A match race win and fifth place in the fleet race meant a very satisfying third place overall for home team Sea Dubai in the Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy RC 44 Championship at Dubai International Marine Club. With newcomer, Raimondo Tonelli at the helm the team were guarded for the three days of the fleet racing but achieved two podium places for the first time as they enter their third season of racing in the class. ‘At the end of last season I told the team that I believed in them and now they have made me very proud. This is just the beginning and I am looking forward to a really good season for Sea Dubai,’ said Saeed Harib, CEO of the team and Dubai International Marine Club, commenting on the teams success.

It all looked dodgy at one point though for Sea Dubai as an incident in the first race of the fifth day put them at the back of the pack. Massive winds early in the morning meant the start was postponed until 12:30. Once the start got underway Sea Dubai were sixth at the windward mark but a mistake on the position of their tack made them do a three hundred and sixty degree penalty turn. They did it quickly but misjudged the distance from the mark and were forced to repeat it as they were too close, leaving them at the back of the fleet. But all was not lost; they played the wind shifts well and managed to pick up two places to come seventh.

The Race Committee had to wait for the wind to settle before the next race as it swung around. Visibility was bad and impossible to see the mark boat relaying the windward mark. Sea Dubai got a great start on the final race and headed into the gloom rounding the top mark first but finished in fifth. ‘This has been a fantastic event for us,’ said Matti Paschen, the sail trimmer. ‘We knew we could come third overall if we got reasonable results today. We were quite nervous after what happened in the previous race and more pushy on the second start. We got away well and stayed ahead of the fleet for the first leg, but the wind was all over the place and rather than risk anything we kept calm knowing that we were in a good position to finish in the top five, which is just what we needed,’ he added.

The sailors will meet next in Lake Traunsee in Austria in April for the next round. They have sailed in the lake before and it is where they won the DHL long distance race. ‘We are really happy to get third place overall here in Dubai,’ said Markus Wieser, ‘it’s our best result so far and a great way to start the season. Now we will focus on Austria where we already have a good track record.’

Overall results:

26th February 2010. It’s been a tough start for Raimondo Tonelli on the helm on Sea Dubai for the RC 44 season opener with the strong winds experienced over the last two days. He’s had no time to be eased in to his new role of helming the boat in the fleet races. ‘I guess a gentle breeze would have given me an easier introduction although I love strong winds. I don’t enjoy small breezes when I’m sailing and although I’m not used to the RC 44 yet or the way it handles, this initiation will certainly help me to get a good feel for it quickly,’ said Raimondo.  Another windy day is expected with rain today for the final day of racing in the Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy and its gusting hard already with dark skies.

The teams scores have been mixed during the fleet racing and Markus Wieser the team tactician said they were just not as fast as the other boats. ‘I think I’m too conscious that Raimondo is new and maybe too cautious with some decisions which we will have to sort out as fast as we can, ‘ said the tactician.

All the boats headed out on the fifth day of racing on time but were told by the race committee to return shortly after as the wind wouldn’t settle down and there were some really big gusts. The first race of the day wasn’t good for Sea Dubai, they got a bad start and reached the top mark in seventh place then downwind they had to avoid another boat and broached. But the second place in the next race of the day was encouraging enough to end the day feeling ok.  The bowman, Kazuhiko Sofuku, summed it all up. He probably has the wettest job on the boat in strong winds but was very cheerful. ‘The racing has been great, conditions like this are fantastic, it makes you realize what it’s all about and why you do it especially in Dubai where it’s always nice and warm.’

Saeed Harib, CEO of Dubai International Marine Club and the team CEO proudly presented the Match Racing first place trophy to the Sea Dubai team on behalf of the teams Chairman, Sheikh Majid Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum .

Results

24th February 2010. Sea Dubai scooped the top match-racing prize today for the first time in their third season of racing in the class. The win was made particularly sweet by being the season opener, on home ground and so convincing after taking top place in seven out of their eight matches. Last season the team had mixed fortunes where they performed some stunning racing and amazing tactics but were let down by inconstancy and lack of confidence made them unreliable but ambitious.

They had two matches today the first against Puerto Calero Islas Canarias where Sea Dubai managed to come from behind to win and the second against BMW Oracle, which didn’t go so well, and Sea Dubai lost their only match to Adam Minoprios Black Match team on the American boat.

‘To start the season on such a high like this is amazing,’ said Markus Wieser, the match-racing skipper of Sea Dubai. ‘We knew we could do it and thought we may be able to come 4^th or 5^th and now we are all a little bit surprised at how well we’ve performed this time. In the races today we were very conscious not to make any mistakes or cause any damage where we could lose precious points. We are absolutely knocked out with a first place result,’ he said.

