Sandra Lane, The National. With hardly time to draw breath after the very long and demanding Louis Vuitton Cup regatta in La Maddalena, Sardinia, several Dubai sailors were on the water again yesterday in Denmark for the first day of the RC44 Copenhagen Cup.

Cameron Appleton, who spent much of the Louis Vuitton Trophy 100 feet up the mast as the wind spotter and strategist on board Artemis, was much closer to the water, at the helm of Team Aqua, which is owned by the Duabi businessman Chris Bake. His record yesterday was flawless, winning all five races and taking Aqua straight to the top of the leaderboard.

Sea Dubai also had a good day. With Matti Paschen and Kazuhiko Sofuku (on All4One and Luna Rossa respectively, in La Maddalena) rejoining the crew, its temporary helmsman Jes Gram Hansen steered the boat to equal third place at the end of the first day’s match racing. Hansen replaces Sea Dubai’s regular professional skipper, Marcus Wieser, who is in Hungary defending his Dragon European championship title and, as a Dane, brings many years’ experience of local conditions to the team.

Conditions were perfect yesterday, with winds of 15–18 knots producing a full day of close and interesting match-races – notably a sensational duel between Sea Dubai and Ceeref. The UAE team narrowly lost to the Slovenian boat, skippered by Rod Davis, whose "day job" is coach of the Louis Vuitton Trophy winner Emirates Team New Zealand.

Other key faces to have made the quick switch from the America’s Cup Class yachts in La Maddalena to the swift and agile RC44s include Terry Hutchinson at the helm of Artemis (which campaigns yachts in both classes), Ray Davies, Emirates Team New Zealand’s tactician, as the skipper of No Way Back and Paul Cayard, the skipper of Artemis in La Maddalena in the same role on Katusha here.

The wind is perfect for another full day’s sailing today, which will complete the match-racing part of the regatta. A lay day will be followed by three days of fleet racing.