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Going into today’s final three races of the 44Cup Nanny Cay, the leaderboard tight between the high performance owner-driver one designs with Charisma leading on 34, Aleph Racing on 36, Artemis Racing on 38, Team Nika on 39 and any of the top seven still able to win.

Today the wind was forecast to be a 15-18 knot easterly, but a cell passed through overnight leaving the St Francis Drake Channel with little wind. Nonetheless by the 1100 start time the wind had filled in and for race two crews were changing to J2 headsails, the wind building to 15+ knots.

Once upon a time, no self-respecting race boat could survive without a Kiwi pro sailor on board. Today a nation making its mark on the RC44 circuit, particularly after their resounding choral work at the 44Cup Marstrand party, is Ireland.

Black Star Sailing Team’s Simon Johnson, heralding from Wicklow, just south of Dublin, has represented the Emerald Isle since the RC44’s very early days– he original raced on Vladimir Prosikhin’s Shipman 72 Nadejda, before continuing on with his Team Nika RC44 where he spent three years on the bow. He subsequently was recruited to handle pit duties aboard Team Aqua, a role he has continued with Black Star Sailing Team, as well as racing on a number of high profile maxi yachts.

After a slow start to the regatta, Chris Bake’s Team Aqua came out all guns blazing on Saturday, day three of the 44Cup Nanny Cay, to win the first two of the three races laid on by PRO Maria Torrijo and the race team from the Royal BVI Yacht Club.

Weather-wise, this was the trickiest day of the regatta so far, that required a 40 minute delay to allow a squall to pass by. The opening beat saw the wind drop to sub-five knots with great variation over the race track, but this was still enough for the nimble RC44s to make good progress.

With the Wow! team from Turkey joining the 44Cup for our event out of Nanny Cay this week, so we have a fresh influx of crew to the 44Cup. While in addition to owner-driver Mehmet Taki, the Wow! crew is largely Turkish, there is a strong contingent of Italians, a Spanish tactician in 49er double Olympic gold medallist and round the world race skipper Iker Martinez. There is also a German in Luise Wanser.

Having coming back down to earth, or water level at least, after competing in this summer’s Puig Women’s America’s Cup in Barcelona with the German team on the flying AC40s, Wanser is enjoying two firsts this week – visiting the British Virgin Islands and the magnificent sailing area that is Sir Francis Drake Channel and sailing an RC44 for the first time on Wow!

Conditions on the British Virgin Islands’ St Francis Drake Channel further improved today; still shifty, thanks to the islands to weather and the tropical clouds overhead, but with more wind – ranging from 9-13 knots. The race course was moved so that the start area was directly off Tortola’s capital Road Town. Racing also started an hour earlier, at 1100, to make best of the available breeze.

After a lacklustre start to her regatta, the 2024 44Cup leader, Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika, countered strongly today elevating her from an uncharacteristic seventh place at the end of play yesterday to fourth at this half-way stage of the 44Cup Nanny Cay. Team Nika posted a solid 2-2-2 scoreline today, making her – in contrast to yesterday - by far the top-scoring boat.

Despite an unpromising forecast, Tortola came good for the opening day of the 44Cup Nanny Cay with PRO Maria Torrijo and the race team from the Royal BVI Yacht Club laying on three races, held in 6-14 knots from the east to southeast.

It was a tough day for the 2024 44Cup leader and holder of the circuit’s ‘golden wheel’s - Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika, who ended the first day of the last event of the 2024 44Cup in a disappointing seventh place. Two fifth places sandwiched a most disappointing ninth in the second race, after they and others were locked out behind the race committee boat, starting late.

Racing sets sail tomorrow out of Nanny Cay, Tortola in the British Virgin Islands for the concluding event of the 2024 44Cup. At present the battle for the season’s title looks set to be between Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika and Igor Lah’s Team Ceeref Vaider, lying first and second. Team Nika won the opening event of the season in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote and also the 2024 44Cup World Championship in magnificent Brunnen, Switzerland at the end of August, while Lah’s team from Slovenia has kept pumping out consistent results.

