Team Nika crowned 2024 44Cup World Champions by a point

The 44Cup World Championship concluded today on Switzerland’s Lake Lucerne with the most intense tussle for the lead between Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika and Igor Lah’s Team Ceeref Vaider. 

The 44Cup Brunnen community spent Saturday evening cruising Lake Uri (Lucerne) aboard a giant paddle steamer followed by a lengthy firework display–setting new standards for 44Cup event. But during the night, a storm passed over, the rain continuing into the morning, the giant alpine peaks surrounding the lake shrouded in cloud. 

Eventually the rain abated and the wind filled in enough for PRO Maria Torrijo to get three races sailed. In highly varied conditions, the first race saw Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing get its second bullet in an otherwise high scoring regatta. This was followed by the defending RC44 World Champions - Nico Poons’ Charisma scoring their first race win here, with Chris Bake’s Team Aqua claiming the third but their first ever race win aboard their new RC44 (both Peninsula Racing and Team Aqua were racing brand new boats here). Incredibly, eight of the nine RC44s won races here, demonstrating the competitiveness of this well-seasoned, high performance owner-driver one design class. 

But all today eyes were focussed on the old rivals – Team Nika holding the 44Cup’s ‘golden wheels’ as the season’s present top scorer; both teams past world champions and both with successful British former Olympic sailor tacticians. They started Sunday equal on points with Team Ceeref Vaider ahead on countback. A fifth for Nika to Ceeref’s fourth, put the Slovenia team one point ahead before race two when Nika came home second while Ceeref did phenomenally recovering to third. Thus the two teams started the final race once level on points with Ceeref ahead on countback. 

Match racing was inevitable and with one minute to go Team Nika got to leeward of her rival, directly astern of the race committee boat, locking out her opponent. Team Ceeref Vaider could do nothing save follow Team Nika across the line. The private tussle between the duo resulted in their reaching the windward mark last. On the run Ceeref pulled level by the gate and after Team Nika had committed to the port gate mark, Ceeref finally shed Nika’s cover splitting starboard. “Unfortunately,” as Team Ceeref Vaider tactician Adrian Stead explained, “it was busier at our gate and then we had so much traffic...” 

Team Nika led Ceeref from then on and finishing seventh and eighth respectively was enough to secure an unprecedented fourth RC44 World Championship title for Prosikhin, Asher and their multinational crew of James Baxter, Pierluigi De Felice, Harry Hall, Pietro Mantovani, Taavi Taveter, Federica Salva and Jeremy Lomas. 

“It is one of the happiest events in my life, because honestly it was so tough,” admitted Prosikhin, after receiving the class’ ritual plunge into the water. “It is a very strong class and all the teams are equal - almost any boat can win the Worlds, which is very rare. It is a privilege to win and I am very proud. I want to thank my crew and Nic [Asher] and the boat captain who prepared the boat so it was very fast, the trimmers and all our team. 

“I thank all my competitors, especially Igor Lah for an excellent match race in the last race, because either of our boats could have won the Worlds. Thank you very much to Christian [Zuerrer] and for everyone who helped him make this a fantastic event. You live in a very beautiful, amazing place but you are also very good people.”

Nic Asher added: “That was bloody good fun! We weren't expecting that much wind, but there were amazing conditions. For the last race Black Star was only seven points behind, so we had to be careful there. At one point on that first beat of the last race, we were on the right with Ceeref and they're on the left and they tacked over and I thought ‘they are leading this…’ The first run was really tricky because Ceeref got back into it, but up the second beat we managed to send them the wrong way while we went the right way and caught up with Black Star. It worked out.”

Summarising their week, Asher said: “It’s been nerve racking…it's never been comfortable at any point in a race and you are not quite sure what's going to happen. One moment the right is paying and the next the left – that’s made it really tough.”

Despite losing, Team Ceeref Vaider showed a welcome return to form, observed Adrian Stead. “It is the best we have sailed as a team for a very long time. Team Ceeref is back!” 

Taking a well-deserved third overall was Christian Zuerrer’s Black Star Sailing Team; the third occasion they have achieved this.

Zuerrer was delighted with how well the event had gone: “My goal was to have good racing and to show it is possible to have close racing in Switzerland in good wind conditions: we sailed 11 races, the most races the class has achieve in any event this year. I am totally happy with that. And the first three boats only being separated by two points shows how close the racing is…”

The 2024 44Cup will conclude with in Nanny Cay, Tortola over 21-24 November.