Sailing in Dubai

James Spithill’s Team Ceeref has won the Dubai RC 44 Cup match racing event:

Despite local advice, Race Director Peter “Luigi” Regio sent the six strong RC 44 fleet out on the water for the second Round Robin of the Dubai RC 44 Cup. A wise choice as the teams could sail six matches, allowing the Committee to establish a final ranking based on 21 matches. “You won’t get anything if you don’t try”, he commented with a smile at the end of the day.

The winner of the event is Igor Lah’s Team Ceeref, with James Spithill at the helm. “It’s a great start to our season”, he commented. “Yesterday, we were not happy with our sailing. We made a lot of little mistakes and lost matches that we could have won. We all wanted to do better today and that’s what we did.”
Equally happy with his performance was Team Hiroshi – Città di Milano’s pro helmsman Sebastien Col: “It all goes down to a couple of meters at the right moment”, he explained. Yesterday, we could have won all our matches but we lost two of them because of tiny mistakes. We had a thorough de-brief in the evening and the difference was clear today. All the guys on board realised how important every single meter is. They were hiking better, our tacks were better, we focused well on what we were doing and the result is there: we had two excellent matches.”
Russell Coutts’ Team ES Bankers completes the podium with victories against Cro-A-Sail and Team Sea Dubai this afternoon.

Four teams were sharing the lead after the first round robin. Team Sea Dubai, leader of the provisional ranking after day one, lost its advantage today, regressing to the fourth place. As for Team Aqua (Cameron Appleton), penalised by a collision yesterday and sailing below its usual level, it finishes fifth, ahead of Cro-A-Sail who only won one match.

The team owners will be back at the helm tomorrow for the fleet racing event. The weather forecast is good, with North-Westerly winds of up to 20 knots expected.

James Spithill, Team Ceeref: “We are all looking forward to starting the fleet racing event tomorrow. Igor Lah, the team’s owner, trained during two days and his progress is quite spectacular. I am very impressed by him: he has a good temperament; he is calm and has a good feeling. His results so far have been quite amazing considering that he had only sailed on power boats just a year ago…”

Sébastien Col, Team Hiroshi – Città di Milano: “The teams are very close. The fleet has definitely gained in consistency. Each mistake costs a lot but people throughout the fleet make less of them by the day. We are very pleased with our result, and particularly with our win against Russell’s team yesterday. It proves that we can win against any team and it is a good morale buster.”

Match-racing, final results:
Note: half points have been awarded to teams who have competed against each other only once (in both round robins).

Ranking, number of victories/losses, points.

1) Team Ceeref (5/2) 3,5 points
2) Team Hiroshi  (4/3) 3 points
3) Team ES Bankers Dubai (5/2) 3 points
4) Team Sea Dubay, (3/4) 2,5 points
5) Team Aqua (3/ 4 incl 1 penalty) 1 point
6) Cro-A-Sail (1/6) 1 point

Dubai, March 6, 2008 – Consistency seems to be the key word to win RC 44 fleet race events. Indeed, Team Hiroshi – Città di Milano extended its lead thanks to two 3rd, one 2nd and a 1st spot in today’s races.
The conditions were light (6-10 knots of wind) and fairly unstable, with 30 degrees shifts and unpredictable puffs of wind.
 
The first race of the day saw the come-back of team Cro-A-Sail, finally winning a race after a long period of average results. The Croatian team was the first leader of the RC 44 Class back in 2006. With Miroslav Rejanovic at the helm, the team proved that it still has the potential to beat the best.  
The second race was also a very close one, with Team Ceeref swapping the lead with Team Hiroshi – Città di Milano to finally win the race by a couple of boat lengths. Igor Lah, the team owner and helmsman confessed after the races that he was feeling much more comfortable in this sort of conditions than in yesterday’s big seas.
 
Race three saw another expected come-back: the one of Team Aqua, disappointing earlier in the week. The team from the UAE spent most of the race in the lead, and won with a small margin over Team Sea Dubai and Hiroshi, always pushing till the arrival line.
Armando Giulietti, the owner of Team Hiroshi – Città di Milano, finally got the bullet he deserved in the last race of the day, building up a 7 points lead over second placed Team ES Bankers Dubai. With only two more races to go – including the coastal DHL Trophy – Armando Giulietti is in a good position to win the event. The game is more open behind, with only twelve points separating Team ES bankers and sixth placed Team Aqua. No doubt the last two races of the Dubai RC 44 Cup will be intense!

