In one of the most dramatic grand finales in 44Cup history, the last day of the 44Cup Cartagena started with Peninsula Racing leading but with two other boats within two points of her. Meanwhile eyes were also glued to the overall 2026 44Cup leaderboard. At the beginning of today this was impossibly close with Pietro Loro Piana’s Aleph Racing tied on points with both Markus Törnqvist’s GeMera Racing and Vladimir Prosikhin’s Team Nika while Chris Bake’s Team Aqua was just one point behind.

Conditions were very different to the past three days with the wind a light southwesterly of eight knots building to 12 knots with a much reduced sea state.

Peninsula Racing started the day strongly banging the left on the first beat to lead into the top mark and continuing on to secure her third bullet, with only the Sam Poons-steered Team Charisma chasing them. This left Peninsula Racing with a powerful seven point lead. Boats arriving en masse usually makes first top mark roundings on the 44Cup high stress affairs, but in this race it was the second one when Team Aqua and Black Star Sailing Team ground to a halt just short of the mark, forcing Aleph Racing and Torbjörn Törnqvist’s Artemis Racing, who were arriving from astern, to take avoid action. For this Aleph Racing and Black Star received penalties.

In the second race, the upwind was long on port and on Charisma tactician Hamish Pepper had positioned them well for a big lift approaching the top mark, to lead onto the run. On the second beat Aleph Racing got ahead - it was close with GeMera and Charisma, but the French team held on to take her first bullet here in Cartagena. This also was well timed leaving Aleph Racing leading the 2026 44Cup season albeit tied with GeMera Racing and with Team Aqua one point behind going into the last race.

In fact the drama in the final race was not to last long - Aleph Racing repositioned herself at the committee boat end of the start line but was unable to engage with GeMera Racing, which got one of the best starts and was soon leading, as Aleph Racing was last. GeMera Racing coming home second handed them the 2026 44Cup with Aleph Racing two points behind, claiming second on countback from Team Aqua. While she never won an event this season, GeMera Racing never finished off the podium.

Markus Törnqvist commented of winning in just their second season on the 44Cup: “It's an amazing feeling. I don't have words to describe it. I'm very proud of the team. We've had a very good season. Going into the last race we knew we had to beat Aleph by one point at least to win the season. But we also knew that if we started to think too much about points, we'd just go crazy. So, we just sailed our own race and waited to see what happens. In fact Aleph turned out to be less of a problem than we thought.”

Remarkably, despite a lengthy history in the class this was Francesco Bruni’s first 44Cup victory. “I really care about this class and about this result,” he said. “So I'm super happy, not just for me, but for the team. We have a young team and we achieved many goals. Third last season, winning this season.

“In the first race we were really on the back foot. We didn't get a good start and the boat was not going great, but this team has always pushed in the hard moments. We never give up and we made a great comeback, which gave us the opportunity to still be in the fight…” Today GeMera Racing sealed the deal with a 4-3-2, leaving them in fourth place, to Aleph Racing’s seventh.

Meanwhile a whole other race was on for the 44Cup Cartagena. John Bassadone’s Peninsula Racing had led for the whole event and after a disappointing seventh place in the penultimate race they began the final race still three points ahead of Charisma. However in this they got buried in the middle of the pack and going into the final leg they were languishing in seventh place as Charisma was once again leading. Ultimately a bullet for Charisma, as Peninsula Racing came home sixth, was enough to usurp the Gibraltar team from the top spot. Charisma finished on 44 points to Peninsula Racing’s 46 with Team Aqua third on 50.

For this event, Nico Poons, although on shore to offer support, handed over the reins of Charisma to his son Sam. Today’s Charisma scored a phenomenal 2-2-1. “We went into today thinking, ‘let's try and get a podium at least’,” explained Sam. “After the first race, we got a second and it was phenomenal. So it was like ‘let's keep going…’ And then we got another second place. And then when Maria read out the points, we seemed to be in with a shot. Thanks to the team, with their synchronisation and effort we pulled it off. I don't think its fully sunk in yet…”

Tactician Hamish Pepper complemented his young student: “It was Sam’s first time in real races and he did a really good job considering how tough the conditions were. Today we had some good starts and managed to go the right way. The boat was going fast and the team did a good job.”

Racing here at the fifth and final event of the 2026 44Cup has been taking place thanks to the generous support of the Ayuntamiento de Cartagena, Gobierno Región de Murcia and the Autoridad Portuaria de Cartagena. They laid on a superb event to conclude the 44Cup season. RC44 Class President Chris Bake commented: “It was spectacular, the sailing was truly beautiful, and we had a great time, although the sea and the wind were tough. It's been a real pleasure being here.”

That concludes the 2026 44Cup but there is much anticipation with the advent of the circuit’s 20th anniversary season in 2027.