RC44 World Championship, Team Nika got the fifth success

The Hague – After three days of moderate, brisk and occasionally violent conditions off The Hague, finally the winds and waves on the North Sea abated today for the final three races of the 44Cup World Championship for the high performance owner-driver one designs. 

To make the most of the conditions, the race team led by PRO Maria Torrijo started an hour early at 1100. 

The day began with two points separating the top three: Igor Lah’s Team Ceeref Vaider, Marcus Törnqvist’s GeMera and Vladimir Prosikhin’s defending World Champions on Team Nika.

In the first race, held in 12-14 knots from the southwest, Team Nika started by the pin, got her bow forwards and then led the group coming back from the left. A left shift temporarily helped those on the right but it eventually it was Team Nika and Nico Poons’ Charisma that rounded first to lead down the run, holding from there on. After a second tier start, Team Ceeref Vaider recovered to third. This moved Team Nika ahead of her by one point.

In the second race Christian Zuerrer’s Black Star Sailing Team started from the committee boat end of the line and went left, then led Hugues Lepic’s Aleph Racing around the top mark. Team Nika rounded the top mark third and the gybed early pulled herself up to second, which she held to the end with Black Star scoring her first bullet of the World Championship. 

In this race Team Ceeref Vaider had again started poorly at the pin, but on this occasion the effect was worse and she was last at the top mark. But one of the most remarkable performances of this regatta was her recovery: 8^th by the gate; 6^th at the 2^nd top mark rounding which she held until the finish. But this boosted Team Nika’s lead to four points with Aleph Racing now two points behind Team Ceeref Vaider.

In the final race there was no engagement between the front runners, with Team Ceeref Vaider crew now having to keep an eye on a charging Aleph Racing. Remarkably, any of the top five could still theoretically win the Championship however the field was cleared when Black Star Sailing Team, Wow! Sailing Team and Lanzarote Calero Sailing were all OCS. 

In this, Aleph Racing started close to the boat end and then, hanging on starboard, was clear ahead by the time she reached the top mark ahead of Team Nika with Team Aqua third and Team Ceeref Vaider fourth. Team Ceeref Vaider overtook Team Nika at the top of second beat and held this down the run to finish third. But this was not enough to overcome Team Nika, which not only successfully defended her World Championship title, but secured it for a record fifth time, although Prosikhin and bowman Jeremy Lomas are the only crew to have sailed all five. 

“I’m very happy,” commented Prosikhin, after Class President Chris Bake coaxed him into a winner’s swim in the harbour. “We started third today and somehow found energy and determination to do it right and have a very good last day. The team was great, very inspired. I’m so happy to be with this class. This is the best ever class – the pros confirm it.” 

Tactician Nic Asher, who joined Team Nika at the end of 2022, has now seen Prosikhin through two World Championship wins. “I’m feeling relieved, more than anything. It has been a real grind,” said an exhausted Asher. “We made it hard for ourselves, with tough conditions, tough venue. We managed to pull it together today – the first two races we got right, we got off the start line well and we ended up with a nice cushion into the last one. It all came together.”