Team Nika ahead at halfway stage of 44Cup World Championship Brunnen

For day two of the 44Cup World Championship the nine RC44 teams ventured out from the host village of Brunnen on to the Urnersee section of Lake Uri [Lucerne] to a full windless, glass-out. After two hours of waiting patiently and a move of the race course north, the wind did finally fill in with a brisk 15 knots enabling two raced to be completed. After a further delay a third race was eventually started but abandoned at the leeward gate as the wind turned inside out. The fleet was then sent home. 

At this half way stage of the 2024 44Cup World Championship Brunnen, with five races sailed, Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika holds a small advantage. Aside from a disappointing eighth in yesterday’s final race, Team Nika has not finished a race lower than second and two further seconds today sees Prosikhin’s team with a three point lead over Igor Lah’s Team Ceeref Vader. Today this duo displaced Brunnen event host Christian Zuerrer’s Black Star Sailing Team from the top place on the leaderboard, it held yesterday, down to third overall. 

Team Nika does lead at this stage but Prosikhin is experienced enough as the RC44 class’ only three time World Champion to know how little this means among these ultra-competitive, well-seasoned owner-driver one designs: “So far so good! I am very happy. We have 15 points and Ceeref is three points behind. They are a strong competitor for sure - when they are consistent. It is all a game – you can make some points and other boats can make mistakes. It is like when today’s last race was abandoned - it was going to be a lottery because there were some holes on the race course and if you fell into them you’d be done (which happened to us and Ceeref yesterday…)” 

Prosikhin feels that Team Nika is going well – he is very impressed with their new J1 headsail which seems to help them point higher. “That really pays in this class, because otherwise the boats are so equal.” And he is enjoying Brunnen, the first time the RC44 class has visited Switzerland’s German-speaking part. “It is very enjoyable and it is very nice that we have so many spectators. It seems so social -  it reminds me of Lake Traunsee [in Austria]. The place is stunning - so beautiful.”

Like yesterday Igor Lah’s Team Ceeref Vaider won the first race of the day – however this did not come easily. Aleph, Team Nika and Peninsula Racing benefitted from going up the right side of the first beat and onto the first downwind the Slovenian team was roundly mid-fleet reaching the leeward gate fifth. However heading left up the second beat they found a favourable shift and then, after some formidable scrapping, that included planting a sweet leebow tack on Team Nika, they managed to pull into the lead by the top mark and then hang on to take their second bullet of the World Championship. 

“We are fighting,” explained Igor Lah, who, despite coming from Slovenia, now resides in nearby Lucerne and is even sleeping in his own bed each night this week. “We feel really comfortable and our speed is good. We are doing a good job. It is extremely complicated out there. It is quite amazing sailing and the scenery is beautiful.” 

In today’s second race John Bassadone, aboard his brand new Peninsula Racing boat (Chris Bake’s Team Aqua is also brand new for this regatta) won the left and was first to the top mark alongside Team Ceeref Vaider. Ceeref nosed into the lead on the rather one-side downwind leg, but Peninsula Racing made a better job of calling the gybe to lead into the leeward gate. Up the second beat the Gibraltar team defending well, holding a small advantage at the second top mark rounding and, despite allowing Team Nika and Ceeref to split early, hung on to take the well-deserved bullet.  

“It was a matter of control,” explained Peninsula Racing tactician Vasco Vascotto. “Here on the lake it is very difficult to ‘control’, because the pressure comes in from behind on the downwinds. But luckily we were able to do it. We are still not up to speed on our new boats - it is just so new we still need to fix things. But I’ll say it again - our guys did a fantastic job to enable us to sail the boat at this event.” 

Peninsula Racing owner/driver John Bassadone added: ““It is great to get a good performance, but in these conditions it is more about being on the right side. In the first race we were in a good position but were on the wrong side of a 30°shift which spits you down to the bottom of the leaderboard. But it is very exciting to get a first race win in the new boat.”