52 Super Series - Audi Sailing Week - Azzurra fights but doesn't win

by Azzurra on 24 Jun 2017 Azzurra is having a bad time of it in her home waters and hasn’t been able to get results at the Audi Sailing Week -52 Super Series. Today’s two races were won by Quantum and Gladiator.

It was a beautiful, clear day with northwesterly winds at 18 knots that died down to 15 in the afternoon and the two windward/leeward races were scheduled for today got underway punctually at 12:00 noon. With a win in the first race today, Quantum is leading the provisional scoreboard followed by Ràn who is tied for points with Gladiator, winner of today’s second race.

With wind conditions like today’s usually the left side of the course off Porto Cervo is best, but today the run in between weak northwesterly Mistral and thermal breezes caused some unexpected wind shifts on the right side of the course.

In the first race Azzurra decided to start on the pin, but was too early to the start and had to double back behind the fleet. At the end of the first upwind leg, she was sailing on the right and was closing in to the point where she could attack on the downwind leg. She overtook Paprec and Bronenosec at the gate, but the French team protested and the Umpires granted their protest. Azzurra had to do a penalty turn and started again from the back of the fleet. After two hard fought legs she had recovered a position on Paprec and ended neck to neck with Bronenosec. But the Russian team was ninth and Azzurra tenth.

In the second race Azzurra got an excellent start on the left side of the course. Even though she was squeezed between Platoon, Sorcha and Ràn and had Quantum upwind, she managed to pull ahead and leave her competitors in her dirty air. But the wind unexpectedly shifted 15 degrees to the right and favoured the boats that by choice or by necessity were on that side of the course. Gladiator was there and moved ahead while Azzurra defended her position as best she could and finished fifth.

“We made too many mistakes and in the 52 Super Series you just can’t do that, today is proof.” These are the words that Azzurra’s navigator, Bruno Zirilli used to sum up the day. Skipper Giullermo Parada agreed: “There’s a bad day in every season and ours was today. I guess we can be happy now that it’s over for 2017. We absolutely have to start sailing again the way we should and recover positions.”

Tomorrow, June 24rd, a coastal race is scheduled to start at 12 noon. Winds are predicted to be from the northwest at 16 to 20 knots.

Fans can follow live tracking with commentary in English via Virtual Eye thanks to the 52 Super Series. Updates live from the regatta course will be posted on Azzurra’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Porto Cervo 52 Super Series Audi Sailing Week after five races

1. Quantum Racing (Doug DeVos, USA) (RET12,1,3,1,4) 21 points
2. Rán Racing (Niklas and Catherine Zennström, SWE) (3,7,1,2,10) 23 p.
3. Gladiator (Tony Langley, GBR) (8,3,6,5,1) 23 p.
4. Bronenosec (Vladimir Liubomirov, RUS) (6,6,2,9,2) 25 p.
5. Provezza (Ergin Imre, TUR) (4,4,7,4,6) 25 p.
6. Sled (Takashi Okura, USA) (1,4,9,6,7) 28 p.
7. Platoon (Harm Müller-Spreer, GER) (7,11,4,3,3) 28 p.
8. Azzurra (Alberto and Pablo Roemmers, ITA/ARG) (5,8,5,10,5) 33 p.
9. Alegre (Andrés Soriano GBR/USA), (2,RDG7.5,8,8, DNF12) 37.5.
10. Paprec Recyclage (Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, FRA) (10,2,11,11,9) 43 p.
11. Sorcha (Peter Harrison, GBR) (9,10,10,7,8) 44 p.