Malta produced one of the most spectacular starts to a RC44 Championship Tour event yesterday as the Valletta Cup sailed off with a match racing series at the Grand Harbour.
Within the confines of the historic fortifications, racing started in earnest for the 11 RC44s, the wind fortunately blowing from the southeast enabling the race committee to set the weather mark deep inside the harbour basin.
At first, boats had to deal with 15 knots but the wind dropped later in the day. Despite a delay for a giant cruise ship to dock, six flights were held before Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio stopped proceedings.
RC44 Valletta Cup match racing at the Grand Harbour, yesterday.At the close of competition four teams were left on four wins.
St Petersburg Yacht Club commodore Vladimir Liubomirov’s Bronenosec and Vladimir Prosik-hin’s Team Nika were the only two teams to finish the day with just one loss, Bronenosec winning on countback.
“We had a great day of sailing. There was good wind inside the harbour – it was beautiful,” Prosikhin said.
Team Nika has former Emirates Team New Zealand helmsman Dean Barker as tactician. He is back to the RC44 Class after a six-year absence.
While in the past many of the RC44s have had pros helms for the match racing series that introduces RC44 regattas, yesterday many of the owners steered their boats.
Liubomirov helmed Brone-nosec and according to the team’s Italian tactician, Michele Ivaldi, he does this to practise for the fleet racing that comprises the remainder of the regatta.
“The wind conditions were really tricky, but we were improving our speed, communication and crew work and in the end it was a good day. So, we achieved goal number one,” Ivaldi said.
Like Peninsula Petroleum, Bronenosec has made few crew changes going into this season and benefited from four days of training in Maltese waters prior to the start.
Also on four wins were Charisma, of Monaco-based skipper Nico Poons, and the Gibraltar team on John Bassadone’s Peninsula Petroleum.
Missing the first few races, Bassadone was on board after the second flight.
“It is always good to do a few races of the match racing and get rid of the cobwebs,” he said.
“Otherwise the tactician gets upset!” Bassadone added, in reference to his second-in-command, Italy’s Vasco Vascotto.
The boat-on-boat nature of match racing can make this sport aggressive and, despite this being the first day of racing in the season, there was a spectacular duel between Team CEEREF and Artemis Racing Youth.
That included a pre-start collision in which Artemis Racing Youth were deemed to be in the wrong. Then, a tacking duel immediately off the line, ended when Team CEEREF came in on port, without rights, and unsuccessfully attempted to duck Artemis Racing Youth, stabbing her bow into the Swedish boat’s hull.
Artemis Racing Youth continued and won the point but were docked three points for the two incidents, while Team CEEREF were penalised two.
Fleet racing sets sail today at 11.30am but on this occasion the courses will be set in open water, outside Grand Harbour and along the Sliema seafront.
Match race results
1. Bronenosec 4; 2. Nika 4; 3. Charisma 4; 4. Peninsula Petroleum 4; 5. Artemis Racing 3; 6. Katusha 2; 7. Aqua 2; 8. CEEREF 2; 9. Anyway-anyday 2; 10. MAG Racing 0; 11. Artemis Racing Youth -2.