Azzurra is tied for the lead in the 52 Super Series in Key West

by Giuliano Luzzatto on 19 Jan 2017 Azzurra is tied with Platoon for the lead in the provisional results at two days from the end of the first event in the 2017 52 Super Series. Provezza is currently third.

The thirtieth edition of the Key West Sailing Week saw the 52 Super Series fleet compete in three races today, so there are three more races to go in the next two days. Winds from the southeast were slightly lighter today at 10 to 14 knots, but very shifty and difficult to read. The fleet changed positions constantly with some excellent recoveries and some surprising slips.

Azzurra finished two – six – four in today’s three races and her solid average score ties her for points with Platoon for the lead. Provezza is in third place just one point behind the leaders, followed by Ran, Interlodge and Quantum all separated by just a few points.

Azzurra, Provezza and Ran kept good averages with solid scores in today’s races, Interlodge placed first twice today and the French team aboard Paprec got their first win ever in the 52 Super Series.

In the first race Azzurra stayed close to Interlodge, the newly launched boat designed by Botin and Partners, with the Olympic champion and VOR winner skipper Ian Walker at the helm. By the end of the fifth race in this event, Azzurra was in the lead in the provisional results ahead of both Quantum and Platoon. Azzurra did a bit less well in the sixth race: after having briefly lead along the first upwind leg, she rounded the mark fourth, a position she held on to almost to the end when a small error cost her two places.

The Racing Committee decided to keep the boats on the water for a third race today because tomorrow’s forecast calls for lighter breezes. Azzurra placed fourth in this race thanks to a good start and wise tactics on the part of Vasco Vascotto, who managed to read the shifting breezes correctly. John Kostecki, the tactician aboard Platoon, had quite a time interpreting the breezes but fought back from the back of the fleet and catch up to Azzurra to share the lead in the in the provisional results.

Racing will begin tomorrow at 11am local time, 5:00pm CET time.

Quotes of the day:

Guillermo Parada, Skipper: 'It was a reasonably good day for the team, we got a good average, but it was a pity that we lost two or three positions at the end of the second race. But that’s life. We didn’t do a good gybe on the last run and that let Ran and Provezza pass. Maybe we could have finished third ahead of Bronenosec, but we dropped back to sixth. That’s the way it goes, situations like that can happen and have happened to any boat. The good news is that Azzurra is sailing well upwind, we’re feeling more confident and that’s allowing us to get out of some tough positions. The conditions changed a lot today, the wind dropped and was puffy and shifty so overall I think we did a good job staying in the top half of the fleet. I’d say it was a good day for us, there are still two more days and three more races, we’ll stay in the fight and see what happens.”

Vasco Vascotto, Tactician: “As you can see from the names of the boats that are winning races these days, the 52 Super Series this year is really different from past years. Everybody is sailing well; anybody can win. Take Gladiator and Paprec, for example, not to mention Platoon who’s keeping a really good average.

“We’re up in the top positions with them and are happy even though today we lost a couple of points that we could have won. In the future we have to be very careful and make sure it doesn’t happen again, because there’s no easy way to recover in a fleet that’s this competitive. The boat is sailing well, we’re got good speed upwind and we feel that we’re over last season’s problems were we got off to a slow start and had to work hard to recover.”

52 Super Series

2017 Quantum Key West Race Week standings after seven races

1. Platoon (Harm Müller-Spreer, GER), (1,1,6,6, 10,2,5) 31 p.
2. Azzurra (Alberto and Pablo Roemmers, ITA/ARG), (6,2,3,8,2,6,4) 31 p.
3. Provezza (Ergin Imre, TUR) (8,9,2,2,4,5,2) 32 p.
4. Rán Racing (Niklas Zennström, SWE), (4,6,9,4,3,4,6) 36 p.
5. Interlodge (Austin Fragomen, USA) (5,8,11,5,1,1,8) 39 p
6. Quantum Racing (Doug DeVos, USA), (3,7,4,1,8,7,9) 39 p.
7. Bronenosec (Vladimir Liubomirov, RUS), (7,4,5,3,7,3,11) 40 p.
8. Sled (Takashi Okura, USA), (2,5,8,11,6,11,3) 46 p.
9. Gladiator (Tony Langley, GBR) (10,10,1,9,5,9,7) 51 p.
10. Paprec Recyclage (Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, FRA) (9,11,10,7,11,8,1) 57 p.
11. Alegre (Andrés Soriano GBR/USA) (11,3,7,10,9,10,10) 60 p.