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Doing bow onboard a RC44 can get busy and chaotic quickly. We speak to Team Aqua’s Juan Marcos, and Team Charisma’s Ivan Peute to get their best tips and tricks for doing bow on the 44Cup circuit.

According to Peute, there are three essential things he needs to do to nail the start. The first one is to feed the correct information to the tactician. This is based on judging the time and distance to the line and pre-empting how other boats on the start line will manoeuvre and clearly and precisely communicating that information to the tactician.

With near gale force winds forecast for the afternoon, to stay on schedule racing for the high performance owner-driver RC44 one designs on the penultimate day of their World Championship was brought forward by two hours with a first warning signal at 0930. In the southwesterly breeze the race area was set up between Hill Head and the Brambles Bank, in the northeastern quadrant of the central Solent, by the Royal Yacht Squadron’s expert race management team led by Peter Saxton and the 44Cup’s own PRO Maria Torrijo.

In fact when racing got underway it was only in 16 knots, the tide running from left to right across the course. Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing and Igor Lah's Team Ceeref powered by Hrastnik 1860 were called over early. While the right was winning early, the left came good up the beat and here Team Nika managed to round ahead of Nico Poons’ Charisma and then continued to hang on for the remainder of the race.

One design keelboats come in all shapes and sizes. Classics often remain as they have always been with few if any upgrades, while for more modern, high performance yachts it is important to stay ‘current’, fitting the latest gear without letting budgets run away.

In typical 44 Cup style, Friday’s racing at the World Championship for the leading owner driver one design circuit concluded with two boats tied in the top spot with third place just one point behind with two days of racing left this weekend.

With the wind having veered southwest overnight, the Royal Yacht Squadron’s race committee, overseen by class PRO Maria Torrijo, moved the race area into the central-western Solent, off the Beaulieu River. The wind was also less, starting at 12-14 knots and dropping to 6-10, but gusty and shifty as a steady stream of clouds passed through bringing with them drizzle and reduced visibility. Given Saturday’s potentially vicious forecast and uncertainty over whether racing will be possible, four rather than three races were held today. The first start at 1130 coincided with the end of the ebb, which was followed by two highly tactical races when the tide was slack before it began flooding. Given the dynamic situation it was a relatively high scoring day.

With two bullets from three races, Chris Bake’s Team Aqua has taken an early lead after day one of the 2023 44Cup Cowes, the World Championship for the high performance owner driver one designs.

With racing run by the event hosts the Royal Yacht Squadron under the eye of class PRO Maria Torrijo, the easterly – southeasterly wind direction required the race course to be set up in the central-eastern Solent, southeast of Brambles Bank. While the wind started light with 20° shifts, for the second race the overcast sky cleared, the sun appeared and the wind built to 15 knots with moments of 18.

On Friday the 44Cup had the pleasure of taking the young people from the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust out on the water as guests.

The pinnacle of the 44Cup’s 2023 season sets sail tomorrow (Thursday 10 August) with the opening races of the 44Cup Cowes World Championship.

This is the second occasion the high performance Russell Coutts-conceived one designs have raced on one of yachting’s most famous stretches of water: the Solent. In 2021 it was Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing with a crew led by Michele Ivaldi that won ahead of Team CEEREF and Team Aqua.

Having rewritten the RC44 Class Rule so that teams this season can race with at least one female on board, so the 44Cup will next week have its first all-female team. The nine teams competing will include the ‘black boat’, which is regularly lent out to those looking to join the circuit or local teams, like Oman Sail. She will be campaigned by well-known Cowes skipper Louise Morton and her Bullet team.

With rollmops unfurling in the big breeze, the decision was made to cancel the final day of racing at the 44Cup Marstrand. Despite this, over the last four days eight races were held and a worthy winner found in Nico Poons’ Charisma, defending champion of the 44Cup’s Swedish stopover and as well 2022’s 44Cup overall winner.

“There are big waves, 30 knots and the wind is going to increase. There will be a slight lull but the sea state will still be large, so we are going to cancel racing today,” announced 44Cup Class Manager Bertrand Favre at this morning’s skippers briefing. This had been brought forward to 0830 in the tentative hope of getting in some racing this morning.

