Dubai: The Sea Dubai RC44 Gold Cup will open this year's Sea Dubai Watersports Festival to be held off the Mina Seyahi waters at the Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC) later this month.
After some exciting battles on water in Spain, France, Austria, Italy and Slovenia the ten RC44 boats will now head to Dubai to decide who is the best of the best and have a new RC44 world champion after the competition is held from November 25 to 29.
After five rounds, it looks like a five-boat battle for the top spot with Chris Bake and Cameron Appleton's Team Aqua leading the way ahead of Torbjorn Tornqvist and Dean Barker's Artemis and Pieter Heerem and Ray Davis's No Way Back.
Team Aqua, owned by Dubai businessman Bake, holds the edge with six points following two first places and a couple of second spots. Their only blemish was in the last round in Slovenia when they ended in sixth.
However, Bake has had his moment of glory after his team clinched the overall honours here in 2007.
But with Barker's experience for the big occasions, Artemis has kept close to the heels of the leader with one first place, one second and a couple of third place performances for their nine points, while Heerema's No Way Back with Ray Davis at the helm is in third with 13 points.
Russell Coutts' BMW Oracle Racing and Ceeref are in fourth and fifth places and within striking distance with 14 and 15 points respectively.
The RC44 Gold Cup will be the opening event for the annual Sea Dubai Watersports Festival, an event designed to highlight the marriage of traditional and modern watersports.
