Racing on the third day of the 44Cup Marina Jandía off Fuerteventura saw fresh winners and a reshuffle at the top of the leaderboard.
Easterly winds of 15–20 knots and a lively seastate challenged the fleet. Race director María Torrijo’s team recorded photo-finishes as some RC44s stalled in troughs while others blasted through.
In Race 1, Sweden’s Artemis Racing, skippered by Torbjörn Törnqvist, went hard left on the first beat and held the lead at the top mark ahead of Peninsula Racing. The Gibraltar‑based team fell back on the final run when GeMera Racing and Charisma executed an early gybe.
Race 2 saw Artemis again in command until a kite failure just after the second top mark allowed GeMera to take the win. Artemis recovered to finish second ahead of Charisma.
The third race turned into a war of attrition. GeMera blew a kite on the run but still salvaged fifth. Artemis dropped to eighth. Meanwhile, Team Nika emerged victorious after Peninsula Racing faltered at the start of the second beat.
GeMera’s tactician Francesco Bruni said: “We found some extra boat speed upwind that we didn’t have yesterday… Our compass was not really working.”
Artemis’s bowman Brad Ferrand added: “The boats were going well… blowing out the kite was to do with the windward sheet being too tight.”
On the subject of steady Swedish form, Ferrand said: “We’ve been working hard all year … finally it feels like we’ve got good boat speed.”
Meanwhile the Turkish WOW! Sailing Team (Mehmet Taki & Murat Edin) secured their best result yet with a fourth place. Edin said: “The downwinds are so much fun in these conditions … we just went full on downwind.”
Looking ahead, the wind is expected to drop mid‑afternoon tomorrow and the schedule has been brought forward to start at 11:00. Mathematically any of the top seven teams can still win.
