Pericolosa – 9 10 8 2 7 9 11DNS (4) – 60 pts