ICOYC News

Double Podium for Yacht Club de Monaco

Sunday 10 October 2021, Nico Poons’ crew on Charisma kept up the pace to the bitter end, taking every opportunity to stay in the top group and win the final race of the RC44 World Championship. This crucial win clinched 2nd place overall for the team sailing for Yacht Club de Monaco. The 11th RC 44 World Championship was held in Scarlino, Italy, 6-10 October 2021 and was a closely-fought edition, as the level of skill has gone up a notch. The final race saw the first eight finishing within 20 seconds, after 40 minutes of racing. In contact from start to finish, Torbjorn Tornqvist of Artemis Racing didn’t miss a beat to claim the podium’s 3rd step. Vladimir Prosikhin, Team Nika, also sailing for Yacht Club de Monaco, came in 6th.

 

Charisma main sheet trimmer Chris Hosking described the conditions on the final day: “It was shiftier than a bag a weasels and there were a lot of weasels out there today! Good on Pepsi [tactician Hamish Pepper] for keeping it real. We are all dealing with the same thing – you can’t get frustrated, you just have to deal with it the best as you can and everyone did that really well today.

 

“This is truly one of the best grand prix racing circuits in the world – if you look at the competitiveness of all the boats. You can’t bother counting the points—you just have to sail every race as if it is the last on the earth.”

Artemis Racing was in world championship-winning form all week but the win slipped through their fingers in the last race. “We rounded the left gate and the right one was better, but you don’t know that. Sometimes things go your way and sometimes they don’t,” said Törnqvist. “At the finish it was almost impossible to say who crossed the line in what place because it was so close. It will be one of the best regattas we’ll remember because it was a World Championship and really high-quality sailing and it all came down to the end of the final run.”

Results: https://www.44cup.org/results