Tomorrow it is the turn of Raimondo Tonelli at the helm for the fleet racing. He is new to the team and only stepped on the boat just over a week ago. Whether he feels more pressure after todays win or less he is not sure but either way there is pressure. Hailing from Lake Garda in Italy where the wind can blow hard early in the morning he might find the conditions suit him this weekend, but as he’s more used to the foil sailing of a moth we will have to wait and see. The rest of the team are on good form and completely focused to go in to the fleet race looking for more good results. Racing starts at 11:30 for the next three days ending on Saturday 27^th February when the boats will be packed up quickly and moved to Jebel Ali port to be shipped back to Europe for the next round in Lake Traunsee in Austria in April.

Results:

25th February 2010. Our best result today was fourth place in the last race. The race committee, with Peter Reggio in charge, ran four races altogether to start the first day of the fleet races of the Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy at Dubai International Marine Club, but after a brilliant first place in the match race event we really disappointed ourselves in today’s fleets races. The conditions were fantastic, strong winds with plenty of shifts to get our hands on but we were completely plagued by mistakes. We ended up in sixth place with twenty four points behind Katusha with twenty points. The second race should have been our best but we totally misjudged the shifts. We were first around the windward mark after a great start and upwind leg but we went to the left side of the course, everyone else went right and caught the best wind so we ended up finishing in sixth place. All our starts were good but we just couldn’t get the boat speed because our tactics were bad and we ended up with two sixth places a fourth and eighth at the end of the day and not a good feeling overall. It will take time for Raimondo to understand the boat, this was his first real experience of being at the helm of the RC44; he has done a lot of big boat sailing but mostly as crew. His helming has been mostly on dinghies and although a lot of people call the RC a big dinghy, it’s a lot of boat to handle especially in strong winds. But we are a team and becoming stronger, we had a bit of a honeymoon during the match race which was nice but we need days like today to bind us together more solidly. Congratulations to Team Aqua, they had a great day and came first overall. Artemis ripped a hole in their spinnaker in the third race which just got bigger and bigger until finally it blew out and they came last because of it but managed to come seventh at the end of the day. Stronger winds are predicted for the next two days which is going to mean some pretty exciting stuff on the water especially around the marks. Racing starts at 11:00 on Friday.

Results

Markus Wieser and his team from the United Arab Emirates win the match race title of the Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy RC 44, ahead of No Way Back (NED) and Artemis (SWE).

February 24, 2010 – Unbeaten after seven flights, Markus Wieser and his Team Sea Dubai only had to avoid a penalising collision today to win the match race title of the Al Maktoum Sailing Trophy. That’s what they did, winning in the mean time a difficult race against Puerto Calero and loosing the last one to BMW ORACLE Racing.

However the real action was behind, in a tough contest between six teams for the second and third places overall. Leader of this “secondary ranking” ahead of the last day, Terry Hutchinson’s Artemis - rejoined today by owner Torbjorn Tornqvist - started in the worse possible way by loosing the first race to Team Austria. Pushed to the right of the course during the first beat, the Austrians seemed to benefit from a better pressure: they took the lead and increased it slightly throughout the match.

The points were particularly precious at this stage, and No Way Back went from a potentially difficult situation – loosing their start against Team Aqua – to a sudden solid option on the overall ranking’s second place when they overtook Cameron Appleton’s Team Aqua during the first downwind leg. Rod Davis (Ceeref) also won an important point against BMW ORACLE Racing, rejoining Artemis and No Way Back in the group of candidates to second overall ahead of the last race.

Sailing the last race against Islas Canarias Puerto Calero, Pieter Heerema and Ray Davies - joint helmsmen onboard No Way Back - managed to block the Spaniards on the wrong start of the Committee boat at the moment of the start. Team Aqua did the same to Katusha five minutes later. Observing this, Rod Davis obviously liked the idea and tried to inflict the same fate to Artemis; however the trick didn’t quite work and Terry Hutchinson just managed to squeeze in between the Committee boat and Ceeref’s bow whilst Davis remained stuck head to the wind during long, long seconds, finally crossing the line one minute late.

No Way Back and Artemis finish the event on a tie, however the Danish team gets the second rank overall thanks to their victory in the direct confrontation. Ceeref finishes fourth on a tie with BMW ORACLE Racing.


Match-race, final results after nine flights:

(Ranking, name of team, helmsman, No of victories / defeats, points)

1) Team Sea Dubai (Markus Wieser), 8/1, 8 points
2) Team No Way Back (Pieter Heerema / Ray Davies), 5/3, 5 points
3) Artemis (Terry Hutchinson), 5/3, 5 points
4) CEEREF (Rod Davis), 4/5, 4 points
5) BMW ORACLE Racing (Adam Minoprio), 4/5, 4 points
6) Team Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (José Maria Ponce), 3/6, 3 points
7) Team Aqua (Cameron Appleton), 3/6, 3 points
8) Katusha (Paul Cayard), 3/6, 3 points
9) Team Austria (Christian Binder), 2/7, 2 points