Sardinia Cup - Coastal race victory for Azzurra

by Giuliano Luzzatto on 17 Jun 2012 In the 2012 Sardinia Cup, the coastal race saw Azzurra claim victory thanks to their perseverance and skill. Thanks to today's result, Audi Azzurra Sailing Team also takes the top spot of the overall TP52 leaderboard, ahead of Quantum and Gladiator.

Francesco Bruni, tactician: 'We are really happy; it was a very beautiful race, full of twists and turns. We rounded the offset mark in the lead, we then made some mistakes that took us to second place but they probably were smaller than those of the other teams. The attack on Quantum in a moment of wind transition was in fact necessary in order to reshuffle the cards: even if it was risky, we had to stop Quantum from having us behind them, if we hadn't done in that moment we would have made their life easier. We were trapped together in the wind hole, penultimate, but with a one-meter advantage over Quantum, just enough to stretch the lead. Near the finish line, everything played out in 20 seconds: we believed in it, we said to ourselves that we wanted to try and win the race, even if the breeze had died down. We took a risk by attacking PowerPlay under spinnaker, something that nearly took us head to wind, the boats were lined up with just a meter separating them and we could have risked taking a penalty. However, everything turned out fine and we won on the finish line. It was a good job and a great satisfaction.'

Simon Fry, trimmer: 'Guille won the start. Our philosophy in the first beat was to go to the right hand side, something that worked well. We then fought with Quantum down the first run. Both Quantum and ourselves fell into a transitional hole and we then managed to recover meter by meter. We got back to Gladiator; we managed to get to their right and led away from the straits. We never gave up, we fought until the end and we were lucky enough to pass PowerPlay, five or six lengths from the finish. You always have perseverance; sometime it comes good, sometimes not. The important thing is to never stop trying.'

Both statements took under consideration the fact that the French TP52 Paprec Recyclage, first to cross the finish line, would have been disqualified for not having left Spargiotto to starboard, having passed between the islet and Spargi.

The schedule for tomorrow calls for a windward-leeward race in light conditions.

52 Super Series, Audi Sardinia Cup:

1 Audi Azzurra Sailing Team (ITA) 3,2,2,4,1,1.5 13.5pts
2 Quantum Racing (USA) 1,1,3,1,4,4.5, 10pts
3 Gladiator (GBR) 2,3,1,2,6,3 17pts
4 Ran (SWE) 4,4,4,3,2, 7.5 24.5pts
5 PowerPlay (CAY) 6,6,6,5,5, 6 34pts
6 Paprec Recyclage (FRA) 5,5,5,6,3, DSQ 34.5 pts
Azzurra website