Fleet-racing, provisional results (no discard)

1) Team Hiroshi – Città di Milano (1, 1, 2, 4, 3, 2, 3, 1) 17 points
2) Team ES Bankers Dubai (3, 4, 1, 1, 2, 4, 4, 5) 24 points
3) Team Ceeref (5, 3, 5, 2, 5, 1, 5, 2) 28 points
4) Team Sea Dubai, (2, 2, 6, 3, 4, 6, 2, 6) 31 points
5) Cro-A-Sail (4, 5, 4, 5, 1, 5, 6, 4) 34 points
6) Team Aqua (DNF, DNF, 3, 6, 6, 3, 1, 3) 36 points

Dubai RC 44 Cup

Armando Giulietti and Sébastien Col out sail the opposition and conquer the Dubai RC 44 Cup

The Italian-French duo left no chance to the opposition today, winning two out of three races and finishing the fleet race event with a comfortable margin over Team Ceeref and Team ES Bankers Dubai.

Dubai – The wind had shifted to the left for today’s last races, and the chop made it a significantly different race course than the one experienced during the previous days. This novelty didn’t disturb Team Hiroshi – Città di Milano, with Armando Giulietti at the helm and Sébastien Col at the tactics. Indeed, the Italian team clearly dominated the fleet today, taking excellent starts, sailing fast and at the right place to win the event with a massive 15 points margin over Team Ceeref and Team ES Bankers Dubai.
Also on great form, Team Ceeref’s Igor Lah climbed up the ranking list to end up in a beautiful second place. Already winner of the match race event earlier in the week (with James Spithill at the helm), Team Ceeref concludes the Dubai RC 44 Cup with the best overall result although the RC 44 Class has decided to drop the combined match & fleet ranking.

Team ES Bankers Dubai, with Patrick de Barros at the helm and Russell Coutts calling the shots, didn’t have the day it expected. Indeed, its bow crash box broke during the first beat, slowing down the boat in a very frustrating way and resulting in a disappointing 6th and two 5th places today, with a third rank overall.

Team Aqua confirmed that it was back on form, sailing consistently with a 4th, a 3rd and a 2nd place to end up fourth overall – a satisfying result considering its difficult start in the event.

Finally, Cro-A-Sail ends up with the same number of points as Team Aqua but finishes fifth of the fleet race ranking, ahead of Team Sea Dubai. Sailing very well for their first appearance in the RC 44 Championship Tour, the boat owned by Dubai International Marine Club proved that it could beat all the teams with some more training and got a very promising fourth place in the match race event.

Today’s last race was the coastal DHL Trophy. It took the six strong RC 44 fleet in Dubai’s spectacular The Palm construction, reaching alongside the Meridien Hotel beach and beating alongside the massive construction site. A very enjoyable ride that saw once again Team Hiroshi- Città di Milano lead the fleet, ahead of Team Aqua and Cro-A-Sail.

Interestingly, the two leading teams of this event have been training together during five days before the start of the competition. Team Hiroshi also worked with Ian Ainslie as a coach on this event, well known as Shosholoza’s strategist in the last America’s Cup. The team worked hard at bettering its speed thanks to the use of video, photos and daily de-briefings. There is no secret to victory, but a simple method and a lot of hard work.

Jumeirah Regatta is now firmly established as one of the highlights of the national sailing calendar and an event with growing international appeal. The growth of the Jumeirah Regatta into a major fixture with all-round significance is highlighted by the fact that, for the first time since it was launched in 1991, the event is likely to feature more cruiser and catamaran sailors than juniors over its two race courses. While the fleet of cruisers and catamarans compete outside the UAE Championships, the Jumeirah Regatta title has become a prestigious prize in its own right, and at the same time the event is a perfect warm-up for the Maktoum Sailing Trophy in February. It is the region’s most experienced fleet-racing specialists as well as many of the UAE’s brightest young sailing talents. While the cruisers and catamarans battled for honours, most of the UAE’s most talented young sailors fought out the third of five rounds in this year’s UAE National Sailing Championships in seven dinghy classes. All winners were awarded with the Jumeirah designed crystal trophy made by Precise.

The 2008 Jumeirah Regatta was run over two courses, one being set off Dubai Offshore Sailing Club for the cruisers and dinghies and the other off Mina Seyahi Sailing Club for the catamarans. Toby O'Connell completed a successful title defence in the Jumeirah Regatta to extend an impressive winning sequence in his 50-foot yacht Yo!. Victory for Yo! was no surprise.

more on www.jumeirahregatta.com

Jumeirah regatta 2008 Provisional results Race One:

Cruisers, Division One

1. Yo! / Tony O’Connell 1pt

2. Faith / Francis Carr 2pts

3. AGMC BMW / Yousef Bin Lahej 3pts

4. Tissaheel2 / Rob Weight 4pts

5. Boracic / Calum McKie 5pts

6. Shockwave / Alan Skennerton 6pts

7. Switchblade / Will Ramage / Cameron Price 7pts

8. Twister / Glywn Rowlands 8pts

Catamarans - Performance

1. Peter Eldridge / Carol Eldridge

2 Tom Hemingway / Guy Wolfenden

3, Jon Hemingway / Jamie Eldridge

Catamarans - Classic

1. Comor Ward / Maeve Ward

2. Malcolm Macgregor/ Rens Woertman

3. Andy Perkins / Moira Freeman

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