Now we start twice!

Finally, everything is settled and under wraps. And thus the time has come for this announcement: the Black Star Sailing Team will start the 2022 season with two boats. The “flying” GC32 catamaran will be joined by an RC44 yacht. With this, the team in the colours black-red-white will take part in the 44Cup from now on.

44CUP CASCAIS 11 – 15 May 2022
Starting signal for the regatta season

The 44Cup adds the official RC44 race series to the Black Star Sailing agenda. And with this we will start at twice as many regattas as before.
As the 44Cup already started in February, the first event of the RC44 season took place without us.
With the 44Cup Cascais on 11 May, our first regatta this season is just around the corner.
As Black Star II, our RC44 yacht, is still in the shipyard for the finish, we cannot compete on our own boat. But luckily we are able to rent a yacht from the RC44 Class Association to sail in Cascais for the first time in our new composition.
Find out more and check out the full Black Star Sailing calendar on our website.

RC44

The RC44 yacht, like the GC32, is a “OneDesign” boat class where all boats must be the same. The whole yacht is built from carbon and weighs 3.56 tonnes, of which the keel bomb alone weighs 2.2 tonnes. The number 44 stands for the yacht’s length of 44 feet, which is the equivalent of about 13.4 metres. With a beam of 2.7 metres and a draught of 2.9 metres, sail areas of up to 140 m² can be hoisted upwind and up to 240 m² downwind. The maximum crew weight is limited to 680 kg. As crew there are 8 to 9 persons on board.

New team composition

With the expansion of the Black Star fleet, the team will also increase in size. On the one hand, there are between 8 and 9 people on board the RC44 yacht, which means an increase of 3 to 4 sailors compared to the GC32 catamaran. On the other hand, since the regattas of the two classes partly overlap in the preparation times, the shore team must also be enlarged. Here we have now tried to pursue our goal and have integrated young Swiss sailors. In addition to the two new juniors, we are relying on the experience of the existing team and have recruited experienced sailors who know the RC44 yacht well for two other positions. The main reason for this is that with their experience the risk of damage can be minimised. Of course, we also hope for a steeper learning curve in order to become successful more quickly.

Blow after blow

So now we start our 2022 season in Cascais, Portugal, at the beginning of May. We can take delivery of the class yacht a few days before the event, set it up and dare the first sailing attempts. Certainly, finding the optimal positions, manoeuvres and getting familiar with the boat will have first priority. After that, we hope to sail the first speed comparisons with other teams to find the optimal setting. The regatta will then start in mid-May.
After packing up, we will go from Portugal directly to Lake Garda, where we will start the GC32 Racing Tour 2022 with the GC32 catamaran.
Unfortunately, this event had to be cancelled last year and we are looking forward to it all the more. We have very good memories of Riva del Garda, we won the European Championship there in 2020 on the M32 catamaran!
After an enjoyable 2021 season, which we finished third overall, and a successful opening training session in March together with other teams, we now know better where we stand at GC32.
Of course, we hope that we start the season well in both classes and that we can take the respective findings with the boats alternately to the other regattas.