With six races sailed at this half way stage of the 44Cup Puerto Calero there have been five different race winners.
The only team to have won two races is Markus Törnqvist’s GeMera Racing, who retain their three point lead with a 6, 1, 4, scoreline.
At the beginning of the day RC44 Class President Chris Bake and his Team Aqua crew had shown some of their old form when they claimed the first race ahead of Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing and Lepic & Piana’s Aleph Racing. They maintained their form adding a 2, 3 to move from fifth into second overall.
GeMera Racing took the second race after Team Aqua had led around the top mark, but lost out to GeMera who led a tight group into the starboard gate mark and then hung on for the rest of the race to win from Team Aqua and their teammates Artemis Racing.
In the final race of the day, Mehmet Taki and Murat Edin’s Wow! Sailing Team claimed their first ever race win after a year campaigning on the 44Cup.
Led by double 49er Olympic gold medalist and round the world race skipper Iker Martínez. They won the pin, were among the lead group on the left once they tacked, committed further to left where they enjoyed a magnificent lift propelling them to the top mark with a comfortable lead over Chris Bake’s Team Aqua and John Bassadone’s Peninsula Racing.
Thursday they had enjoyed leading a race only to lose it after incurring a penalty – not the case today and, despite some heart in mouth moments (Peninsula Racing got ahead of them at the second top mark rounding), holding on starboard gybe longer and then being able to lay the finish in one propelled the Turkish team to their first 44Cup race win.
44Cup Calero Marinas after 6 races (8 entries)
1st GeMera Racing – Markus Törnqvist – – 2 1 3 6 1 4 – – 17 pts
2nd Team Aqua – Chris Bake – – 5 5 4 1 2 3 – – 20 pts
3rd Peninsula Racing – John Bassadone – – 4 3 2 5 4 2 – – 20 pts
4th Artemis Racing – Torbjörn Törnqvist – – 1 7 5 2 3 6 – – 24 pts
5th Team Charisma – Poons & Vroon – – 3 4 6 4 5 5 – – 27 pts
6th Aleph Racing – Lepic & Piana – – 8 8 1 3 6 7 – – 33 pts
7th Wow! Sailing Team – Taki & Edin – – 7 6 7 7 8 1 – – 36 pts
8th Team Nika – Vladimir Prosikhin – – 6 2 8 8 7 8 – – 39 pts
