Ten RC 44s in Sardinia

Second event of the RC 44 tour sparks up in Cagliari this week with Larry Ellison driving a BMW Oracle boat

With recently crowned World Champions Mateusz Kusznierewicz (Star) and Vincenzo Onorato (Farr 40), the second regatta of the RC 44 Championship Tour 2008 promises to be a fantastic sailing event. Among the line-up are Ben Ainslie, Russell Coutts, James Spithill, Sébastien Col, Larry Ellison, Cameron Appleton and many more who will fight for the victory between the ten strict one design RC 44s in the Sardinian venue of Cagliari.

There's just one day to go before the start of the second event of the RC 44 Championship Tour 2008. Tension is palpable on the pontoons of Cagliari where the regatta has been organised by Yacht Club Cagliari with the support of the City of Cagliari.

Team Hiroshi - Città di Milano (Armando Giulietti and Sébastien Col), current leader of the Championship Tour and winner of the first season regatta in Dubai, will lead the charge but also in Cagliari are Chris Bake and Cameron Appleton - winners of last year’s Championship Tour - who will be keen to climb on the podium after their fourth place in Dubai last month.

Triple Olympic medallist Ben Ainslie will discover the RC 44 yachts on board Patrick de Barros’s Team Banco Esprito Santo. So will Larry Ellison, helming both the fleet and the match race and sailing for the first time with Russell Coutts on a BMW Oracle Racing branded RC 44.

The Cagliari Cup will start on Wednesday 23 April with the match racing event. Unbeaten in the match racing over the two RC 44 regattas, Team Ceeref (Igor Lah / James Spithill) is the logical favourite of this part of the event.

After a full round robin, hopefully completed in two days, the team owners will take the helm for three days of fleet racing; a contest that is probably more open than the match. A long distance race will allow the fleet to discover the beauties of Cagliari's surroundings. The winner of this race will be awarded with the DHL Trophy, while the points of the regatta will be incorporated in the fleet race ranking.

Other teams will look for precious points on the Championship Tour, such as Miroslav Reljanovic’s Cro-A-Sail, which dominated the first RC 44 season in 2006, DIMC’s Team Sea Dubai with Marcus Wieser at the helm and Isao Mita’s Team Beecom (JAP).

Line-up:

Team Hiroshi - Città di Milano, Armando Giulietti / Sébastien Col
Team Banco Espirito Santo, Patrick de Barros / Ben Ainslie
Team Aqua, Chris Bake / Cameron Appleton
Team Ceeref, Igor Lah / James Spithill
Cro-A-Sail, Miroslav Reljanovic / Morten Henrikson
Sea Dubai, DIMC, Markus Wieser
Team Beecom, Isao Mita / Kevin Harrap
BMW ORACLE Racing, Larry Ellison / Russell Coutts
Team Organika, Maciej Nawrocki / Mateusz Kusznierewicz
Mascalzone Latino, Vincenzo Onorato / Jes Gram Hansen