But the real race is on to reach the podium, where of the nine RC44s competing, impressively eight still mathematically have the chance to end the season third. They range from Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing currently third on 11 points (and winner when the RC44s last visited the Virgin Islands in 2015) to John Bassadone’s Peninsula Racing in eighth place, but only three points behind Artemis Racing on 14.

After a nine year absence from the Caribbean, the RC44 fleet will return next week for the 44Cup Nanny Cay, taking place over 20-24 November.

The high performance one design 44Cup fleet has twice visited the British Virgin Islands (BVI). On both previous occasions they were based out of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda’s clubhouse on Virgin Gorda. Sadly in September 2017, Hurricane Irma, the strongest hurricane ever seen in the Atlantic, decimated the island and the clubhouse, so for its third visit, the RC44s will be racing from their new base in Nanny Cay resort and marina located on the BVI’s principal island, Tortola. This features a marina able to accommodate 300 yachts - 110 monohulls on the outer marina and 190 monohulls on the inner marina and a fully equipped boatyard.

The 44Cup World Championship concluded today on Switzerland’s Lake Lucerne with the most intense tussle for the lead between Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika and Igor Lah’s Team Ceeref Vaider.

The 44Cup Brunnen community spent Saturday evening cruising Lake Uri (Lucerne) aboard a giant paddle steamer followed by a lengthy firework display–setting new standards for 44Cup event. But during the night, a storm passed over, the rain continuing into the morning, the giant alpine peaks surrounding the lake shrouded in cloud.

Lake Uri (Lucerne) laid on different conditions for the penultimate day of the 44Cup World Championship out of Brunnen, Switzerland. After two lively sea breeze days, Saturday started off with two races in the same northerly, both in sub-10 knot conditions before the wind shut down. The nine RC44s were sent home and just when it seemed like the day had concluded, a mighty southerly filled in and PRO Maria Torrijo made the call to send the fleet back out. Back on the race course the class was greeted with 20+ knot winds and white caps but instead of blowing up the lake, the wind was plummeting down diagonally across the lake from between the giant Gitschen and Wissigstock mountains.

The conditions in the first two races seemed complex but both races were won by the boats that got ahead on the first beat. In the first Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing came out of the start well, second from the pin, led back from the left and then defended well to the finish, scoring her first bullet of the event.

Switzerland may be in the news recently with the exploits of its Alinghi Red Bull Racing challenger for the 37^th America’s Cup, and posting some solid results in the sailing at the Olympic Games, but, meanwhile, back home on Lake Uri (Lucerne), one of the most significant sailing events to come to the land-locked nation is currently being held.

The 44Cup World Championship, taking place for the first time out of the village of Brunnen, is being organised by Christian Zuerrer, owner of Black Star Sailing Team. Part of the raison d’etre of his team is to nurture and develop young Swiss sailors. Among this crew this week are Kilian Wagen and Grégoire Siegwart, who over ten years campaigned studiously in the 420 and then the Olympic 470 dinghies, culminating in a campaign to represent Switzerland at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Finally, as Wagen puts it, “there was a big fight between six countries for the final European spot…” and sadly they were one of the five that didn’t make it.

For day two of the 44Cup World Championship the nine RC44 teams ventured out from the host village of Brunnen on to the Urnersee section of Lake Uri [Lucerne] to a full windless, glass-out. After two hours of waiting patiently and a move of the race course north, the wind did finally fill in with a brisk 15 knots enabling two raced to be completed. After a further delay a third race was eventually started but abandoned at the leeward gate as the wind turned inside out. The fleet was then sent home.

With the accuracy of a Swiss watch, the 15+ knot thermal wind kicked in on time as advertised on the Urnersee - north-south section of Lake Uri (Lake Lucerne) - enabling three races to be held on the opening day of the 44Cup World Championship in Brunnen, Switzerland.

In a Disneyland setting, the lake surrounded on all sides by towering mountains (some even still snow-capped), today’s racing also provided a Disney-worthy story line with local host Christian Zuerrer and his Black Star Sailing Team winning today’s last race to lead the event after the opening day – the first occasion the Swiss team has won a day in two years campaigning in the RC44 class.

