Pieter Heerema and his team No Way Back have conquered the RC 44 Championship Tour 2009 head of Artemis, Ceeref and BMW ORACLE Racing. Due to the proximity with the America’s Cup, Russell could unfortunately not participate in the Gold Cup.

The scenario of the RC 44 Sea Dubai Gold Cup was full of promises ahead of the event, with five teams in a position to win the overall Championship Tour. Russell could unfortunately not participate in the event and was replaced by Neville Crichton.

The match race turned out to be fatal for the favourites of the event, Dean Barker’s Artemis and Chris Bake’s Team Aqua. Due to the lack of wind, the event had to be shortened and Aqua only sailed four matches. Bad luck and a collision with Organika cost the team a massive amount of points and the overall Championship Tour. Indeed, the team finished with a negative number of points and fell down the annual ranking in one bad afternoon. Leader of the season ranking in the morning, the team fell down to fifth in the afternoon! Artemis also had a terrible day, finishing ninth of the event and offering the victory to Igor Lah’s Ceeref, with Rod Davis at the helm for the occasion.

One week ago, ahead of the Gold Cup, Pieter Heerema’s No Way Back was third overall and fourth in the fleet race ranking. The double points system – heavily discussed this week – turned out massively in their favour. The Dutch team conquers the fleet race ranking and the overall Gold Cup. Last but not least, Heerema and Ray Davies win the Championship Tour 2009.

As for BMW ORACLE Racing, the team finished fifth of the match race and the fleet regatta despite two splendid victories on the last racing day. BMW ORACLE Racing concludes the season in the fourth place overall.

Sea Dubai RC 44 Gold Cup - Fleet race, final results after ten races:

 

Ranking, name of team, helmsman, results (DHL Trophy double points regatta in bold), total number of points

1) No Way Back, Pieter Heerema, 3, 3, 4, 1, 2, 4, 2, 2, 5, 2 - 28 points

2) Artemis, Tim Snedden, 5, 2, 1, 3, 4, 5, 10, 4, 3, 6 - 43 points

3) Team Aqua, Chris Bake, 9, 7, 2, 2, 8, 3, 4, 8, 4, 5 - 52 points

4) Ceeref, Igor Lah, 8, 8, 7, 7, 1, 2, 12, 6, 2, 3 - 56 points

5) BMW ORACLE Racing, Neville Crichton, 10, 6, 6, 8, 5, 6, 6, 1, 1, 9 - 58 points

6) Team Katusha, Bob Little, 4, 9, 5, 6, 3, 7, 8, 10, 7, 4 - 63 points

7) Team Sea Dubai, Yousef Lahej, 1, 5, 3, 10, 6, 9, 20, 3, 6, 1 - 64 points

8) Team Austria, Christian Binder, 6, 1, 10, 9, 7, 1, 14, 5, 10, 8 - 71 points

9) Organika, Maciej Nawrocki, 7, 4, 9, 5, 8, 8, 16, 7, 8, 7 - 79 points

10) Puerto Calero Islas Canarias, Daniel Calero, 2, 10, 8, 4, 9, 10, 18, 9, 9, 10 - 89 points

 

 

RC 44 Championship Tour 2009 – Overall fleet race ranking:

 

Ranking, name of team, points

 

1) Artemis, 10 points

2) Team Aqua, 14 points

3) No Way Back, 16 points

4) BMW ORACLE Racing 21 points

5) Ceeref, 26 points

6) Team Sea Dubai, 38 points

7) Organika, 43 points

8) Puerto Calero Islas Canarias, 46 points

9) Team Katusha, 48 points

10) Team Austria, 50 points

11) Jelik, 66 points

 

 

RC 44 Championship Tour 2009, overall result:

 

Ranking, name of team, points

 

1) No Way Back, 15 points

2) Artemis, 17 points

3) Ceeref, 19 points

4) BMW ORACLE Racing 20 points

5) Team Aqua, 22 points

6) Organika, 33 points

7) Puerto Calero Islas Canarias, 42 points

8) Team Katusha, 44 points

9) Team Sea Dubai, 47 points

10) Team Austria, 56 points

11) Jelik, 66 points