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. The circuit’s loyal group of owners have been competing for so many years that their RC44 has itself become like a family member. 

To recognise and encourage this, the RC44 class introduced a rule change last season permitting its crews to have a combined weight of 730kg with either a under 30 or a direct family member on board, or 680kg without. Maximum crew weight is beneficial so in 2023 all of the RC44s gained a crew member. 

While some of the RC44 owner’s children have been sailing on board irregularly for years, a few have grown to an age where they are now a regular part of the crew. 

One is Tine Lah, the second of three sons of Team Ceeref Vaider owner Igor Lah. Igor was one of the first owners to join the RC44 class back in 2008 (the class has strong ties with his native Slovenia – the RC44 was conceived by Russell Coutts, but the hard core naval architecture was handled by Slovenian Andrej Justin and first sea trials of the prototypes took place there). And this certainly influenced the Lah middle son, who, for his degree, chose to study naval architecture in Plymouth, a course which Tine says suited him better than the more famous course at the University of Southampton as his enabled him to study dinghies and composite boat building, etc. In fact the Lah children have other strong ties to the UK – youngest son Luca, a musician, works for the London-based Orchestra for the Age of Enlightenment. 

All the Lah sons have chosen different vocations and when Tine left university he went to work for Slovenia’s other well known yacht design firm J&J. Since the early 1980s, the Jakopin brothers have been designing yachts for many of many leading builders, not only Slovenian-based companies such as Elan and Shipman, but also Jeanneau, Beneteau and Bavaria, subsequently moving into motor boats and superyachts. Tine worked there for two years before moving into more mainstream design. 

When he was 24, Tine first joined his father’s RC44 team for the first regatta of the 2019 season at the opposite end of former Yugoslavia, in Porto Montenegro: “It was a funny regatta - I started sailing and then we won!” he recalls. At this point he was part of both Team CEEREF’s shore crew and sailing on board. 

“I think it is very interesting,” says Tine of the RC44, on which he is the offset trimmer. “It is really, really fun, especially when the breeze is around 18 knots, when you are planning downwind and there is a good swell so that then you can surf and you have to put all the weight back. I haven’t sailed too much on other boats like TP52 and Melges but everyone says that these are the most fun.”

And wearing his qualified yacht designer hat? “The RC44 is a simple design – the cost of running them is very low, in terms of shipping etc, the way they pack up to the size of a 40ft container - I worked on the shore team for my first two years, so I know all about that! It is great for a boat that was made in 2007. They are made in carbon, so they last well, plus, when they have a crash they can be fixed easily in a very short time.”

After two years working both on and off the boat, it was deemed too much to do both jobs effectively “especially if it was windy and everything is broken. So I got out,” he explains.

His role on board as the offside trimmer involves helping the trimmers, for example loading the new sheet on the windward side prior to manoeuvres, tailing ropes and occasional grinding. But thanks to having the same slight build as his father, he frequently gets asked to do many jobs on board: “When they need something, I go in. Because I am light, they want me everywhere.”

On board he is just another one of the crew. “We [Igor and Tine] don’t talk much during racing. It is mostly just the tactician [Adrian Stead] and a few others that do the talking. But it is good and I like it. Especially because it gets your mind off things and I can see my father having a lot of fun. It is quite the family class. It would be fun maybe one day to have a son’s race! Maybe first a practice race, so we don’t all crash into each other!”

Their team has been impressive in recent years. Since winning the 44Cup outright in 2019, they have never finished off a podium at the end of each season since and were only relieved of second in 2023 after Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing went on a charge, winning the final event of the season in Lanzarote. 

Tine enjoys being part of the team. “The communication on board and the atmosphere is good between us. There is always tension especially when something goes wrong but we all know what to do and we all understand each other. All of them on board are good sailors…”

Team Ceeref goes into the 2024 with a new name – Team Ceeref Vaider, after Hrastnik’s parent company.