Report 44Cup Marstrand
44Cup Marstrand, 29 June – 3 July 2022, Marstrand, Sweden
Directly from the GC32 event in Portugal, we travelled north to Marstrand. Marstrand is located near Gothenburg and has a long tradition as a seaside resort and holiday destination.
We are still waiting for the final completion of our own RC44 yacht. For this regatta we were again able to charter boat #20 from the class organisation. Of course, this has a few disadvantages. We wanted to counteract some of these disadvantages even more for this regatta, which is why our shore team arrived a whole week early and invested a lot of time in setting up and optimising the yacht: We replaced the rigging, checked the blocks, pulleys and winches and polished the hull. By repairing the damage to the material, which cost us even better results in Cascais, we hoped to create better conditions for the upcoming event. On Monday evening, we were able to enter the water together and prepare everything for the first day of training.
Cooling down at the right moment
Coming from the very hot south to the cool north was a blessing for the race team, as they could sleep better and recover during the night.
On the other hand, the wind conditions turned out to be quite “rough”. But we coped with it better than initially expected: We even started the first race very well and achieved our first podium result with a third place.
As you would expect from this excellent RC44 line-up, the positions in Marstrand were also hard-fought in every race. Nothing was given to each other. Leading positions changed constantly. And since it is comparatively less fast in a “conventional” regatta class like the RC44, the motto is even more: “Never give up”.
Unfortunately, our performance in Marstrand was also not consistent enough to sail to the front. Nevertheless, we made a noticeable step forward again and are satisfied with our overall performance.
The Black Star Sailing Team is now looking forward to its own yacht #27, which will definitely be ready for the World Championship in Slovenia. The workshop container has also been completed and the last details are being installed to create a perfect base for our upcoming events.