44Cup Marstrand Overall - Team Aqua Masters of Marstrand for a fifth time by 44Cup 5 Jul 01:30 BST 30 June - 4 July 2021
It is rare even between the ultra-close RC44s for an event to go to the wire in such an extreme way as it did at the conclusion of the 44Cup Marstrand. Going into the tenth and final race of the circuit s Swedish stopover, five of the eight strong fleet was still capable of winning the event. At this point Dutchman Nico Poons Charisma was leading by a useful, but by no means unassailable, three points over Igor Lah s Team CEEREF in second.
44Cup Marstrand Day 3 - Team Aqua s big bounce back by 44Cup 4 Jul 04:34 BST 30 June - 4 July 2021
Just when the pecking order seemed to be firming up at the 44Cup Marstrand, so today s final race off the picture postcard Swedish island, turned the results on their head, yet again. Hugues Lepic s Aleph Racing and Nico Poons Charisma were looking reasonably comfortable in the two top spots overall until the final race, in which they finished last and second last respectively. As a result huge leaderboard compression has occurred with a tie at the top, the top four boats separated by two points and the top seven by just nine with potentially 24 points on the board tomorrow.
44Cup Marstrand Day 2 - Team Aleph joins the dots to lead by 44Cup 3 Jul 06:05 BST 30 June - 4 July 2021
In an example of the high performance RC44 one design class typically ultra-close racing, so yesterday s winners dropped to the bottom of the pile at the 44Cup Marstrand today as those managing to remain the most consistent rose gradually to the top.
For competitors and race management alike it was a difficult day with an overcast sky, 15 knots of northeasterly offshore wind that dropped to below 10 as the afternoon wore on. This was combined with a tricky current, mostly sweeping right to left across the course, often favouring the right side. This was different from yesterday in the bigger conditions when any favourable current seemed more random.