The opening day of the 2026 44Cup in the Canary Islands saw different winners in each of Thursday’s first three races of the 44Cup Calero Marinas.
Scoring a 2-1-3 Markus Törnqvist’s GeMera Racing tops the leaderboard after day one, Markus sailing with tactician Francesco Bruni and a powerhouse crew including several top names from the America’s Cup and SailGP.
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 Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing.
In the first race Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing laid down a marker as the only boat to start on port tack 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. Markus Törnqvist’s GeMera Racing took second ahead of Team Charisma ofNico Poons and Carlo Vroon.
In race two GeMera Racing had had the better start. Rapidly tacking and following Aleph Racing out to the right. When Aleph Racing tacked back from the right GeMera Racing crossed her on port to take the lead for the remainder of the race, finishing ahead of Team Nika and Peninsula Racing.
In the third race Aleph Racing again started closest to the boat. 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 win finishing ahead of Peninsula Racing and GeMera Racing.
Friday the wind is 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.
44Cup Calero Marinas after 3 races (8 entries)
1st GeMera Racing – Markus Törnqvist – – 2 1 3 – – 6 pts
2nd Peninsula Racing – John Bassadone – – 4 3 2 – – 9 pts
3rd Artemis Racing – Torbjörn Törnqvist – – 1 7 5 – – 13 pts
4th Team Charisma – Poons & Vroon – – 3 4 6 – – 13 pts
5th Team Aqua – Chris Bake – – 5 5 4 – – 14 pts
6th Team Nika – Vladimir Prosikhin – – 6 2 8 – – 16 pts
7th Aleph Racing – Lepic & Piana – – 8 8 1 – – 17 pts
8th Wow! Sailing Team – Taki & Edin – – 7 6 7 – – 20 pts