They are the reigning 44Cup champions, defending champions here in Marstrand - today Nico Poons, Kiwi tactician Hamish Pepper and the rest of his red-hatted crew on Charisma showed again why they are the current supreme leaders in the high performance owner-driver one design class.

Hosted by the Marstrands Segelsällskap and supported by Artemis Technologies, racing at the 44Cup Marstrand was blown-off yesterday due to excess wind and waves. Today conditions had dropped to around 10 knots today with a slight left-over chop and PRO Maria Torrijo succeeded in making up most of the schedule by holding four races as the wind continually backed from the south to southeast. In this Charisma won the first and third races and plus two fourths, making her not only the day’s top scoring boat but also leader of the 44Cup Marstrand with a significant 10 point lead going into tomorrow’s final day. Marstrand, the paradise island off west Sweden, took on a more wintry feel as a front arrived bringing rain half way through today’s proceedings.

While forecasts yesterday indicated that there might be a 50-50 chance of racing taking place today at the 44Cup Marstrand, in the event conditions off the popular Swedish tourist hotspot made this impossible.

Principal Race Officer Maria Torrijo explained why racing has been cancelled for the day: "The wind is already blowing 26 knots average and the gusts are 30+. The sea state right now is 3m. And the forecast says that the wind will increase at least 2/3 knots more.

Racing resumed in Europe for the eight high performance owner-driver one design RC44s today with the opening rounds of the 44Cup Marstrand, hosted by the Marstrands Segelsällskap and supported by Artemis Technologies. With the sky overcast for the first three races, conditions were relatively benign, the wind never exceeding 10 knots and more often closer to 6 and slowly backing from the southwest to the south over the course of the afternoon. The 44Cup teams and race organisers have been keeping an eye on the forecast which tomorrow is warning of 20-30 knot winds conditions which may not be sailable even for the highly adaptable RC44s. As a result in anticipation of possible disruption, four, rather than the usual three races, were held making use of today’s lighter conditions.

Once again demonstrating the high calibre of the 44Cup fleet, each of today’s four races had a different winner. After three races the three boats which had won races were tied for the lead on nine points: Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing, winner of the first; Nico Poons’ Charisma, winner of the second and John Bassadone’s Peninsula Racing, winner of the third. With Chris Bake’s Team Aqua claiming the fourth and final race of the day ahead of Charisma in second, Poons’ Monaco-based team, the defending Marstand champion, tops the leaderboard after this opening day of racing in Sweden but in usual 44Cup style by just one point.

After a lengthy break since early March, the 2023 44Cup resumes tomorrow in Marstrand, Sweden. The 44Cup Marstrand will take place over 29 June to 2 July off west Sweden’s paradise island, hosted again by Marstrands Segelsällskap and Artemis Technologies.

Today’s practice starts and racing for the eight owner-driver one design RC44 racers took place in perfect conditions, with sun and 12-14 knots. Conditions over the next four days look more varied with light southwesterlies tomorrow, brisk 20+ knot westerlies on Friday, into the high teens on Saturday and high teens to low 20s for Sunday’s concluding races.

The 44Cup is ready for what promises to be another classic round of hotly-contested one-design racing in the beautiful surrounds of the Swedish resort of Marstrand.

With a fine weather forecast and good wind conditions predicted for the four days of racing that starts on the 28 June, the eight crews are looking forward to renewing rivalries after the opening regattas of the 2023 season in Oman back in February.

For 2023 the rules concerning crew on the RC44s have been changed – now it is not mandatory to carry a female crew, but highly beneficial to do so. Until this year most RC44s sailed eight up: the owner-driver, a maximum of four pros with the remaining three required to be ‘amateur’, technically World Sailing Category 1 sailors. Under the latest rule one of the amateur sailors can now be replaced with a pro female sailor in which case the maximum combined crew weight limit is raised to 730kg (for an all-male crew it remains at 680kg). As a result every team this year has at least one female crew or two in the case of Christian Zuerrer’s Black Star Sailing Team, which has Kiwi match racer Celia Willison on bow.

