RC44 racing returns to Europe tomorrow with the start of the 44Cup Porto Cervo, hosted by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. This will be the second event of the 2025 44Cup season that began in mid-February with the 44Cup Nanny Cay in Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.
Taking place in northwest Sardinia’s renowned sailing mecca, the 44Cup Porto Cervo sees the high performance one design owner-driver fleet back up to 11 in number for the first time since 2016. While currently there is no Italian team on the circuit, three of the 11 teams have Italian tacticians: Vasco Vascotto on Peninsula Racing, Michele Ivaldi on Aleph Racing and Francesco Bruni, taking time out from America’s Cup helming duties to call the shots on board Markus Törnqvist’s GeMera.
Vasco Vascotto comes from Trieste on the opposite side of Italy and first raced here while serving with the navy in 1991. He describes Porto Cervo as his ‘second home’. “I’m pleased to be here. I think that the RC44 class is getting stronger and stronger at the moment which is very nice. Every boat is getting better so you need to work hard every single day to keep up. Of course, it's good that at our age we are still learning!”
With the 44s racing their usual windward-leewards immediately off Porto Cervo harbour this week, local knowledge will pay, maintains Vascotto: “You do need to know about this place. Current can be an important factor: Yesterday we had almost one knot of current and it's not always in the same direction. So you need to figure out how to manage your race according to the forecast and current.” The forecast indicates four days of very differing conditions this week from a light northeasterly on Thursday and Saturday to potentially 20+ knot northerlies on Friday before the typical ‘Mistral’ wind returns on Sunday with 20+ knots from the west.
When the class last visited Porto Cervo in 2017, Igor Lah’s Slovenian team finished runner-up. Eight years on Team Ceeref Vaider is back: “It's beautiful – it’s really an amazing place and it's so close. We should definitely come here more often,” says Lah of this week’s venue. “And we've got 11 boats now - which is amazing. I hope we get to 15. It will be a bit more challenging, especially on the starting line and at the top mark.”
In addition to Markus Törnqvist’s GeMera, Wow! Sailing Team from Turkey is back having tried out racing in the 44Cup fleet in the final event of 2024. The team is now being shared between Mehmet Taki and his nephew Murat Edin, both from Istanbul. At present this new team is figuring out its crew positions and how Taki and Edin will fit in on board – it may be that this week they steer on alternate days (for today’s practice races Edin was on the helm). For both it is their first time racing in Porto Cervo. “I like the place,” says Taki. “I have come here many times on vacation, but I’ve never seen it in the early season.” As to his campaign he added: “We are just starting, you know, which is why, we aren’t taking it so seriously.” For this event they don’t have the majority of their regular crew, who will be returning for the next event in Marstrand, Sweden.
Wow! Sailing Team’s double Olympic 49er gold medallist tactician Iker Martinez is pleased to be back in Porto Cervo too. He has fond memories of racing at a Sardinia Cup here in the early 2000s as part of a Spanish team including the King of Spain. He has since sailed here many times with Swans and Melges.
Also committing to the 44Cup for this season is Daniel Calero’s Lanzarote Calero Sailing team. Like Wow! Sailing Team’s owners, racing in Porto Cervo is a first for the Canary Islands team. “We are going to have good conditions this week and the area is incredible," says Calero. “We have been training for a few days. It's a super beautiful place and everything is well maintained.”
Racing takes place over the next four days with a first warning signal tomorrow Thursday 15 May at 1200.