There’s an air of anticipation at Cowes Yacht Haven, as the dockside cafe begins to fill ahead of the briefing. It’s day two at the RC44 World Championships, hosted by Chris Bake’s Team Aqua and the Royal Yacht Squadron. Eight regular teams and one guest entry are about to commence battle in a highly competitive one-design class with an owner-driver rule that pits captains of industry and some of the world’s best pro sailors against one another in a series of action-packed windward/leeward races.
The event is one of five in the 2023 44Cup calendar, preceded by openers in Oman and Sweden, and followed by a late season Spanish double, first at Alcaidesa Marina, then Calero Marinas in the Canaries.
This is the second time that the star-studded class has graced the Solent, and expectation is high. Currently, Nico Poons’ Charisma tops the series leader board, but that could all be about to change. A number of Solent experts have been drafted specially: Fastnet winner Adrian Stead and Ocean Race legend Jules Salter (for Team Ceeref powered by Hrastnik 1860), Olympian Elliot Willis (for Team Nika), and Graham Sunderland, author of Winning Tides (for Aleph Racing) – to name a few.
They’re bolstering), Cameron Appleton (), Nic Asher () and Vasco Vascotto ().