Usually racing on the 44Cup between the high performance owner-driver one designs is tight with ties or just single points separating the leaders. At the 44Cup Oman, opening event of the 2023 season and hosted out of Muscat’s Al Mouj Marina by Oman Sail, perhaps due to the strong conditions of the first three days, the leaderboard was clearly defined going into the final day with Nico Poons’ Charisma seven points clear of Igor Lah’s Team Ceeref powered by Hrastnik 1860, in turn eight ahead of John Bassadone’s Peninsula Racing.

Unlike the previous three days when conditions built to 20 knots with a vicious short sea, today racing took place in light 5-8 knots, more typical of the Omani venue. Fortunately the wind held, enabling PRO Maria Torrijo to complete the full racing schedule.

In today’s opening race Peninsula Racing was the runaway winner. This compressed the leaderboard points but only slightly with Ceeref coming home second and Charisma fourth.

While Nico Poons’ Charisma, the 2022 44Cup Champion, is the event’s runaway leader, albeit still catchable, on day three of the 44Cup Oman several other teams had the opportunity to shine.

After an hour’s delay waiting for the wind to build, the race area off Muscat’s Al Mouj Marina for a third day offered the nine teams competing at the 44Cup Oman perfect conditions, starting with 8 knots and building into the teens for the final race.

Day two of the 44Cup Oman started off sedate as forecast, but finished with the wind gusting to 20 knots, providing further ‘yeehaa’ moments for the nine crews as they clung on, blasting off on the downwinds into the building sea state.

After six races and at the half way stage of the 44Cup Oman, there is a new leader.

The 2023 44Cup set sail today with the opening races of the 44Cup Oman Cup, hosted by Oman Sail from its base in Muscat’s Al Mouj marina in 20+ knot winds. This made for spectacular downwind legs, the RC44s frequently speeding down waves then submarining, occasionally broaching, all the while providing a thorough work-out for the owner-drivers and their crews.

The 17-22 knots was in stark contrast to the conclusion of the 2022 44Cup here in December, held in four days of ultra-light conditions, in which most other keelboat classes would not have been able to race. While 17-22 knots is nothing exception for the high-performance, owner-driver one designs, today the onshore easterly wind had been blowing for some time, kicking up an evil short chop with frequent breaking waves.

In another step towards re-energising the 44Cup, the rules for the International RC44 One Design class have been revised for 2023 so that going into the 44Cup Oman, which starts out of Muscat’s Al Mouj marina tomorrow, all nine teams will race with at least one female crew.

While not a completely new development, like so many professional sailing circuits it is possible to count on one hand the number of female crew that have competed during the 44Cup’s 16 year existence. This will change for 2023.

The 16^th season of 44Cup racing set sails this week out of Muscat, Oman for the fleet of high performance owner-driver one design monohulls.

At this first of five 44Cup events taking place in 2023, nine of the best RC44 teams will be competing, including many past winners. While his team only finished third in Muscat at the conclusion of the 2022 season, Nico Poons’ Charisma team, led by tactician Hamish Pepper, had won the three previous events in Cascais, Marstrand and Portorož.

The most competitive owner driver one-design racing in the world. This is the 44Cup.

Designed to perform well in 5 or 25 knots the RC44 is fast upwind, able to plane downwind and is crewed by America's Cup and Olympic level tacticians. For the 2023 season the 44Cup will increase the number of female sailors in the fleet with the introduction of a new class rule, grow the fleet with two new boats in production and race for the first time on the Strait of Gibraltar.

The 2023 season of the 44Cup has been unveiled, with five events scheduled for what will be the 16^th season of racing between the high performance owner-driver one design monohulls.

The fleet size will kick off with nine entries for the first event and over the course of the season is expected to grow to more than ten with two new RC44s currently in build at Pauger Carbon Composites in Hungary. This follows the launch last season of another brand new RC44 for Christian Zuerrer’s Black Star Sailing Team from Switzerland.

On the concluding day of the 2022 44Cup’s final event, the 44Cup Oman, PRO Maria Torrijo defied the odds and was able to stage three races.

All the best photos from our 2022 season by our award-winning photographer Nico Martinez.

The forecast for the penultimate day of the 44Cup Oman was for either a moderate northeasterly or for a light northwesterly.

