Copa del Rey - Commanding victory for Azzurra

by Giuliano Luzzatto on 3 Aug 2013 At the 32nd Copa del Rey, Azzurra scored an authoritative victory in the eighth race of the prestigious Majorcan regatta, which starting this season forms part of the 52 Super Series circuit. The YCCS boat consolidates its third place in the overall scoreboard with one day left.

Friday saw Azzurra clearly win the second race of the day. It was an excellent response to the sixth place in the first race, caused by a penalty imposed at the leeward gate, when the Italian boat was defending her fourth position, fending off the attacks of Paprec and Provezza.

The typical southerly thermal breeze blew today on the bay of Palma, reaching peaks of 17 knots with short and steep chop. These were ideal conditions for the TP52's that offered a spectacular show of close racing, covering tactics and beautiful planing downwind.

Quantum Racing maintain their overall lead but the victory, at the expense of Ran, in the first race was followed by a fifth place in the second race. With a 3, 2.5 in today’s two races, the Swedish team consolidated their second position overall and are followed by Azzurra in third.

Alberto Roemmers, helmsman / owner: 'In the first race our start was more or less good, we had a couple of boats to our leeward and that stopped us a bit. We were sailing high for too long and that complicated a bit the crossing. Then, in the first run we gybed at the wrong place and that cost us quite a bit. After rounding the gate, the umpires signaled a penalty on us, apparently for an overlap issue, and from that point on we did the best we could.

In the second race, we hit the starting line approximately in the middle and immediately led. We were able to hold on to our lead throughout the race and if you are ahead, things always look better and seem simpler. We sailed that race with only one tack and only one gybe. We are very happy because, finally, we scored a bullet. We were all wishing it, we all knew we could it and I think a fresher breeze helps our boat's performance.'

Guillermo Parada, skipper: 'Today was a very important day for us because in some way we had to put the brake on a series of mishaps that were either due to our own errors or to other issues that take place in a regatta. The first race was a difficult one while in the second one we put some order after a complicated week. We hope it also marked an inflection point, a change that will make things go our way. '

Vasco Vascotto, tactician: 'We shouldn't distract ourselves with the excellent win in the final race, overall we are not sailing at a level appropriate to us. We make mistakes that do not belong to our way of racing, we are certainly not the only ones to make mistakes, but results are obtained by improving ourselves and not by justifying ourselves in comparison to others. We thus have to analyze the causes and find solutions'

52 Super Series - Copa del Rey after nine races

1 Quantum Racing, USA, (Doug DeVos) (3,2,2,1,1,1,1,1,5) 17pts
2 Rán Racing, SWE, (Niklas Zennström) (1,1,1,6,3,2,3,2.5,3) 22.5pts
3 Azzurra, ITA, (Alberto Roemmers) (2,4,3,7,2,7,2,5,1) 33pts
4 Rio, USA, (Manouch Moshayedi) (6,3,5,3,6,3,7,4,2) 39pts
5 Provezza, TUR, (Ergin Imre) (4,7.5,4,4,5,4,4,7,6) 45.5pts
6 Interlodge, USA, (Austin Fragomen) (5,7.5,6.5,5,4,6,5,2.5,7) 48.5pts
7 Gladiator, GBR, (Tony Langley) (7,5,8,2,9,5,8,6,4) 54pts
8 Paprec, FRA, (Jean Luc Petithugenin) (9,6,6.5,8,8,8,6,8,8) 67.5pts
9 Aquila, AUT, (Aquila Sailing Team) (8,9,9,9,7,9,9,9,9) Azzurra website