Njörðr, the Norse god of the sea and the wind was clearly smiling upon both the 44Cup Marstrand and local team Artemis Racing for the first day of the 2022 44Cup’s third event off western Sweden’s holiday hotspot of Marstrand.
The eight teams and their high performance one design RC44 yachts were eased gently into the regatta. There was flat water and brilliant sunshine, while the northwesterly wind started at the lower end of the spectrum, at 6-8 knots, for the first race and then built to a moderate 12-14 for the third and final one.
Torbjörn Törnqvist, host of the 44Cup Marstrand, steered his royal blue RC44 to victory in the first race, taking the left side of the course on the first upwind as the rest of the fleet went right. Artemis Racing tactician Andy Horton explained: “Early in the day the left was favoured – there was pressure there, plus the pin was up, which gave us a couple of boatlengths lead. The guys are sailing the boat fast. We had three good starts and we could end up sailing straight almost as long as we wanted to.”
The eight teams and their high performance one design RC44 yachts were eased gently into the regatta. There was flat water and brilliant sunshine, while the northwesterly wind started at the lower end of the spectrum, at 6-8 knots, for the first race and then built to a moderate 12-14 for the third and final one.
At the end of day one Charisma lies third overall, four points off the lead after at one stage finding themselves dead last in the first race. “That was a tough race,” Pepper continued. “I didn’t get us off the line well and we got pinballed a little bit. Next minute we were last, but then another boat got a penalty at the finish, so it wasn’t a complete disaster.”
Most teams had their ‘five minutes’ today. This included the newbies from Switzerland, Black Star Sailing Team which was second at the top mark in the opening race only to drop a place, coming home a worthy third. As helmsman Christian Zuerrer explained: “We had a good start and good tactics and I am happy that we finished third because we had a broken kite – it got scratched on the hoist somewhere. It was a bit scary but it wasn’t getting bigger and we tried to keep the load off it while still going fast.”
Zuerrer is used to racing in his native Switzerland and the Mediterranean, but this is his first time racing in Sweden. “It is a nice place,” he says of Marstrand. “Sunny. Good breeze. It is a nice spot. I like to be here. The organisation does a great job to keep this all running, so I am looking forward to close racing over the next three days.”
44CUP MARSTRAND RESULTS:
(After 3 races)
- 🇸🇪Artemis Racing – 1 5 2 – 8
- 🇲🇨 Team Nika – 4 1 3 – 8
- 🇲🇨 Charisma – 7 4 1 – 12
- 🇸🇮 Ceeref powered by Hrastnik 1860 – 6 2 6 – 14
- 🇫🇷 Aleph Racing – 5 6 4 – 15
- 🇬🇧 Team Aqua – 2 8 5 (1) – 16
- 🇨🇭 Black Star Sailing Team – 3 7 7 – 17
- 🇬🇧 Peninsula Racing – 8 3 8 – 19
