The Grand Harbour and Sliema seafront will be the venues for a series of spectacle races between today and next Sunday as the 2015 RC44 Championship Tour gets under way this morning with the opening leg of the Valletta Cup.

The first test for the 11 teams in competition will be in match racing at the Grand Harbour this morning. As from tomorrow, action shifts to the Sliema coastline for the fleet racing series.

This is the first time that Malta will be hosting the RC44 Championship but interest will surely not be in short supply given that all crews will be racing with identical boats, co-designed by five-times America’s Cup winner Russell Coutts and naval architect Andrej Justin, and blessed with some of the best sailors on the international scene.

Among the high-profile names at the 2015 championship is two-times Olympic gold medallist Iain Percy, former America’s Cup winner Tom Slingsby and former Admiral’s Cup winner Vasco Vascotto.

Bertrand Favre, RC44 Class manager, told reporters yesterday that his organisation was excited to be here and that they’re confident Malta will prove to be a great addition to the championship calendar.

“This is the first time for the RC44 Class to race in Malta but we have no doubt that this island will provide a fitting opening to the 2015 championship,” Favre said.

“Malta is one of the most beautiful sailing venues we’ve been to and it also provides a lot of challenges to the fleet.

“Besides here we have the support from the community and that is important to us.

“The RC44 championship has evolved since our first edition seven years ago. We started with six teams and now we’ve almost doubled the number of crews.

“One main feature of this class is the great competition that exists between the teams.

“Each race will be a contest... there is little to separate the boats. In last year’s championship the gap in most of the races was less than one minute,” Favre said.

In 2014, Team Acqua were crowned champions for a fourth successive year. However, the British boat, owned by Chris Bake and Richard Goransson and who boast America’s Cup winner Cameron Appleton on board, should expect a tough challenge at the Valletta Cup.

Among those vying to dethrone Team Acqua are Team CEEREF with Adrian Stead as skipper.

“It looks like the weather will provide us with different conditions this week which means that we need to take the right decisions in key moments if we are to be competitive,” Stead told reporters at the Royal Malta Yacht Club in Ta’ Xbiex.

“This will be a new experience for me as I’m relatively new to the team but from what I’ve seen so far we have good reason to be optimistic.”

Team CEEREF boat owner Igor Lah, of Slovenia, is back in the RC44 Tour after sitting out the 2014 championship.

He did make a guest appearance on board Bronenosec last year and won the fleet racing at the Sotogrande Cup. Now, he is keen to leave his mark in Malta.

“I have some very good feelings about my team’s participation here,” Lah said.

“The crew know each other well and there’s great chemistry between them which is very positive.

“We are approaching this championship with the sole aim of doing our very best in every race... hopefully that will lead us to some good results.”

Programme

Today: 10am Match race briefing. 11.30am First warning signal.

Tomorrow: 10am Fleet race briefing. 11.30am First warning signal. 17.00 Boat captains’ meeting.

Friday: 10am Fleet race briefing. 11.30am First warning signal.

Saturday: 10am Fleet race briefing. 11.30am First warning signal.

Sunday: 10am Fleet race briefing. 11.30am First warning signal. 15.30 Last warning signal.

Prize-giving to follow at Royal Malta Yacht Club, Ta’ Xbiex.

The original Valletta Cup trophy, symbolising the bastions surrounding the Maltese capital city, was put on display for the first time during a media conference at the Royal Malta Yacht Club, in Ta’ Xbiex, yesterday. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

RC44 Championship info...

• The 2015 Championship Tour RC44 Class will race in five different venues – two of which are new to the series. The debut races will be Valletta (Malta) and Porto Cervo (Sardegna).

The schedule
March 25-29: Valletta Cup, Malta.
June 17-21: Audi Porto Cervo Cup, Italy.
July 28-August 1: Marstrand Cup, Sweden.
September 30-October 4: Cascais World Championship, Portugal.
November 25-29: Virgin Gorda Cup, British Virgin Islands