Once upon a time, racing yachts made of wood, fibreglass or Kevlar would, after a few seasons of hard use and abuse, start to lose their stiffness thereby causing diminished rig tension and other performance impacting horrors. However the advent of ultra stiff carbon fibre, epoxy and space age core materials used in modern day race boat construction have largely eliminated this, but this leaves well-built and conceived carbon fibre one designs in the odd position of effectively never needing to be replaced.

The 2024 44Cup Worlds in Brunnen, Switzerland, sets sail tomorrow for the nine high performance one design fleet of owner-driver RC44s. The competition is taking place in the magnificent alpine setting of Lake Uri (Lake Lucerne), encircled by towering mountains, in what is considered the oldest part of Switzerland.

Of the ten teams competing, six are previous RC44 World Champions, since the class’ first World Championship was claimed by Oracle Racing in 2010, the same year Larry Ellison’s team won the America’s Cup

For the second time this season, the 44Cup is to visit a new venue. After racing in Baiona, Spain in May, for its fourth and penultimate event, the high performance owner driver one design class will compete for its annual World Championship next week out of Brunnen on Lake Uri (Lake Lucerne) in the heart of Switzerland.

A unique selling point of the RC44 is its design cleverly allowing it to be squeezed to the size of a 40ft container, thereby enabling cost-effective transportation both on land or by ship. This makes lake racing very possible for the 44Cup, although this is the first time the circuit has done so since Lake Traunsee in Austria in 2012. In fact this is not the first time that the 44Cup has raced in Switzerland - at the very dawn of the class in 2007, an event took place on Lake Lugano in the Italian part of Switzerland. However the 44Cup World Championship Brunnen will be the first occasion the RC44s have raced on Lake Uri, where the 44Cup is being hosted by Christian Zuerrer and his Black Star Sailing Team.

If some of the most successful crew in the America’s Cup and SailGP seems to have come from the Olympic 49er skiff, the 44Cup seems to attract talent, both old and new, from the venerable Olympic doublehander, the 470.

Year after year Marstrand delivers. Watch the extended race highlights now.

Nico Poons’ Charisma won the 44Cup Marstrand in 2023 and has been 44Cup champion for the last two season. But some changes in personnel and two deep results in Porto Calero, Lanzarote at the beginning of the year and then in Baiona, Spain last month had dumped the Dutchman’s team at the bottom of the leaderboard. Yet over the last four days of the 44Cup Marstrand, despite racing in very mixed conditions, Charisma has bounced back to her previous form.

Charisma went into the final day topping the leaderboard, albeit only two points ahead of Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing. Winning today’s first race as Aleph Racing scored an uncharacteristic seventh, which the French team followed with an OCS and a second deep result, helped Poons, tactician Andy Horton Chris Hosking (main trim), Ross Halcrow (headsail trim), Dimitri Simmons (offshore trim), Ryan Godfrey (pit), Robin Jacobs (grinder), Arancia Malaspina (floater) and Ivan Puete (bowman) win the 44Cup Marstrand with a race to spare – a rare phenomenon in this ultra-tight class.

The 44Cup Marstrand is providing the nine 44Cup teams with the full range of conditions. After a heavy day, a light day, Saturday started strongly with an additional feature: intermittent rain. To recover the lost schedule, four races were held; rain affecting the first and last. Today the wind had flipped to the east, blowing offshore with less waves but a shifty, patchy breeze with current running left (north) across the course.

Going into today, two points separated the top five. Going into today’s fourth and final race, this was down to two with Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing and Nico Poons’ Charisma tied, nine clear of Igor Lah’s Team Ceeref Vaider. A final race win for Charisma to Aleph’s third put Poons’ team two points ahead, with event host Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing up to third, 11 points adrift. With three races scheduled for tomorrow, mathematically any of the top seven could still win.

After day one of the 44Cup Marstrand was called off due to strong winds, the worry for day two of racing off the west coast of Sweden’s paradise island was, ironically, a lack of breeze. The schedule was brought forward by two hours to 1000 both to make the most of the available wind, while also allowing competitors to docked and packed up ready for Swedish traditional Midsummer Eve celebrations culminating in a late lunch/early dinner with entertainment for the 44Cup teams and entourage at Marstrand’s renowned Society House.

