Azzurra closes the 52 Super Series winning even the final race

by Azzurra on 21 Sep 2015 Azzurra, the boat flying the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda’s burgee, had already won the 52 Super Series after racing yesterday. Today she closed a winning season with first place in the final race of the Cascais Cup, the final event of the Series and the season. Quantum wins the Cascais Cup and Azzurra is second, followed by Vesper.

At the end of today’s racing Azzurra sailed back into port at Cascais and was greeted by a round of applause from her competitors standing on their TP52s lined up along the pier. This salute says much about the spirit and sportsmanship that is behind the 52 Super Series: the competition is fierce and the technology is cutting edge out on the water, but back in port there is real camaraderie amongst sea salts.

Today Azzurra started racing knowing that she had already won the 52 Super Series but wanting to end the season on a high note after having raced a bit worse than usual the day before. She was six points behind Quantum to win the Cascais Cup, not an easy score to make up in such a competitive fleet. During the first race Azzurra had a problem with a winch and didn’t manage to do any better than fifth while Quantum recovered positions to finish second.

In the second race, with winds at 17 knots, Azzurra's team sailed magnificently. While most of the fleet was crowded around the Committee Boat vying to get the right at the start, Azzurra’s tactician Vasco Vascotto called the pin and skipper Parada got it at top speed right on the whistle. Azzurra captured the lead and crossed the rest of the fleet on starboard tack. Her lead only got longer during the race while Quantum finished the third and won the Cascais Cup.

To wrap up Azzurra’s exceptional season here are a few numbers: TP52 Azzurra, the sporting symbol of the YCCS, has won 12 races out of a total of 46 run over the course of the season. The 52 Super Series scoring is based on the sum of the points earned over the season in each race and Azzurra’s average score was 3.8. Azzurra won two events: the Settimana delle Bocche in her Costa Smeralda home waters and the World Championship at Puerto Portals. Azzurra also won the test event at PalmaVela. Her overall Series victory was won by 27 points over the second placed contender, the widest margin ever in this event. Azzurra has full intentions of coming back next year to defend her newly-won 52 Super Series title.

Pablo Roemmers, owner - “The best way to finish is in first place and to enjoy the feeling until next year when we start racing again. Same group, same boat, same name, possibly some new sails!”

Roberto Kercoc, Vice President of the Board of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda - “It was a fantastic day and a fantastic year with our Grand Slam. Azzurra won in Porto Cervo and that was nice for our fans. On top of that the World Championship and now the Super Series. Better than this is impossible. This is an important result for the members of the YCCS because we created this brand in 1983 with a big success. After that we were afraid to put the Azzurra name on another boat because we risked ruining the brand image. In reality with this group of guys we did such a good job and got such excellent results that it’s all to the Azzurra benefit. We’ll have a bit of a celebration at the YCCS. You know we have 600 members following the Azzurra Team updates, it’s a big network and the Roemmers are an incredible family.”

Guillermo Parada, skipper - “It’s a great thing to finish the season with a race win, it gives even more value to our overall season win. I think our target was reached: we won our local race Porto Cervo, we won the World Championship, Palmavela. Second here in Cascais winning the last race and the season with a day to spare is like a dream come true. We are really happy and proud to represent the Azzurra name we are grateful for this great responsibility. We are grateful to the Roemmers family and especially to Alberto senior who created this group years ago and changed the history of sailing in Argentina.”

Vasco Vascotto, tactician - “Victory overall in the 52 Super Series was our goal right from the start and we reached it. The World Championship we won in July wasn’t a fluke, we are consistent. That’s the truth and we had a great season. Winning the final race today was the cherry on top of our season, we wanted that win and we got it. A perfect ending. If we were a bit too relaxed after having the certainty of having won the season with this final race we closed the season sailing our best.”

Grant Lorenz, trimmer - “We had a tough first race with a mechanical problem that cost us a couple of places, but we had a better second one and the goal was to do our best. We got a nice start and we crossed the pack and shot all the way to the finish. It was a great way to finish the season and I think we can go away happy. Too bad we didn’t win the Cascais Cup too but we have achieved our goals, the Worlds, the Series, we finished with a win and that makes us feel good and happy. Now I’m back to New Zealand for five or six months and will enjoy some biking and surfing'.

52 Super Series - Cascais Cup

1 Quantum Racing, USA (Doug DeVos USA) (3,3,1,1,4,6,1,3,2,3) 27pts
2 Azzurra, ITA (Pablo/Alberto Roemmers ARG) (5,2,2,2,1,1,5,10,6,1) 35pts
3 Vesper USA (Jim Swartz USA) (1,6,4,3,10,8,6,2,1,5) 46pts
4 Provezza, TUR (Ergin Imre TUR) (9,4,3,9,2,4,4,1,8,6) 50pts
5 Platoon, GER (Harm Müller-Spreer GER) (4,5,7,6,3,3,7,5,9,9) 58pts
6 Alegre, GBR (Andres Soriano USA) (12,10,11,4,5,2,3,8,10,2) 67pts
7 Sled, USA (Takashi Okura JPN) (7,8,9,5,11,7,9,6,5,4) 71pts
8 Bronenosec, RUS (Vladimir Liubomirov RUS) (6,9,6,10,7,9,8,7,4,8) 74pts
9 Spookie, USA (Steve Benjamin USA) (2,1,8,8,13,13,12,4,11,7) 80pts
10 Gladiator, GBR (Tony Langley GBR) (8,7,12,12,9,5,2,12,12,11) 90pts
11 Paprec FRA (Jean-Luc Petithuguenin FRA) (10,11,10,7,6,10,11,9,7,10) 91pts
12 Xio/Hurakan, ITA (Marco Serafini ITA) (11,12,5,11,8,11,10,11,3,12) 94pts

52 Super Series Season Rankings

1 Azzurra 175 pts
2 Quantum Racing 202 pts
3 Sled 259 pts
4 Platoon 262 pts
5 Bronenosec 263 pts
6 Alegre 266 pts
7 Provezza 269 pts
8 Gladiator 386 pts
9 Paprec 396 pts
10 Ran Racing 397 pts
11 Xio 422 pts
12 Spookie 482 pts
13 Vesper 485 pts
14 Interlodge 505 pts
15 Phoenix 510 pts