Team Aqua conquers the Malcesine Cup ahead of Team Omega
With only two points between the two leaders at the beginning of the last day, the last fleet races of the Malcesine Cup were full of promises. And they delivered, Chris Bake’s Team Aqua getting a first and a second places and overtaking Russell Coutts’ Team Omega to win the event.
Malcesine (ITA), 15 July 2007 – Winner of the match-racing event on Friday and leader of the fleet ranking with a two points margin over Team Aqua, Russell Coutts’ Team Omega was the favourite to conquer the Malcesine Cup (combination of the fleet and match racing ranking). However, Chris Bake and his team members had another idea; they dominated this last day, winning the fleet racing and conquering the Malcesine Cup.
For the first time this week, the start of the first race got postponed because of the light and fluky winds. But the famous thermal breeze finally kicked in, allowing a couple of fleet races to be completed in light airs.
Back in good shape and speed, Cro-A-Sail took a great start and seriously challenged Team Aqua throughout the first race, finally finishing second. As for Team Omega, it never managed to recover from a bad start, finishing the race in fourth, a couple of meters behind the brilliant Antigua Ekipa 44 led by Carlo Falcone.
It all got down to the last race, Team Aqua leading the new ranking with one less point than Team Omega. Once again, Chris Bake managed to take a good start and sail in fresh wind whilst Team Omega struggled to find clear air. But it is Miroslav Reljanovic’s Cro-A-Sail who had the best race, winning with a comfortable margin over Team Aqua and Team Omega. Chris Bakes team conquers both the fleet racing title and the Malcesine Cup, on a tier with Team Omega (but the fleet race ranking is the final judge in case of equality).
The races of the Malcesine Cup took part alongside the shore, a few meters away from the beautiful new yacht club of Fraglia Vela di Malcesine. Perfectly organised, on the water as well as on shore (with a beautiful social program), the event turned out to be a great success. The RC 44 fleet definitely wants to come back here next year, probably In June.
They said:
Chris Bake, Team Aqua:
“Our strategy today was to sail clean and fast, and to try to get good starts, which we managed. The courses were very short, so the starts were even more important than earlier in the week. The last mark rounding was decisive, as we almost lost the event as we were kind of stuck between Magia Carbon Affairs and Team Omega. But we remained focused and just made it.”
“This event was great; the location is phenomenal and the regatta was very well organised.”
Russell Coutts, Team Omega:
“The breeze was very different today than it was during the last few days, and we struggled to read it properly. We just had one of those days where things go wrong.
Despite this, I absolutely loved this event. Malcesine is one of the best places I know in Europe, and Gianni Testa did a fantastic job organising this race.”
Jesper Radich, tactician, Cro-A-Sail:
“Four of us are new on the boat, so our goal was to learn and improve. I think we achieved our goal today; it was really the highlight of the week for us. It was a great event.”
Malcesine Cup overall ranking (fleet race points, match-race points, overall points):
1) Team Aqua (1 /2) 3 points
2) Team Omega (2/1) 3 points
3) Cro-A-Sail (3/3) 6 points
4) Magia Carbon Affairs (4/5) 9 points
5) Antigua Ekipa 44 (5/4) 9 points
Fleet racing: Final results after 9 races (no discard):
1) Team Aqua (3, 2, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2) 15 points
2) Team Omega (1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 4, 3) 17 points
3) Cro-A-Sail (2, 3, 3, 3, OCS, 3, 3, 2, 1) 25 points
4) Magia Carbon Affairs (5, 4, 4, 4, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5) 38 points
5) Antigua Ekipa 44 (4, 5, 5, DNF, 4, 5, 5, 3, 4) 40 points
Match racing: Final results:
1) Team Omega (4 wins / 0 defeats) 4 points
2) Team Aqua (3 /1) 3 points
3) Cro-A-Sail (2 / 2) 2 points
4) Antigua Ekipa 44 (1 / 3) 1 point
5) Magia Carbon Affairs (0 / 4) 0 point