With near gale force on shore westerly winds kicking up a violent sea state, the first day of racing at the 44Cup Marstand was called off. At the 1000 skipper’s briefing PRO Maria Torrijo put the nine teams on stand-by until 1300, but then when conditions hadn’t improved the ‘AP over A’ was hoisted and racing was abandoned for the day.

“Today the forecast was very, very strong. When we went out to check the wind, it was already 26 knots average, gusting to 32 knots,” said Torrijo. “We waited to see if the wind would drop but that never happened and the sea state was increasing.”

Racing sets sail tomorrow in Marstrand, Sweden on the third event of the 2024 44Cup following on from Puerto Calero, Lanzarote and Baiona in northwest Spain.

The 44Cup returns to its most regularly visited venue next week with the 44Cup Marstrand taking place over 19-23 June with support from Artemis Technologies and Marstrands Segelsällskap.

Cool, calm, controlled Hamish Pepper leads Artemis Racing to the regatta win in beautiful Baiona. Watch the extended race highlights now.

Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing demonstrated herself to be categorically back on form after winning five races out of nine at the 44Cup Baiona. The second event of the 2024 44Cup concluded today in the Galician port where it has been hosted by the Monte Real Club de Yates de Baiona (MRCYB).

After a long wait for the wind direction to stabilise, finally a light northwesterly filled in and two races were sailed. In the first Chris Bake’s Team Aqua started well, tacking at the committee boat, winning the right and subsequently the race. For the former serial World Champions and Series winners this was a ray of light after a generally disappointing week. “The boat has been going well all week, but I think we just couldn’t get in the right place at the right time. That cost us dearly…” commented Bake.

If you spot a slightly piratical figure walking down the dock at a 44Cup event, it is likely you have encountered the amiable Mikel Pasabant, a key crewmember on board Peninsula Racing.

After a wait for the wind to fill in, the Vigo River estuary and Galicia’s wider Rías Baixas estuary complex delivered for day three of the 44Cup Baiona with 15-20 knots, brilliant sunshine, a short chop and with the magnificent Caes Islands nature reserve as a backdrop.

History was made on the 44Cup today when, for the first time, a team representing land-locked Switzerland was top scoring boat of the day.

From some way out the opening day of the 44Cup Baiona, the second event of the 2024 circuit for the high performance owner-driver RC44 one designs, was looking light.

Racing sets sail tomorrow for four days at the 44Cup Baiona, the first time the high performance owner-driver one design class has visited this northwest region of Spain.

While the 44Cup owners and teams have favourite locations such as Marstrand in Sweden that they visit almost annually, for three of this season’s five events the high performance owner-driver one design class will be visiting for the first time. Starting this off is the 2024 44Cup’s second event, taking place in Baiona, Spain over 8-12 May.

Sometimes 44Cup teams go well beyond amateur owner-drivers sailing with their elite level pro-am crews. In 2023 the RC44 class amended its rules governing each team’s crew weight to encourage them to include youth and female sailors. For 2024 Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing is going a step further in using their RC44 team as a platform to train up sailors from the Swedish teams competing in this year’s Unicredit Youth And Puig Women's America's Cup in Barcelona.

When it comes to exotic knitwear, there are no brands more exclusive than Loro Piana. But for the last decades outside of the world of high end fashion, the name has also become synonymous with maxi yacht racing, through the exploits of Pier Luigi Loro Piana and his series of magnificent My Song yachts. The sailing bug now seems to have caught on in another branch of the Loro Piana family with Pietro, son of Pier Luigi’s late brother Sergio, following in his uncle’s footsteps.

Four bullets from nine races was enough to secure Team Nika victory in the 44Cup Calero Marinas, opening event of the 2024 44Cup.

