Scheveningen, the first venue in the Netherlands the 44Cup has ever visited, continued to throw curved balls and varied conditions on day two of the RC44 World Championship.   

In contrast to day one which started overcast and miserable with light winds, today began with perfect summer sun and solid breeze. However the breeze was largely from east of due south and blowing diagonally off the Dutch coast making it fickle and shifty in the extreme, complicated further as the ebb tide built over the afternoon, taking the fleet along the coast in a southwest direction, kicking up the sea state. 

Today saw a double win for the Swedes. In the first race Marcus Törnqvist’s GeMera scored her second bullet of this World Championship having started mid-line and being one of the last to tack back. “We just picked the right shift,” commented tactician Francesco Bruni. “We held a little bit on the left, went to the right at the right moment, and we were just leading by a decent margin at the top. But Charisma was very close, and they were close for the whole race, until the final downwind when we stretched away a little bit.”

Going into the top mark Charisma muscled her way in on port to round second, just ahead of Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing. The hosts of this event went on to claim the first of two seconds today, making Nico Poons’ team the top scoring boat of the day. With a sixth in the second race Gemera ended the day in the lead, but by a mere point.  

“It's very tight racing, so we are very happy that we are not making huge mistakes. We are all very close in points, so we just have to look not so much at the overall results, but the fact that we are sailing well,” continued Bruni. 

In race two Daniel Calero’s Lanzarote Calero Sailing did a fine job to elbow her way to the front on the first beat rounding the top mark inside Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika. However as the Canary Islands’ team hoisted their spinnaker in the blustery conditions they broached pitching a crew member into the water. To avoid running into them Team Nika had to stay above them and delay hoisting their kite while those coming in from astern were able sail below them. “We lost approximately four boats because of that,” Team Nika’s tactician Nic Asher observed later. 

Artemis Racing took the lead ahead of Charisma, positions they held to the finish. “It's a new game for us because we're not used to sailing in so much current,” commented Artemis Racing’s Kiwi tactician Hamish Pepper. “It's testing, trying to understand it and trying to benefit from it as much as you can. But it's a shifty course so there's always chances.” 

The start of race three and with just two points separating the top four, dark grey clouds were looming to the south over Rotterdam and the prospect of rain seemed inevitable. Up the first beat RC44 Class President Chris Bake’s Team Aqua had done well out to the left and was just ahead going into the top mark. Here, with a shift the fleet gybe set as the rain arrived obscuring the leeward gate in the reduced visibility. The leaders had just made it on to the upwind when the squall arrived bringing with it sudden violent gusts of 30+ knots laying several boats flat. There were more man overboard incidents. 

Worst affected was Jan Scholtes’ Warp 5. According to trimmer Sander Speet they had around 20 seconds from the call that “it was going to be pretty fresh” until they were struck by a 30+ knot gust, with no time to get the spinnaker down. “By the time we realised it was that bad, we were already into it. We had this massive nosedive, and wiped out and three crew went over the side. I guess big wave just washed everybody off. The boat started heeling to windward, and then it took everybody out. We were on the side for probably 10 seconds. When I looked up, there was only the owner there left!”

Two more crew fell off Ceeref Team Vaider and another two from Aleph Racing. Given the chaos, the torrential rain and with another squall on its way the decision was made to call it a day. 

Amid this Chris Bake and the Team Aqua crew had somehow managed to keep it going, continuing to lead. “I never remember our bow being so underwater. I was standing in water up to my knees,” recounted Chris Bake. “A second bullet would have been nice, if we'd managed to hold on to it.” Immediately prior to the start of today’s first race they had to replace their bowman after he began vomiting violently. 

Bake himself is having an intriguing time here in Scheveningen. “This is my father's town. He spent the whole war here, so I am very reminiscent of that. This is a little bit of a home coming for me.” 

After Team Charisma and alongside Team Nika and GeMera, Christian Zuerrer’s Black Star was second placed point scorer today. “Sometimes we were not too close to the line at the start, but we managed to get back into the leading group. It was great fun racing today,” said Zuerrer who scored a 3-4 today.  

At this half way stage of the World Championship the top four boats are separated by two points. With one race lost today, tomorrow racing will start an hour earlier, with a first warning signal at 1100.