The winter’s break having been a short one, there were no cobwebs among any of the teams racing off Puerto Calero as best demonstrated by there being different winners in each of today’s first three races of the 44Cup Calero Marinas.
In addition, the results table was skewed by both Vladimir Prosikhin's Team Nika and Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing, which topped the 44Cup leaderboard in 2025, both having a day of ‘mixed’ results. The 44Cup is not a class where you can rest on your laurels.
At the outset there was a small delay as 44Cup PRO Maria Torrijo and the race management team from the Real Club Náutico de Arrecife upped sticks and moved the race course south. Here, instead of a westerly blowing across mountainous Lanzarote, there was a less erratic southwesterly blowing along the coast.
In the first race Torbjörn Törnqvist's Artemis Racing laid down a marker as the only boat to start on port tack and she forged out to the right towards the Lanzarote coast where she found gold. Tacking back she was clear ahead and the Swedish team received no major threat for the remainder of the race.
Behind there was an interesting fight for second with the apple cart upturned on the first run as while Chris Bake’s Team Aqua, Team Nika and Aleph Racing lost out on the left, those that gybed early made great gains, none more so than Mehmet Taki and Murat Edin’s Wow! Sailing Team.
Last at the top mark, the Turkish team hit the right hardest on the run elevating them to second, rounding the gate level with Markus Törnqvist's GeMera Racing. Wow! Sailing Team held second up the next beat only losing out when they fouled John Bassadone’s Peninsula Racing at the top mark and were forced to carry out a penalty turn.
Wow! Sailing Team’s tactician, Spanish double Olympic 49er gold medallist and round the world skipper Iker Martínez commented: “In the first race we did very well - actually in all the races we did some good things, so we are very happy - we've improved a lot. We need to be a bit more consistent in our manoeuvres and in our calmness.” On board the owners alternate driving and today it was Mehmet Taki’s turn.
Figuring that ‘right was right’, in race two Aleph Racing started closest to the boat end of the line but, one across from her, GeMera Racing, had had the better start. Rapidly tacking and following Aleph Racing out to the right, her advantage was such that when Aleph Racing tacked back from the right GeMera Racing was able to cross her on port. This put her into the lead which she resolutely held for the remainder of the race, finishing ahead of Team Nika and Peninsula Racing.
Convinced by their tactics, in the third race Aleph Racing again started closest to the boat but this time executed it with a precision we are more used to seeing from the French team. And while GeMera Racing, Peninsula Racing and Artemis Racing all had a similar idea, when Aleph Racing tacked back from the far right all were forced to tack beneath her. Aleph Racing was able to consolidate her advantage and led for the remainder of the race.
“I know we always say it's snakes and ladders, but Lanzarote, especially this time, was quite complicated,” admitted Italian helmsman Pietro Loro Piana. “Obviously, we're trying to do the best we can and I think it showed in the last race which we sailed quite well. Our results just need to come up, but today’s the first day and there’s a long way to go. I got some of the rust out of my fingers and the guys are doing an amazing job. It's so nice to be sailing with them.”
Scoring a 2-1-3 GeMera Racing tops the leaderboard after day one, Markus Törnqvist sailing with tactician Francesco Bruni and a powerhouse crew including several top names from the America’s Cup and SailGP.
“It was a very good day for us - the whole team did a fantastic job,” said Bruni. “We have Markus steering very smoothly today, I can't complain about anything. We had good starts, good speed and everything was rolling our way. The first race at the top mark we gybed early, putting us back in the top three - that was probably the move of the day for us.”
Of the right, Lanzarote side of the course being so strong both upwind and downwind, Bruni explained: “There was a little bit of a twist in the breeze, a little bit of a geographical effect. We realised that after the first upwind of the first race. But we were right on the game after that.”
They may not have won a race today but John Bassadone’s Peninsula Racing posted a 4-3-2, consistency that has left them in second position at the end of the opening day, ahead of Artemis Racing.
“It was a good day,” commented Bassadone. “We sailed well, the boat's going well and sometimes we do quite well in conditions like we had today. All-in-all, we’re positive, but there's a long way to go, it's just day one, so we just need to focus, forget about today, and go again tomorrow.”
A whole scale change in the weather is forecast for tomorrow with the wind veering into the northwind overnight and building to 20-25 knot winds. For the RC44s this will be an offshore breeze making for a gusty and most challenging race track.
Results after three races:
R1 R2 R3 (total)
1 GeMera Racing (30) Markus Törnqvist 2 1 3 (6)
2 Peninsula Racing (27) John Bassadone 4 3 2 (9)
3 Artemis Racing (26) Torbjörn Törnqvist 1 7 5 (13)
4 Team Charisma (15) Nico Poons & Carlo Vroon 3 4 6 (13)
5 Team Aqua (28) Chris Bake 5 5 4 (14)
6 Team Nika (10) Vladimir Prosikhin 6 2 8 (16)
7 Aleph Racing (17) Hugues Lepic & Pietro Loro Piana 8 8 1 (17)
8 Wow! Sailing Team (25) Mehmet Taki & Murat Edin 7 6 7 (20)