All four days of racing in the Canary Islands were in maximum conditions for the high performance owner-driver one design – in fact no one can remember an event requiring their smallest headsail, the J3, to be used in every race. Even for the final day (forecast to be the lightest), teams were still subjected to gusts into the high 20s blowing from the north, over Lanzarote’s barren lunar landscape.

After Friday’s brutal conditions, the forecast indicated a slightly lighter day three of the 44Cup Calero Marinas.

For some time the Lanzarote forecast for day two of the 44Cup Calero Marinas showed conditions exceeding the RC44 class’ theoretical upper wind limit of 25 knots. Anticipating this PRO Maria Torrijo brought the start time forward to 09:30.

The Canary Islands are renowned for their breezy northeasterly trade wind conditions and today Lanzarote fully delivered this, with 20-25 knot winds and occasional gusts of 30.

Alongside names such as Bake, Lah and Törnqvist, one of the cornerstones of the RC44 has been Caleros.

After a brief winter break, the 44Cup resumes next week with the 44Cup Calero Marinas, first of the five event 2024 series, taking place out of Puerto Calero in Lanzarote.

One of the features of which the 44Cup should be proudest is the large number of owners who get to enjoy sailing with their offspring.

It’s all change for the 44Cup’s 16^th season in 2024. While the circuit for the high performance owner-driver one designs will still comprise five events, including one World Sailing-sanctioned World Championship, this year it will visit three new venues for the first time.

Dutchman Nico Poons was unable to stay dry once ashore from the final day of racing at the 44Cup Calero Marinas. As is tradition, RC44 Class President Chris Bake encouraged him to take a plunge in celebration of his Charisma winning the 2023 44Cup for a second consecutive year.

The 44Cup Calero Marinas, the final event of the 2023 44Cup has become a two horse race going into the final day. Once again today the star performers among the high performance owner-driver one designs were Aleph Racing and Team Nika, both winning races and, crucially, the only teams to avoid posting any big results.

They say in yacht racing that when conditions are light, flukey and difficult to predict, it is all about keeping a cool head and avoiding the big results.

Leaders, favourites and defending champions, Nico Poons’ Charisma got off to a solid start on the opening day of the 44Cup Calero Marinas, the final event of the 2023 44Cup.

The 44Cup’s trial boat, which teams can use to gain first-hand experience racing the high performance, owner-driver RC44 one design, has had a busy 2023 season.

The fifth and final event of the 2023 44Cup takes place for the high performance, owner-driver one designs in the familiar waters off Lanzarote’s Puerto Calero next week.

In form typical of the high performance owner-drive one design, going into the final race of the final day of the 44Cup Alcaidesa Marina, just two points separated the top four boats and, with nine points on the table, mathematically any of the top six could still win.

The 44Cup has its fair share of Olympic sailors, from tacticians to crew, most packed on to Artemis Racing, including triple Olympic medallist Iain Percy and bronze medallist Anders Ekström while their regular tactician reigning Dylan Fletcher is the reigning 49er gold medallist.

The Bay of Algeciras had a complete change of complexion for the penultimate day of racing at the 44Cup Alcaidesa Marina with the southerly wind initially non-existent, then slowly filling in to 8-10 knots.

Ironic after a day blown off as severe gale force winds battered the nearby rock of Gibraltar, day two of the 44Cup Alcaidesa Marina started with barely a breath of wind.

On some days conditions can be marginal for a committee to lay on yacht racing. Today at the 44Cup Alcaidesa Marina there was nothing marginal about the wind strength on the Bay of Gibraltar.

Following the RC44 class’ World Championship in Cowes in August, the 44Cup resumes tomorrow in the shadow of another famous maritime British empire outpost - Gibraltar.

The fourth of five events on the 2023 44Cup set sails next week over 18th-22^nd October in a new venue for the high performance owner-driver one design circuit on the Spanish mainland.

The Royal Yacht Squadron, Cowes and the Solent laid on a World Championship worthy of the leading owner-driver one design class, the RC44.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

With rollmops unfurling in the big breeze, the decision was made to cancel the final day of racing at the 44Cup Marstrand.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Usually racing on the 44Cup between the high performance owner-driver one designs is tight with ties or just single points separating the leaders.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.