'Where the Wind Blows… May 2009'
by New Zealand Marine Artist Jim Bolland

CAGLIARI RC44 CUP
MATCH RACE CLEAN-OUT BY BARKER!

The first day of the Cagliari RC 44 Cup on April 22, proved to be tricky for the navigators as well as the race organizer's nerves. Indeed, big black clouds started building up over Cagliari early in the afternoon, forcing Race Officer Peter Reggio to send everyone home after the two first flights. The nine RC 44's then sailed back out once the shower and thunder were gone, but only for a short time as the next threatening weather system was arriving fast.

The first flight saw fairly easy victories from Team Aqua, BMW ORACLE Racing and Puerto Calero against respectively Team Sea Dubai, Team Austria and Team Organika. The most interesting match was the one opposing Team No Way Back and Artemis. The two teams kept in contact all along, showing how much the Dutch have improved since the last regatta. Both boats arrived together at the last windward mark, and went into a spectacular dial up that turned out to Dean Barker's advantage. Despite loosing the race, Philippe Presti and his crew onboard No Way Back got the proof that their long training session in Lanzarote had paid off.

On the second day, showing great mastery of the tricky air conditions, and superb boat handling, Dean Barker and his crew on board Artemis exploded out of the blocks, winning all of their matches and the overall ranking ahead of Philippe Presti and Sébastien Col. It will be remembered as the longest, and certainly one of the hardest match-racing days so far, in the RC 44 Championship Tour history.

On great form, Dean Barker managed to win the first start and match of the day despite being dominated by Cameron Appleton’s Team Aqua in the prestart. Reacting one second too late at the crucial moment, Appleton let his fellow citizen escape and win the race.

All other teams opposed to Barker and his “fab-seven” were to suffer the same fate later on in the day, succumbing to Barker’s aggressiveness, perfect positioning and great tactics. The best example was the match between Artemis and Ceeref. The Slovenian team, with Seb Col at the helm, was in the lead but Barker and his team kept pushing harder and harder until Ceeref made the first mistake, touching the windward mark, before getting a second “killing” penalty a few minutes later.

Also well inspired, but unable to beat Artemis, Team Puerto Calero bravely tempted everything against the hot running Artemis during the fifth flight but could only humbly congratulate their opponent past the arrival line: there was nothing anybody could do against this team on the day.

The racing became really interesting in mid-afternoon, once the breeze had established itself. At this stage, four teams were in a position to grab the second overall spot: Ceeref (Sébastien Col), No Way Back (Philippe Presti), Team Aqua (Cameron Appleton) and BMW ORACLE Racing (Larry Ellison).

Team Aqua, who was struggling to adapt to the new Class rule regarding bowsprit management and its consequences on crew work, faded at the end of the day and let the three others fight for the podium. Both No Way Back and Ceeref had the best run, winning one more match than BMW ORACLE Racing. They were however both penalized for a light touch against one of their opponents. As a consequence, they finished on a tie with the American team. Ceeref had beaten Oracle, who had beaten No Way Back, who had beaten Ceeref whilst the same three teams had been beaten by Aqua. It took the Jury a while to listen to and reject Ceeref’s request for redress, and announce that No Way Back was second overall, ahead of Ceeref and BMW ORACLE Racing.

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