Russell Coutts and Patrick de Barros finish third of the Dubai RC 44 Cup
The Italian-French duo on board team Hiroshi-Città di Milano left no chance to the opposition in Dubai, winning the fleet racing event and finishing second of the match race regatta. Team ES Bankers Dubai finishes third of both events.
The Dubai RC 44 Cup was dominated by Team Hiroshi – Città di Milano and Team Ceeref, respectively first and second of the fleet and match racing events and vice versa. Team ES Bankers finished third of both regattas, with Russell Coutts helming the match and acting as a tactician for the fleet regatta (with Patrick de Barros at the helm).
The event was great, with a nice sea breeze most days and a stronger wind with big waves on Wednesday.
Team ES Bankers Dubai was sailing with a new crew. It encountered several problems such as a bow crash box breakage and un-perfect entries in the match race event.
Interestingly, the two leading teams of this event have been training together during five days before the start of the competition. Team Hiroshi also worked with Ian Ainslie as a coach on this event, well known as Shosholoza’s strategist in the last America’s Cup. The team worked hard at bettering its speed thanks to the use of video, photos and daily de-briefings. There is no secret to victory, but a simple method and a lot of hard work.
Match-racing, final results
Note: half points have been awarded to teams who have competed against each other twice.
Ranking, number of victories/losses, points.
1) Team Ceeref (5/2) 3,5 points
2) Team Hiroshi (4/3) 3 points
3) Team ES Bankers Dubai (5/2) 3 points
4) Team Sea Dubay, (3/4) 2,5 points
5) Team Aqua (3/ 4 incl 1 penalty) 1 point
6) Cro-A-Sail (1/6) 1 point
Fleet-racing, final results (no discard)
1) Team Hiroshi – Città di Milano (1, 1, 2, 4, 3, 2, 3, 1, 1, 2, 1) 21 points
2) Team Ceeref (5, 3, 5, 2, 5, 1, 5, 2, 3, 1, 4) 36 points
3) Team ES Bankers Dubai (3, 4, 1, 1, 2, 4, 4, 5, 6, 5, 5) 40 points
4) Team Aqua (DNF, DNF, 3, 6, 6, 3, 1, 3, 4, 3, 2) 45 points
5) Cro-A-Sail (4, 5, 4, 5, 1, 5, 6, 4, 2, 6, 3) 45 points
6) Team Sea Dubai, (2, 2, 6, 3, 4, 6, 2, 6, 5, 4, 6) 46 points
DHL Trophy:
1) Team Hiroshi – Città di Milano
2) Team Aqua
3) Cro-A-Sail
4) Team Ceeref
5) Team ES Bankers Dubai
6) Team Sea Dubai
