Under normal circumstances, the team with the 44Cup’s ‘black boat’ is supposed to reside at the bottom of the leaderboard for the high performance Russell Coutts-conceived owner-driver RC44 one designs. However Daniel Calero and his Calero Sailing Team seemed not to have got the memo on day two of the 44Cup World Championship in Brunnen, Switzerland when they posted a remarkable 5-7 in the nine boat fleet in today’s two races on Lake Lucerne (a third was started, but abandoned).

A good opening day yesterday saw Calero Sailing Team reach the all-important windward mark in first place in two races only to lose positions subsequently. In today’s first race Calero Sailing Team won the pin end of the start, led out to the left and, despite being effectively pinned out, tacked back on port and despite ducking transoms, led their group into the top mark (in fact the minority which had taken the right side won out on this leg).

“We were over the layline and tacked before the fleet, which was a good decision,” explained Calero Sailing Team tactician and former Snipe World Champion, Alfredo Gonzalez. “We won the left fleet and the three boats [that had initially gone right] just crossed ahead of us.”

Today, Calero Sailing Team looked stronger on the downwinds and in the first race today pulled into the leeward gate fifth following overall leader Team Nika around the starboard hand mark on to the second upwind. They then defended well on the next lap to score her highest position of the regatta to date.

“It was another fantastic day – a good result for us,” continued Gonzales. “If we can improve the details we can fight in the top three or four. We arrive all the time in the top four at the top mark, but we lose in the small details like the hoists and the drops. We are new in the fleet, but the crew is improving a lot.”

As to their improved downwind legs today, he added: “Normally when we are sailing on our own we sail well, with good VMG. But the problem is when the wind changes you need to react very quickly.”

Calero Sailing Team is particularly star-studded at this week’s World Championship and among the crew one of the most experienced hands is Portuguese spinnaker trimmer Nuno Barreto. Barreto won the 470 bronze medal at the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996 before representing Portugal in the Tornado catamaran at the Sydney and Athens Olympic Games. In 2007 he was appointed upwind trimmer on the Desafío Español America’s Cup challenge and subsequently raced in the RC44 with Austrian AEZ team. He has since competed in the class sporadically, most recently with the Polish MAG Racing team.

 “It is great to be back and to see a few familiar faces and some of the boats even being the same,” says Barreto. “They have kept on improving and improving and are going much faster than before, all the time looking into the details. That’s hard for us with so little practice in the boat, but we are trying hard to improve all the small details. Generally we are happy with our speed but the boat handling around the buoys - you can lose boat lengths by just making some small stupid mistakes.

“As a team we are trying to improve every day. Each regatta is a learning curve. I think Alfredo [Gonzalez, tactician] is doing a good job reading the wind to put us in a good place – sailing on a lake is always hard with the puffs and pressure everywhere. I haven’t done this a lot, I am more of a specialist in open waters..!”

Impressively Calero Sailing Team is now ahead of Team Aqua on the leaderboard. “That is amazing for us,” observes Gonzalez. “Our target is to finish seventh. We have a good team to achieve that target.”
Calero Sailing Team competes on the 44Cup thanks to the support of: Centros de Arte, Cultura y Turismo de Lanzarote (the Art, Culture and Tourism Centres (CACT) of the Cabildo of Lanzarote). Designed by renowned local artist, sculptor and nature activist César Manrique, these seven centres are attached to key Lanzarote tourist attractions which Manrique, in his unique style, integrated into Lanzarote’s own unique landscape. The first, set up in 1964, was the Cueva de los Verdes (a lava tube in Lanzarote’s Haria municipality), while the seventh and last, in 1991, was the Jardín de Cactus in Guatiza. These seven spaces reflect the cultural and natural values of Lanzarote, merging art and nature.

Calero Sailing Team is also supported by Calero Marinas, which operates marinas throughout the Canary Islands: Puerto Calero, Marina Lanzarote and Marina La Palma, plus their latest in Fuerteventura - Marina Jandía.

It also is backed by Calmar Residential Developments, which designs and builds bespoke luxury villas in Lanzarote, and Turismo Lanzarote, which, via their slogan ‘Lanzarote, A Unique Island’, promotes Lanzarote as a luxury destination for long haul tourists.