All the stats from the beginning of the 2009 season to the present 2022 season. What are the differences between the teams, their performances and just how close is the racing on the 44Cup Circuit?

After a light start, conditions were optimum off Muscat’s Al Mouj Marina for day two of the 44Cup Oman, the fifth and concluding event of the 2022 44Cup.

We speak to Nic Asher, four time World Champion, about his role onboard Team Nika.

After a light World Championship back in October in Portoroz, Slovenia, the nine teams competing today off Muscat’s Al Mouj Marina at the 44Cup Oman were well dialled in for the opening day of the 2022 44Cup’s grand finale.

With three races sailed every day of a four-day regatta and five events taking place throughout a season, the 44Cup delivers more racing than any other owner-driver class in the world.

To kick off the first day of the 44Cup Oman, four of the teams joined Oman Sail to take part in a beach clean-up.

44Cup racing returns to Muscat’s Al Mouj marina in Oman this week for the first time since 2014. Taking place over Thursday to Sunday, the 44Cup Oman is the final and deciding event of the 2022 season for the high performance owner-driver one design monohulls.

The 44Cup 2022 season will come to a fitting climax next week, with the final event taking place in the splendour of Muscat, Oman, on the beautiful waters off the Al Mouj marina. There will be a full nine-boat fleet on the start line, including eight of the most competitive owner-driver teams in the world and a guest team from Oman Sail, Asyad Shipping Sailing Team, helmed by Musab Al Hadi with Hussain Al Balushi calling tactics.

While racing in 44Cup events usually goes to the wire, decided in the last few metres of the final race, this hasn’t been the case this year where the dominant force has been Monaco-based Dutchman Nico Poons and his Charisma team.

The outlook for the final Sunday of the 2022 World Championship looked un-sailable with every forecast predicting sub-five knot breeze. Waiting out on the water Chris Bake was deserted on board Team Aqua, left to sail his RC44 singlehanded with much woops and hollering of encouragement from his crew in the support RIB. Several other brave singlehanded owner-drivers lined up against him in a mini-race.

With a race lost on Friday at the 44Cup Portorož World Championship, to recoup the schedule four races were held today (Saturday). The race area was further offshore with the medieval nearby town of Piran as an eyecatching backdrop in one direction with another headland to weather strongly affecting the light breeze causing it to shift frequently between the south and southwest. This made for highly tactical racing with much position changing.

Another slow start for day two of the 44Cup Portorož World Championship saw the fleet held ashore with racing not getting underway until 1400. However when it did fill in, the breeze was a crucial two knots more than it was for the opening day and the eight RC44 teams were able to race with their high performance one designs fully powered up.

An ultra-light onshore breeze at the 44Cup Portoroz World Championship should have made for a straightforward opening day to the high performance one design’s pinnacle event of the season. In fact it demonstrated how the nimble RC44 can race meaningfully in practically no wind, but still scores were high with all eight teams suffering at least one big result.

All the past winners of the RC44 World Championships.

Official racing starts at the 44Cup Portorož World Championship in Slovenia tomorrow (Thursday), but today the eight boat fleet enjoyed some warm-up competition.

While between themselves 44Cup teams may appear nonchalant that the annual World Championship for their high performance RC44 one designs is “just another regatta”, in fact this is far from the case with teams saving their best gear for the major event of the season.

Despite the America’s Cup having turned to foiling boats, many of its top sailors have still been attracted back to the 44Cup: from Dean Barker and Ray Davies to Terry Hutchinson and currently Peninsula Petroleum’s tactician Giles Scott and Team Nika’s Francesco Bruni.

The 44Cup has been returning to Marstrand, Sweden, for ten years; however, for 2022, a new partnership with Marstrands Segelsällskap has formed as the supporting yacht club for the event.

Ivan Peute started sailing optimists at the age of eight, but six years later had transitioned into bigger boats. Winning his first World Championship in 2005 in the J22 class, he has since won four other World Championships, one being the 2011 RC44 World Championships with Artemis Racing.

A miserable day weather-wise off the west coast of Sweden turned magnificent, like the fortunes of Nico Poons’ Charisma which after three races today claimed the 44Cup Marstrand over Igor Lah’s Ceeref.

