After a nine year absence from the Caribbean, the RC44 fleet will return next week for the 44Cup Nanny Cay, taking place over 20-24 November.
The high performance one design 44Cup fleet has twice visited the British Virgin Islands (BVI). On both previous occasions they were based out of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda’s clubhouse on Virgin Gorda. Sadly in September 2017, Hurricane Irma, the strongest hurricane ever seen in the Atlantic, decimated the island and the clubhouse, so for its third visit, the RC44s will be racing from their new base in Nanny Cay resort and marina located on the BVI’s principal island, Tortola. This features a marina able to accommodate 300 yachts - 110 monohulls on the outer marina and 190 monohulls on the inner marina and a fully equipped boatyard.
Sir Francis Drake Channel, immediately south of Tortola, will be the race area for the 44Cup Nanny Cay and is considered one of the best sailing venues in the world. Over the years it has hosted elite-level racing from the IOR50s of the 1980s to the Melges 32s in 2013. For the 44Cup owners and crews racing in the BVIs the event will provide some welcome winter sunshine along with the potential for brisk westerly trade winds, while, thanks to it having a chain of outlying islands providing protection, the sea typically remains flat.
American Andy Horton, tactician on Nico Poons’ Charisma, has raced previously here during the island’s annual BVI Spring Regatta & Sailing Festival, also held out of Nanny Cay marina, aboard the PAC52 Fox: “It is a great place. Usually the weather works like clockwork when the trade winds kick in,” he confides. Right now the trades haven’t kicked in, but long term forecasts for next week indicate that they should have by the time racing gets underway properly on 21 November. “At the moment it is westerly and southerly, which is very unusual. But the trade winds will kick in and then it will be pristine sailing conditions with blue water and a couple of foot of chop. Typically we'll have 18 knots, sun, 80°F (26°C) and it’ll just be the best sailing.”
In a highly competitive fleet, the team which has nosed in front this year is Vladimir Prosikhin's Team Nika, winner of the season’s first event in Porto Calero, Lanzarote and also of August's 44Cup World Championship, held out of Brunnen on the magnificent Lake Uri in Switzerland. Prosikhin and his team, led by British tactician Nic Asher, are holders of the series’ ‘golden wheels’ (the 44Cup’s equivalent of the Tour de France’s ‘yellow jersey’) currently with a four point margin over Igor Lah’s Team Ceeref Vaider. However, as usual with the 44Cup, competition will certainly go to the wire with five teams still within four points of the podium and nine points on the table for this final event.
“I am keeping the golden wheels!” commented Prosikhin. “We have the chance to win the season because we are clear ahead of everyone, but the next one will be similarly tough to the last one.” On the 44Cup’s first ever visit to the BVI they had sailed a coastal course that had taken them down the St Francis Drake Channel, so Prosikhin has a little experience of the race area. “The place is beautiful and very warm with a lot of wind. It’s exotic,” advises Prosikhin.
One of the tacticians with perhaps the most experience competing here is Peninsula Racing’s Vasco Vascotto, who not only has raced here previously with the 44Cup but also with a Melges 32 series of events which took place here in 2013. “I have sailed in a lot of places in the Virgin Islands – Nanny Cay, Virgin Gorda, Peter Island, etc,” says Vascotto. “When you are sailing there it is like sailing in heaven! It is a fantastic place, which you cannot see around the world. The nature is amazing – it is a special place. It is quite protected. I remember if you are sailing around some bays you can see some choppy sea, so it depends on where they set the race course. For sure we will have some good wind.”
After a practice race day on Wednesday 20th November, racing sets sail on Thursday 21st November with a first warning signal at 1200
2024 44CUP OVERALL RANKING:
(After four events with one discard)
1. Team Nika - 1 2 7 1 - 4
2. Team CEEREF Vaider - 2 4 6 2 - 8
3. Artemis Racing - 8 1 2 8 - 11
4. Aleph Racing - 5 5 3 4 - 12
5. Charisma - 6 7 1 5 - 12
6. Black Star Sailing Team - 7 3 8 3 - 13
7.Team Aqua - 4 8 4 6 - 14
8. Peninsula Racing - 3 6 5 7 - 15
9. Calero Sailing Team - 9 9 10 9 - 27
