Day 4 44CUP Cascais - Oct 6, 2019: Whether it was in big waves or small, gale force or sub-10 winds, Chris Bake’s Team Aqua shone all week and as a result, won the 44Cup Cascais with a race to spare. Although this was common occurrence for Team Aqua during her glory years of 2011-13, winning with a race to spare is very rare these days, such is the level of competition in the high performance one design monohull class. The final day of 44Cup racing off the Portuguese sailing mecca, where the event was hosted by the Clube Naval de Cascais, provided even brisker conditions than the day before, mainly due to the race committee setting up the start area further offshore, free from the protection of the headlands west of Cascais. As a result, with the wind regularly blowing 20+ knots, and a lumpy and at times random chop set up on top of the Atlantic swell, it was a perpetually wet ride for the crews on this high load, high stress deciding day.
Team Aqua wins the 44Cup Cascais 2019
44Cup Cascais best shots video above, Oct 6, 2019.
Day 3 44Cup Cascais 2019 - Russian bears wake up
While at the 44Cup Cascais there has been a light first day, a medium second day with a large swell, on day three the Portugese sailing mecca saw winds exceeding the forecast, gusting up to 25 knots, with a short wind-driven chop and a reduced swell.
The wind hovering around 18-20 knots for most of the day provided hair-raising downwinds with the crew hanging on as the RC44s accelerated to 20+ knots speed, engulfed in spray. The conditions placed a premium on crew work and it was easy even for the most polished teams to come unstuck - notably three time World Champion Team Nika which broached dramatically during today’s first kite hoist.
Day 2 44Cup Cascais 2019 - Team Aqua shows ‘golden wheels’ form
Oct 4, 2019: Half way stage the 44Cup Cascais, Chris Bake’s Team Aqua has joined Nico Poons’ Charisma at the top of the leaderboard and is even ahead on countback. The second day of racing for the high performance one design RC44 monohulls, hosted by the Clube Naval de Cascais, was held in slightly more wind than yesterday, 10-16 knots, building slowly in the final race, but remaining more firmly northwest. However the height of the swell was notably larger, drummed up by Hurricane Lorenzo. Thanks to the long wavelength this wasn’t especially dramatic, but it made holding a course tricky as boats experiencing a momentary lull and they disappeared in the troughs.
Day 1 Highlights, 44Cup Cascais 2019 - Charisma and Team Aqua stride ahead
In contrast to their tail end of the fleet finish in Marstrand in July, Nico Poons and Charisma showed the way around the race track on the opening day of the 44Cup Cascais, posting a most respectable 2-1-2. While today Charisma, the 2018 44Cup champion (and winner the last time the high performance 44ft long one design long monohulls visited these waters last November), seemed to be the stand-out team, in fact they finished the day just one point ahead of Team Aqua. Chris Bake’s team, which currently holds the 44Cup’s ‘golden wheels’ as overall 44Cup leader, claimed today’s final race and had nearly as consistently good a day as Charisma, posting a 3-2-1.
See also Who will win the 44Cup Cascais? (video): 9 teams from 6 nations, who will win?
44Cup Cascais Oct 3 - 6, Clube Naval de Cascais, Cascais, Lisbon District, Portugal: the penultimate event of the 2019 RC44 season, the 44Cup Cascais, 3rd - 6th October, as the year draws to a close for the nine strong fleet of high performance one design keelboats, with only four points separating the top six teams.
Venue: located on the mouth of the River Tagus leading up to Lisbon, Cascais is open to the Atlantic and comes with all the potential for big winds and large oceanic swell. It is for this reason, combined with excellent hospitality provided by the Clube Naval de Cascais, that the Portuguese stopover is another regular on the 44Cup circuit, having featured every year since 2012. It hosted the World Championship in 2015 and 2017, both of which were won by Team Nika.44Cup Results and Standings
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