After a gale forced the cancellation of yesterday’s practice racing, for day one of the 44Cup Marstrand, taking place off the familiar Swedish paradise island, there was a west to northwesterly that built as the afternoon progressed, to 17 knots. However a residual swell from Tuesday’s blustery conditions caused today’s three races to become a thorough work-out for the 12 RC44 teams.  

In the first race, event host Torbjörn Törnqvist and his Artemis Racing did well out to the right of the first beat. As left and right converged John Bassadone’s Peninsula Racing ducked Artemis Racing’s transom but was first to the starboard layline to neatly round the top mark first ahead of Chris Bake’s Team Aqua, overlapped with the Pietro Loro Piana-steered Aleph Racing. The second upwind saw a near repeat but with Peninsula Racing crossing clear ahead of Artemis Racing and going on to score the first bullet of the regatta. 

In the second race with the breeze building, Peninsula Racing and Aleph Racing both chose the right side of the first beat with Bassadone’s team planting a leebow tack on their French rival, bouncing her off to the right and getting enough ahead to lead into the first top mark rounding for a second consecutive race. However at the leeward gate, Peninsula Racing went left as Aleph Racing split to the favoured right, got a nose in front and pulled into the lead which she carried on to the finish. 

A 1-2 was the strongest start to a 44Cup event in Peninsula Racing’s recent history and despite a sixth in race three they concluded the day as joint leader with the overall season leader (and owner of the ‘golden wheels’) Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika. 

“It’s an amazing feeling,” admitted Peninsula Racing’s John Bassadone. “It's been a while. It's been fun racing today - quite complicated, but I think we sailed pretty well and the boat is ‘not slower’ than the others. Getting our new boat tuned up has taken much longer than we expected. There's a long way still, but it's a nice feeling at this stage.” Or possibly it may have come down to the focus provided by losing one’s phone in the water prior to racing. “No phone, no calls, no looking at what the oil markets are doing - I don't know! There’s a long way to go but it's good to be up there.”

Vasco Vascotto, Peninsula Racing’s Italian tactician, added of today’s races: “We sailed a little better and we keep learning. Sooner or later all the boats will reach more or less the same speed. It's a matter of little details, having good starts and having a [clear] lane to sail the boat. But it's the first day, we need to keep calm and keep doing the same tomorrow.”

Pietro Loro Piana also got off to a good start today, back in Aleph Racing’s helm in place of Hugues Lepic. Being absent from the class for six months seemed to make little difference to the 32-year-old Italian. Of their victory in race two, Loro Piana said: “We didn't nail the start - we did what the guys call ‘a dead bird’: we waited for Vasco [Peninsular Racing] to cross us and then followed quite closely and roll into a tack: That paid off handsomely. The wind shifted and we found ourselves in a very good position.” Loro Piana admitted that while he relished the downwind legs in the big waves, occasionally he had got too greedy and found himself attempting to sail “in no apparent wind.”

Despite this being the class’ 14th visit to Marstrand, it is Loro Piana’s first. “Outside when you're in open water, it's sailing heaven. Yesterday we got welcomed by a little bit of the cold side of the weather, but I have to say Marstrand otherwise looks amazing. Torbjörn and the Tomquist family are great hosts so I’ve really been looking forward to this beautiful event.”

Today’s third race endured two false starts – the first when there was a major left hand shift up the first beat and the race was abandoned; the second when start line chaos prompted a general recall. When the race did get going Chris Bake’s Team Aqua led for the first lap. On the second beat she went left as Team Nika went right. After rounding the top mark a close third, Team Nika gybed, found gold on the right, to beat the class president into the finish by a boatlength. 

“We didn't have the best start but managed to wiggle our way throughit,” explained Team Nika’s tactician Nic Asher. “It went a bit patchy in the last race, so there was a little bit going on while allowed us to catch up. Also the wind dropped so the downwind was trickier.”

Of the final downwind, Asher admitted: “We went around and the two in front were slow, so we just split off. I don't even know if there was a shift or anything, but we were on our own and could play with the waves and we sort of just backed ourselves, to go faster.”

Third behind Peninsula Racing and Team Nika is Aleph Racing, with Nico Poons’ defending champion on Team Charisma fourth just one point ahead of Artemis Racing. 

The forecast for tomorrow is for the wind to be a more moderate 10-12 knots from the south. Racing once again will resume at midday.