RC 44 Austria Cup - Roller-coaster day for Sea Dubai

1:26 PM Sat 1 May 2010 GMT

'Sea Dubai vs RC44 Challenger - RC 44 Austria Cup 2010' Nico Martinez &copy Click Here to view large photo

It was a roller-coaster day for Sea Dubai with highs, lows and knife-edges in the RC44 Austria Cup.

With one win and three losses the team finished fifth in the match race, taking five valuable points. First up against Americas Cup winning skipper James Spithill, Sea Dubai started well with better boat speed extending their lead towards the windward mark only to lose it when RC44 Challenger blocked them in at the coast to take the lead.

But it wasn't to last long as Sea Dubai took the lead downwind to win. Against Ceeref a bad start left them chasing Rod Davis who made no mistakes and finished first. 'The standard is so high in this class now that there is no room for any errors,' said Matti Paschen, mainsail trimmer for the team. 'All the teams have improved so much, including us, it makes the racing really intense.'

Sea Dubai and No Way Back went head to wind as they reached the top mark in their match both waiting for the advantage in the rounding but it was No Way Back who got it and took the point.

All the matches on day two were exciting but the last against Team Aqua was nail bitingly harrowing as not only did everything hang on the point with the teams equal in the ranking but also it was so close.

Sea Dubai vs No Way Back - RC 44 Austria Cup 2010 - Nico Martinez &copy Click Here to view large photo

Team Aqua got away first but using the opposite side of the course Sea Dubai caught them and heading downwind towards each other on the final leg there wasn't a whisker between them although Aqua had the right of way.

Sea Dubai was forced to crash gybe to avoid Aqua right at the last minute and Aqua took the point in a stunning finale for both teams. 'Cameron Appleton on Aqua played the situation well and we had no choice,' said Markus Wieser. 'We did well to catch them and they did well to beat us, it was a great race to finish on.'

After a morning that seemed endless waiting for the wind to fill in and settle the afternoon turned into one to remember with a succession of tough battles between an increasingly even field of top-notch sailors and boats.

Tomorrow starts with a long distance race for the City of Gmunden Trophy which doesn't count in the ranking but will be good practice for the fleet race skippers before the three days of fleet racing starts on Sunday 2nd May.

Provisional Results:
1st BMW Oracle, 7
2nd Team Aqua, 7
3rd Katusha, 6
4th No Way Back, 5
5th Sea Dubai, 5
6th RC44 Challenge, 4
7th Artemis, 4
8th Ceeref, 4
9th Islas Canariea Puerto Calero, 2
10th AEZ RC44 Sailing Team, 1

by Dubai International Marine Club