Azzurra wins the second day of the Audi Settimana delle Bocche

by Azzurra on 29 Jun 2016 Azzurra won the only race held today in very light breezes and is currently tied for points with Quantum for the top position.

The second day of racing at the Audi Settimana delle Bocche, the classic regatta hosted by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda that is also the second event in the 52 Super Series, has seen a big shakeup in positions.

The day’s very light breezes forced the Racing Committee to substitute the scheduled coastal race with a windward/leeward race that began at 2:00 PM in light and unstable breezes that tended to shift towards the right.

Azzurra got a good start on the Committee Boat and took the lead, rounding the first mark in fifth place in the midst of a pack of boats. From there she recovered positions to the downwind gate, tacking in front of Xio Huracan at the approach to the final upwind mark. Along the final downwind leg Azzurra controlled her closest followers, Xio Huracan and Quantum, who finished second and third respectively. After waiting for better breezes, the Racing Committee called the fleet back to port after the first race.

So the temporary classification has been turned around: with 13 points each Azzurra and Quantum are now tied for first place even though Quantum counts as ahead because of her third place finish yesterday. Platoon and Provezza are third and fourth, the latter boat having slipped back from first place due to an eleventh place finish today.

Quotes of the day:

Guillermo Parada, skipper: “We got our first race win of the official season so we are obviously satisfied with that but we are most happy because we recovered our boat and we recovered our confidence. We have been struggling with the set up on the boat and have been working very hard and making a lot of changes Yesterday after racing we went out sailing again at 7:00 PM and got back in at 9:00 PM and I think it paid off. Today we are back sailing in our normal style so we did our normal job and got the first win. We’re happy, but there’s still a long way to go. It’s like the beginning of a new season for us today and hopefully we can turn things around quickly”

Vasco Vascotto tactician: “We are finally seeing the results of all the hard work we have been doing to fine tune the boat. We are feeling more confident about boat speed: even though we still have a lot of work to do, we’re on the right track. We finally have the confidence again to race head to head with the other boats without having to pay for it. Today the boat was running as she should and we sailed like we know we should.”

52 Super Series - Audi Settimana delle Bocche
Standings after Day two

1 Quantum Racing, USA (Doug DeVos USA) (9,1,3) 13pts
2 Azzurra, ITA (Pablo/Alberto Roemmers ARG) (8,4,1) 13pts
3 Platoon, GER (Harm Müller-Spreer GER) (7,2,7) 16pts
4 Provezza, TUR (Ergin Imre TUR) (3,3,11) 17pts
5 Gladiator, GBR (Tony Langley GBR) (5,8,4) 17pts
6 Rán Racing, SWE (Niklas Zennström SWE) (2,6,10) 18pts
7 Bronenosec, RUS (Vladimir Liubomirov RUS) (1,11,8) 20pts
8 Xio/Hurakan, ITA (Marco Serafini ITA) (6 DNS/13,2) 21pts
9 Alegre, GBR (Andres Soriano USA) (10,5,9) 24pts
10 Sled, USA (Takashi Okura JPN) (11,7,6) 24pts
11 Sorcha GBR (Peter Harrison GBR) (4,9,12) 25pts
12 Paprec FRA (Jean-Luc Petithuguenin FRA) (12,10,5) 27pts