Team Aqua’s Big Bounce Back
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 leaderboard on its head, yet again. Looking reasonably comfortable in the two top spots overall going into the day’s final race, in this Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing and Nico Poons’ Charisma came home last and second last respectively. As a result there is now a tie at the top, the top four boats are separated by two points and the top seven by just nine with potentially 24 points on the board tomorrow.
In May at the first 44Cup event in Portorož, Chris Bake had one day when his Team Aqua put no foot wrong, scoring three bullets in three races. Today their performance came close with a 2-1-1. While Aleph Racing had been slowly growing her lead through solid, consistent sailing, disaster struck in today’s final race when she was shoveled over the start line. Having to restart dropped her to last place and despite some promising moments when it appeared she might have recovered, ultimately she was unable to. This last race today concluded in dramatic style with the finish line set at the entrance to Marstrand Harbour for the benefit of spectators and sailing fans. While Team Aqua crossed comfortable first, the French team was left to bring up the rear.
As a result Aleph Racing is now tied on points with Team Aqua, Bake’s team ahead on countback, which considering they started the day sixth overall, is perhaps one of the most meteoric rises we have seen in 44Cup racing.
Bake, the “Master of Marstrand” having won here the most, narrowly lost the first race to Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika, the two boats showing a welcome return to form after both endured terrible results yesterday. A similarly good day as Team Aqua appeared on the cards for Team Nika until she picked up a penalty as she was trying to nose into the lead going into at the top mark.
It was also an up and down day for Pavel Kuznetsov’s Atom Tavatuy. Like Aleph Racing, the Russian team, on which Evgeny Neugodnikov calls tactics, had maintained supreme consistency through this regatta – until today when they suffered two uncharacteristic last place finishes. They almost managed to flip this on its head in the final race when they just managed to keep the lead going around the top mark, but subsequently got outpaced by an invincible-looking Team Aqua.
Tomorrow the three deciding races are scheduled to start at 11:30 CEST.
Photo Credits: Martinez Studio / 44Cup
