Team Aqua, Artemis to light up Gold Cup race

Dubai: The Sea Dubai RC44 Gold Cup will start on Wednesday at the Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC), signalling that the much awaited RC44 Championship Tour has arrived in the UAE.

The 2009 Championship Tour comprises six regattas in five different countries and the event comes to the UAE after being held in Spain, Italy, Austria and Slovenia.

"It is a great feeling to be hosting the final round here and we will provide the best of facilities for the event," said Saeed Hareb, chief executive of the Regatta and managing director of the DIMC.

"The weather forecast is excellent and we have ensured that spectators get a good view and even those from the hotels can watch the action nicely," he added. The event is scheduled to start at 11.30am.

Spearheading the UAE challenge, and part of the ten participating teams, are Team Aqua and Sea Dubai.

Team Aqua are the current leaders of the RC 44 Championship. They won the overall title in 2007 but finished fourth in 2008. Their duel against Team Artemis is expected to be the highlight of the Gold Cup.

"It is a lot more competitive than when we won in 2007. We have identified our strengths and [are] hoping to give our best," said Cameron Appleton of Team Aqua.

Confident

Team Sea Dubai had started its campaign in 2008 and registered good results. Markus Wieser, the team's pro-skipper from Germany and Yousef Lahej are confident of a good showing, despite being ranked a lowly eighth on the Championship Tour.

"We will be aiming for more consistency and have been working towards it," Wieser said.

Artemis leads the match race and DHL Trophy yearly ranking while Team Aqua sits three points ahead of the Swedish team in the overall standing.

Another strong challenger comes from Team Organika from Poland. In the last regatta at Portoroz, they proved that they could beat any team in a match race.

The match racing event will be held today and tomorrow while the fleet regatta will be held from Friday to Sunday.

Other teams participating are Team Austria, Ceeref, Islas Canarias Puerto Calero, No Way Back, BMW Oracle and Team Katusha.