Team Aqua wins a tough battle against Artemis

Sunday, Feb 28, 2010

Gulf News

Dubai Chris Bake and his Team Aqua won the fleet regatta after a fantastic final battle, whilst Torbjorn Tornqvist and Artemis conquered the Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy RC 44 yesterday.

The conditions were very difficult for the last day of competition with a very shifty breeze blowing between 8-15 knots while sand and dust reduced visibility to half a mile.

Most of the drama happened in the final race of the day between Team Aqua and Artemis. Both teams had misfortunes during this race. Artemis's spinnaker got twisted whilst Team Aqua took the very conservative — yet inefficient — decision not to raise theirs until the last quarter of the last leg.

Artemis finally crossed the arrival line in sixth whilst Team Aqua finished eighth: both teams' worse result in the event. Nevertheless, Team Aqua won the fleet race title whilst Artemis finished second. Already third of the match race ranking, the Swedish team also conquered the overall Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy ahead of No Way Back and an excellent Team Sea Dubai, winner of the match race event and fifth in the fleet race ranking.

The next regatta of the RC 44 Championship Tour will take place in the Austrian mountain lake Traunsee, from April 20 - May 4.

Results

Fleet race:

1. Team Aqua (Chris Bake) 27 points; 2. Artemis (Torbjorn Tornqvist) 29; 3.Team No Way Back (Pieter Heerema) 33.

Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy RC 44 final:

1. Artemis 5; 2. Team No Way Back 5; 3. Team Sea Dubai 6; 4. Team Aqua 8.

Staff Report