From southwesterly winds gusting up to 20 knots, and one of the sharpest sea states the class has endured, dropping to five to six knots and the lightest conditions sailable by the nimble RC44

The waters off the Swedish holiday hotspot of Marstrand took on a different complexion on day two of 44Cup racing, with a sharp chop and the wind backed from the northwest to the south and gusting into the mid-high teens.

A special edition of bBeautiful shots from our photographer Nico Martinez at the 44Cup Marstrand.

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.

July begins and so too the holidays in Sweden, with a deluge of tourists set to descend on western Sweden’s most picturesque island of Marstrand for the first official weekend of the summer.

The RC44 fleet return to Sweden's west coast next week for the 44Cup Marstrand over the 29 June – 3 July, the 10th year the fleet has raced off the picture-postcard island.

Normally 44Cup events are decided in the final gybes of the last leg of the last race after four days of competition. But at the 44Cup Cascais, the second of the 2022 series for the high performance owner-driver one designs, the opposite was true.

After two days of sun, Atlantic swell and prevailing northwesterlies, conditions turned around for day three of the 44Cup Cascais. Overnight the wind veered into the south and in the morning the eight RC44 teams waited ashore for an extra hour and half as the wind filled in.

While the opening day of the 44Cup Cascais saw the rare occurrence of one boat - Nico Poons' Charisma - winning all three races, on day two it was back to the 44Cup ‘norm’ with lead changes and three different winners.

Traditionally a team of black or white results, Charisma of Monaco-based Dutchman Nico Poons was very much in the latter phase, when his team defied the odds to win not just one, but all three, races on the opening day the 44Cup Cascais.

Igor Lah, tactician Adrian Stead and their CEEREF powered by Hrastnik 1860 are the team with the biggest target on their back going into the 44Cup Cascais, which sets sail tomorrow.

Next week, the 44Cup will return to the Portuguese sailing mecca of Cascais for event two of its 2022 season. Racing for the eight high-performance one-design monohulls will take place from Thursday to Sunday, 11-15 May.

Muscat, Oman, is to host the final and deciding event of the 2022 44Cup season, set to be held over 7 - 11 December.

Hosted by Oman Sail, Muscat will be the last event of the five-stop international tour in 2022. This started in Lanzarote in Spain in early February and continues to Cascais in Portugal, Marstrand in Sweden and is followed by its World Championship in Portoroz, Slovenia before heading for its grand finale in the Middle East.

Switzerland’s Black Star Sailing Team has confirmed it will join the 44Cup for the second event of the 2022 season in Cascais, Portugal, over 11-15 May.

Effervescent Italian Vasco Vascotto made a welcome to return to one of “his sailing families” when for the 44Cup Calero Marinas Lanzarote he stepped on board Nico Poons’ Charisma as temporary stand-in tactician.

Rod Davis – Payback
A much needed initiative – but still a tough road

Going into the final day of the 44Cup Calero Marinas, Igor Lah’s Ceeref powered by Hrastnik 1860 held a strong 11 point lead.

Four races were held on day three of the 44Cup Calero Marinas in perfect trade winds conditions – sun, waves and easterly winds at times gusting to 20 knots.

Having built up an impressive career and reputation, Torrijo became the first women to obtain the qualifications of an International Judge, International Referee, and International regatta Officer.

After a zero wind opening day of the 44Cup Calero Marinas in Lanzarote, forecasts indicated day two might repeat this. In fact, after an hour’s delay, an easterly filled in and built to 12-14 knots, allowing three good races to be held.

Sadly no water passed beneath the keels of the ten-strong 44Cup fleet on the opening day of their first regatta of the 2022 season off Porto Calero Lanzarote.

With the 44Cup Calero Marinas Lanzarote starting tomorrow, the high performance owner-driver one design class returns to having a double digit-sized fleet for the first time since 2016.

For its 15th season, the 44Cup will see ten teams on the start line for the first event of 2022 in Lanzarote, hosted by Calero Marinas in Puerto Calero over the 9 - 13 February.

We asked Gough a few questions to get a better understanding of how he became such an instrumental part of an international team.

