Royal Cup Marina Ibiza - Azzurra and Ran tied in second

by Azzurra Sailing Team on 18 Sep 2014 Azzurra is tied in second place, on equal points with Ran after three races on the opening day of the Zenith Royal Cup in Ibiza. Quantum is in the lead.

First day of racing on the waters off Ibiza, where a fleet of eight TP52s takes part in the final event of the Barclays 52 Super Series 2014. The day was marked by a light southwesterly breeze that topped 12 knots and three races were held, with the boat flying the colors of Yacht Club Costa Smeralda scoring a third, a fifth and a second.

The second race could have finished with a bullet, but it was the result of a penalty imposed by the on-the-water umpires a few minutes after an excellent start, in command of the fleet. Unlike other sports, umpire errors in sailing are always accepted without any controversy, but still remain unjust penalties.

This is what Guille Parada, skipper of Azzurra, had to say on the issue: 'I think we sailed better than what the results show. We had quite a decent first and third race and in the second one, after a very good start, we crossed six meters ahead of another boat. They protested us and the same umpire that since three years has been giving us penalties, did it again today. I think that we either don't understand the rules of these regattas or this umpire has a problem with us. In either case, the outcome isn't beneficial to us and for that reason we will have to discuss it in order to understand what went on. We will have to straighten up these issues, otherwise we can't go on racing like that.'

However, today Azzurra showed it had good starts, great determination and the ability to come back from behind. In particular, the second place, that came at the end of the day after the penalizing second race, confirmed that the team is able to react in the best way possible under difficult situations, especially when they bear a heavy psychological price.

Coach Rod Davis, commented on the day: 'It was a bit of a minefield and there were lanes that had wind and lanes that had bad wind. We got off to some nice starts but we had a tough day. I think we will probably have to make some changes in order to make the boat go a little bit faster. We need to sail a little bit better tomorrow, otherwise Quantum is going to get away from us and win this thing. We will have to start reeling them back tomorrow, for sure.'

Racing resumes tomorrow at 1pm CEST and conditions are forecast to be similar to today or even lighter. As always, races are streamed live with Virtual Eye and English commentary here while real-time updates directly from the race course are posted on Azzurra's Facebook page and Twitter account.

Standings: Zenith Royal Cup Marina Ibiza

Overall after three races

1 Quantum Racing, USA, (Doug De Vos USA) (1,2,3) 6pts
2 Azzurra, ITA, (Alberto Roemmers ARG) (3,5,2) 10pts
3 Rán Racing, SWE, (Niklas Zennström SWE) (2,4,4) 10pts
4 Sled, USA, (Takachi Okura JPN) (4,1,6) 11pts
5 Gaastra Pro, NED (Marc Blees NED) (6,6,1) 13pts
6 Provezza 7, TUR, (Ergin Imre TUR) (7,3,7) 17pts
7 Gladiator, GBR, (Tony Langley GBR) (5,7,8) 20pts
8 Phoenix, BRA, (Eduardo de Souza Ramos BRA) (8,8,5) 21pts