Walter Rudin

The preparations for the 2024 Worlds of the RC44 racers took almost a week. Containers were unloaded at the Föhnhafen, boats were assembled and the infrastructure was installed on Auslandschweizerplatz. A small army of helpers gave their all to make a great event possible.

Yesterday at noon the time had finally come. Cast off. The nine racing machines set sail.

In the Gersau basin, a nice westerly wind was blowing, and many insiders watched with a frown when the race committee ordered the fleet into Lake Uri, where there seemed to be almost no wind. But that was a fallacy. Rolf Hunkeler, president of the Brunnen Regatta Association, was on the starting boat and probably had a hand in this decision by the foreign regatta director. He proved that he had a good nose. Shortly before Flüelen, a strong north-westerly wind was blowing with gusts of up to five Beaufort. So the conditions for the start were ideal.

First day of the regatta as training

Most of the RC44 teams only sail at sea and inland lakes are uncharted territory for them. Vladimir Prosikhin, who heads the RC44 ranking this year with his team Nika, said: ‘It’s going to be tricky and unpredictable because the lake conditions are very different and make sailing completely different. You have to find the right place and the right corners, so I think tactics will be very important. It will be the World Championship of tacticians, not helmsmen.’

To give the teams the opportunity to get to know the area, this first day of racing was intended only as a training session. The starting procedure was practised several times at short intervals, followed by three trial races.

Black Star is keeping up

From a local point of view, it was of course exciting to see how Christian Zuerrer’s Team Black Star would fare. The Swiss boat showed its best side and impressed with top placings. Team leader Zuerrer had two reasons to be happy that evening. ‘The wind with the strong gusts and the many shifts was challenging, I’m glad it went so well for us,’ he said. ’But I’m also proud that we were able to show all the RC44 teams that a high-calibre event like this can also be held on a lake in Switzerland.’

His fellow sailor from the French-speaking part of Switzerland, Grégoire Siegwart, agreed: ‘We don’t have many world sailing championships in Switzerland. This is one of the biggest sailing events to have been organised in Switzerland. It’s great to bring these boats and all these great sailors to our lake. Switzerland has a reputation for not having wind, but today that reputation has been refuted.’

The weather forecast for the rest of the week is good. So everyone is confident that the thermal will come today and the following days and will promote Lake Lucerne as an ideal regatta area.