Over four of the most difficult days of racing in 44Cup history, an impressive seven races were still held at the 44Cup Calero Marinas Lanzarote

This week a shallow depression centred due west of Gibraltar has effectively shut down the famous trades, which typically provide 20+ knot winds at this time of year in the Canary Islands, making it world renowned as a water sports mecca.

Conditions off Lanzarote’s moon scape south coast took on a different character for day two of the 44Cup Calero Marinas Lanzarote, with much improved sailing conditions albeit with the 8-12 knot wind blowing either along or off the shore.

Incredible photos from Nico Martinez of Martinez Studio on day two in Puerto Calero.

The 44Cup Calero Marinas Lanzarote, final and deciding event of the 2021 44Cup, got off to a difficult start today. To race the nimble RC44s only need 5/6 knots of wind and on several occasions the race committee valiantly began a start sequence in more than this, only for the wind to disappear.

The final event of the 2021 44Cup sets sail tomorrow out of Puerto Calero, Lanzarote with technically any of the five top teams still able to win the overall prize and any of the top seven capable of landing themselves a spot on the podium following the four events so far this season.

Having started sailing oppies at Salterns Sailing club to being an instrumental part of Team Aqua on the RC44 race circuit, James Dodd talks us through his role as pitman onboard the boat.

The fifth and final event of the 2021 44Cup Championship Tour is to conclude next week in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote. The nine boats entered are lining up for an ultra-competitive conclusion.

A last minute manoeuvre by Nico Poons’ Charisma won them the final race of the 44Cup Scarlino World Championship by a mere second, but it was the defending champions on Chris Bake’s Team Aqua that defended their title in this 11^th RC44 World Championship by one slender point.

Conditions could not have been better for day three of the 44Cup Scarlino World Championship.

After 30 knot winds prevented any racing on day one of the 44Cup World Championship in Scarlino, Italy, the race committee pulled out all the stops to ensure racing took place today, by bringing the start time forwards by two hours.

While the forecast indicated that it might be sailable, the opening day of this 11^th 44Cup World Championship was blown out with the northerly winds off Scarlino, Italy regularly reaching the high 20s and gusting into the high 30s.

Nine teams are in Scarlino, Italy this week to contest the annual 44Cup World Championship.

The 44Cup returns to Italy next week for the first time since Porto Cervo in 2017.

The final day of the 44Cup Cowes was always going to be big. Despite the overnight seven point gap between the leaders Aleph and second placed Ceeref, experience told Hugues Lepic and his team that they should take nothing for granted.

Behind them the battle for third was intense with three teams on equal points.

Practice or showcase, call it what you will, the 44Cup fleet simply call it another opportunity to line up against each other.

Since arriving in Cowes for the 44Cup all eight teams had been expecting conditions to build for the second day of racing and with 20-24knots to kick things off, that was precisely what was delivered.

What the opening day of the 44Cup in Cowes lacked in sunshine it more than made up for with close racing.

Sunshine, a solid sea breeze and a start from the Royal Yacht Squadron line in Cowes was the perfect way to open the third event in the 44Cup calendar as the fleet took to the Solent.

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.

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.

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.

The 44Cup Marstrand had a tricky start today off the Swedish paradise island bearing its name. A weather front slowly moving across the west coast of Sweden brought with it solid 25 knots winds, 30+ gusts and the real prospect of no racing for the eight owner-driver RC44s.

On a circuit where the racing is as close as it is on the 44Cup, rarely does one team to claim back-to-back wins in the high performance, owner-driver one designs.

Beautiful drone shots from a foxtrot finish in Marstrand.

One of the most daunting jobs in the sailing is to be tactician on board Team Nika in the 44Cup.

The most regularly visited venue on the 44Cup, since the first full racing season for the high performance owner-driver one designs took place in 2008, has been the picture postcard island of Marstrand on Sweden’s west coast.

Watch the full event highlights from the 44Cup Portoroz. The opening event of the 2021 44Cup Championship Tour.

Four magnificent days of 44Cup racing in Portoroz, Slovenia concluded with further 20+ knot winds, flat water and sun, but mixed fortunes.

For the first 44Cup event in 17 months, Portorož could not have offered better conditions to date; slowly ramping up the wind strength to the third and penultimate day of racing, when the wind was at times solidly into the 20s, gusting to 25 knots.