The 44Cup Puntaldia, taking place place out of the boutique 380 berth Marina di Puntaldia in northeast Sardinia, has gained a new leader on its penultimate day, or, more accurately, lost its previous leader. As usual the tightness of the racing in this high performance owner-driver one design class, was demonstrated today by the fact that after nine races, seven of the nine RC44s competing have won.

Today, for the first time at this event, the wind had veered into the southeast and, following a one hour delay, by 1300 start time it had built to 12 knots. The direction was significant as the wind was no longer blowing over the 500+m tall island of Tavolara as it had for the first two days. Even so, the on-shore breeze remained shifty.

In the first race Christian Zuerrer’s Black Star Sailing Team and and Vladimir Prosikhin's Team Nika had won the pin and the majority held on starboard. As those to weather picked tacked away, Team Nika left it later and found herself lifted her port tack compared to her rivals. Torbjörn Törnqvist's Artemis Racing, which had gone right early, was almost first to the top mark unti lTeam Nika just got inside her forced her to keep clear.

A shift caused the run to become long on starboard gybe and made the port gate mark favoured. This led to huge congestion at the mark and amid the raft-up Aleph Racing, overall leader going into the day, found herself locked alongside Charisma. She duly received a penalty from the umpires, plus an additional penalty point for hard contact.

Over the next lap Team Nika held on to the finish ahead of Artemis Racing and Black Star.

But it was not only Aleph Racing which was suffering. In race two Teams Nika and Charisma were both called OCS, but Vladimir Prosikhin’s team restarted so rapidly it barely impacted them.

Meanwhile John Bassadone’s Peninsula Racing had won the pin and Black Star and Wow! Sailing Team, today being driven by Murat Edin, started closest to the race committee boat. Much like Team Nika in the first race, Peninsula Racing’s delayed tack onto port enabled her to find her own lane where she was lifted compared to the other port tackers. As a result she crossed everyone coming back on starboard, eventually pulling onto the starboard layline ahead of Aleph Racing and Chris Bake’s Team Aqua. Despite some compression coming into the finish, she went on to win the race ahead of Aleph Racing and Black Star.

In the third and final race with the wind going slowly right and dropping, Team Aqua got a strong start by the race committee boat, committing immediately to the right. Team Aqua subsequently enjoyed being nicely lifted up to the mark to round ahead of Charisma with GeMera overlapped. This mark rounding also proved tricky for Aleph Racing, firstly for being in the wrong in a port-starboard incident with Charisma and seconds later for not keeping clear of Black Star Sailing Team as the two were having to bear away to thread their way into the on-coming traffic at the starboard layline. For this Aleph Racing received two penalties.

Meanwhile Team Aqua extended away to secure her first bullet ahead of Charisma and with Wow! Sailing Team only being relieved of third place by Peninsula Racing at the top of the last run.

Going into the final day 2024-25 44Cup winner Team Nika is the new leader by six points. They had done especially well to salvage a fifth after their OCS in race two. “The third race, we were just very unlucky. There was a huge right shift at the start - we started at the pin and immediately the whole fleet was ahead of us!” said Prosikhin. In this they again salvaged a fifth. “So, nice races, very good day, different wind direction. It was flat water, it was light – but it's variety, so very enjoyable.”

However boat of the day was Chris Bake’s Team Aqua scoring a 4-4-1, the RC44 Class President on board for the first time today - part of his vital recovery process following a knee operation. “It was nice to show that we can still do it every so often - that we haven't totally lost the magic. There were definitely a lot of shifts and it was about being able to join the shifts up…”

John Bassadone is racing his brand new Peninsula Racing boat for the first time here and is clearly already up to pace. “We had a good solid day. In the second race we didn’t get the best start but it was a big relief that we hung to get the win. It was a good, clean race, for once. It wasn't too shifty today, and that was a good, solid race by the guys. It was good to get the first win of the hull #31, which has taken a bit of tweaking.”

His tactician Vasco Vascotto was looking at the broader perspective: “It's a matter of finishing well this week. We are so close that anything can happen tomorrow in the three races. It's very up and down for a lot of boats. Aleph was winning yesterday and GeMera second…”

Of today’s condition the veteran Italian tactician added: “The forecast was for maybe a little pressure more on the right.But in reality the first two races the left wasn't that bad. That's the reason why gybesetting was quite a nice manoeuvre.And you have something like a right banana, which gives you this kind of opportunity to gybe at the top mark and arrive with a nice header on starboard at the bottom mark.”

The forecast for the final day is similar to today with a light southeasterly filling in. Racing is scheduled to start at 1200.