Puerto Portals 52 Super Series – Azzurra is still in the game

by Azzurra on 26 Jul 2017 Azzurra had a tough day at the Puerto Portals 52 Super Series, ending a day of shifty and unstable winds with finishes at the middle of the fleet. Sled got two wins today and is currently second overall behind the event’s leader, Ran. Quantum is in third place.

A passing weather front once again made conditions shifty and unstable and breezes today were from the southwest at 10 to 15 knots instead of from the southeast in the bay off Palma. Breezes continued to shift towards the west during the entire day. Azzurra finished seventh in both of the day’s races, but while her results were the same, the races were very different.

In the first race Azzurra was shut off by Alegre at the start and was forced into a penalty. This penalty became a second one when the umpires decided that she hadn’t done the penalty correctly. Her seventh place finish was the result of hard work and good sailing.

In the second race, Azzurra got a perfect start on the pin and was on the left, the side that was favorable. But Aeolus, god of the winds, decided to blow harder on the right side of the course. Azzurra did the best she could under pressure from several other teams: Platoon and Quantum covered her in the attempt of improving their overall standings in the circuit and Ran was working hard to defend her leading position at the Puerto Portals event.

On the bright side, as skipper Guillermo Parada said, the top teams are separated by just five points so anything can happen on the scoreboard. Racing will conclude in two days on Friday July 28th so the games are open at the Puerto Portals 52 Super Series Sailing Week.

Quotes of the day:
Guillermo Parada, skipper: 'If you really want to know the truth, just about everything went wrong today. We got two penalties at the start of the first race. If I can understand why we got the first one, I really can’t explain the second. In the second race we got a good start on the pin on the side that looked best, but then the right side was better. From there on things got complicated because our adversaries were covering us on purpose to hold us back and defend their positions overall. The only positive note is that we are all within five points of one another. All we have to do is win in the next couple of days and everything will be OK.”

Vasco Vascotto, tactician: “At the start of the first race we got a penalty that was unfortunately followed by another one because the umpires decided that we hadn’t done the first one correctly. We don’t think that’s right, but anyone can make mistakes on the water, including the umpires. We’ll just have to accept it. What I really don’t understand is why Alegre was so aggressive towards us. Even during the race she tacked twice right on us and still finished behind us. In the second race we got an excellent start on the pin, but the wind shifted to the right and we were covered by three of our closest competitors and just couldn’t get away.”

Tomorrow racing will begin at 1:00 PM in breezes that are predicted to be more stable than today’s.

Puerto Portals 52 Super Series Sailing Week after 5 races
1. Rán Racing (Niklas Zennström, SWE), (1,2,2,8,6) 19 p.
2. Sled (Takashi Okura, USA), (8,3,8,1,1) 21 p.
3. Quantum Racing (Doug DeVos, USA), (4,4,6,5,2) 21 p.
4. Platoon (Harm Müller-Spreer, GER), (5,9,3,2,3) 22 p.
5. Provezza (Ergin Imre, TUR) (6,1,7,3,5) 22 p.
6. Azzurra (Alberto e Pablo Roemmers, ITA/ARG), (3,6,1,7,7) 24 p.
7. Bronenosec (Vladimir Liubomirov, RUS), (7,5,5,4,4) 25 p.
8. Gladiator (Tony Langley, GBR) (9,7,4,6,9) 35 p.
9. Alegre (Andrés Soriano GBR/USA) (2,8,9,9,8) 36 p.

52 Super Series Provisional Standings
1. Platoon (GER, Harm Müller-Spreer), 169 pts.
2. Azzurra (Alberto and Pablo Roemmers, ITA/ARG), 170 pts.
3. Quantum Racing (Doug DeVos, USA), 173 pts
4. Provezza (Ergin Imre, TUR) 202.3 pts.
5. Rán Racing (Niklas Zennström, SWE), 205 pts.
6. Bronenosec (Vladimir Liubomirov, RUS), 225 pts.
7. Sled (Takashi Okura, USA), 247 pts.
8. Gladiator (Tony Langley, GBR) 254.6 pts.
9. Alegre (Andrés Soriano GBR/USA), 291.5 pts.