Calero Sailing Team returns for 44Cup World Championship

Lanzarote’s Calero Sailing Team is to return to the 44Cup, the world’s premier owner-driver grand prix yacht racing series, for its fourth and penultimate event of 2024: The 44Cup World Championship will take place out of the picturesque village of Brunnen on Switzerland’s Lake Lucerne over 21-25 August.

The Calero family first competed on the 44Cup in 2008 - the second official season of racing aboard the RC44 one design racing yachts, conceived by America’s Cup legend Russell Coutts. Daniel Calero and his crew were regular competitors on the circuit up until 2013 but were equally renowned for hosting RC44 events in their marinas on Lanzarote, notably Puerto Calero. RC44 World Championships were held here in 2010, 2011 and 2013 and, on many occasions since then, Calero Marina has been a regular and popular winter destination for the RC44s.

This season Calero Sailing Team returned to the 44Cup after an 11 year hiatus, when in March, they competed at their own event – the 44Cup Calero Marinas, again held out of Puerto Calero. They returned for the 2024 44Cup’s second event in Bayona, Spain, a venue new to 44Cup.

“Being able to rejoin the prestigious 44Cup circuit for such a special event as the World Championship is almost a dream, and we have our sponsors to thank for it,” said Calero Sailing Team principal and helmsman Daniel Calero. “The team is very excited, and we will give our best. It won’t be easy given the level of the other teams, but a World Championship is always a great motivation. For this event, we have also brought on some new crew members who are eager to help us achieve the best possible result, knowing that every boat is competing fiercely, with ‘knives between their teeth,’ to claim the title.”

Following on from Bayona, several new crew will be joining helmsman Daniel Calero and his 2022 Snipe World Championship-winning tactician, Alfredo Gonzalez on board. They include several world champions, Olympians and Olympic medallists:

Nano Negrín (Main trimmer)- another Snipe sailor from Lanzarote. Negrín was mainsail trimmer with Desafio Español Team, the Spanish challenger for the 32nd America's Cup in 2007.

Alicia Cebrian (Floater): former Laser Radial sailor who represented Spain at the London 2012 Olympic Games. (RC44 teams typically have at least one female or youth sailor among their crew).

Miguel Fernández (Grinder): European Champion in the former Olympic Finn dinghy; and bronze at the 2023 Finn Gold Cup (World Championship) and gold at the 2022 Finn Masters World Championship.

Nico Rodríguez (Offside Trimmer): 470 bronze medallist at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

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.