MedCup Region of Murcia Trophy - Azzurra denied victory

by Giuliano Luzzatto on 28 Aug 2011 In the MedCup Region of Murcia Trophy, Audi Azzurra Sailing Team was denied victory due to a breakage only a few metres from the finish but, the crew fought hard and still managed to claim a heroic fourth place.

Today's coastal race of approximately thirty miles was thrilling but unfortunately left a bitter aftertaste for Audi Azzurra Sailing Team. Just a few hundred metres from the finish line, with Azzurra in the lead ahead of Quantum and preparing for their third consecutive victory after yesterday's two bullets, the mainsail halyard broke.

Following an excellent start Azzurra rounded the first mark in second place, however a mistake while raising the spinnaker relegated her to last place. Excellent work from the afterguard brought the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda's boat back up the fleet one place at a time until she gained a clear lead. Five minutes from the finish line set up in the port of Cartagena, the loop that supports the load of the mainsail broke. Bowman 'Mamu' Caputo immediately went up the mast to fix the problem allowing the mainsail to be raised again and the team finished fourth.

Azzurra will be heavily penalized by this result given that the coastal race is worth 1.5 times the points awarded; six points instead of 1.5 therefore provide a heavier blow compared to a similar incident during one of the windward-leeward races. In any case Azzurra moves up to second place in the Audi MedCup circuit, 7.5 points behind a resuscitated Quantum and having passed Container, who came sixth today.

'Breakages like this can always happen,' confirmed skipper Guillermo Parada, 'this time it happened to us even though we had changed those parts two days ago. In Cagliari our adversaries Quantum suffered a breakage that caused them to retire, now we are even and we are looking ahead, tomorrow is another day.'

Tactician Francesco Bruni was also looking ahead: 'Tomorrow we will fight to the end and we don't intend to let this kind of bad luck, which can happen to anyone, get us down. Sure, after thirty miles it was terrible to risk retiring a few hundred metres from the finish line, the race was really already won at that point, but we are showing our worth.'

'This unfortunate result is even more emotional than the well-deserved victory would have been;' underlined YCCS Commodore Riccardo Bonadeo, 'everyone can see the value of this great team and people show their worth in difficult moments like today. My compliments go to the crew!'

Region of Murcia Trophy Classification:

1- Bribon p. 18
2- Audi Azzurra Sailing Team p. 23
3- Quantum Racing p. 29,5
4- Container p. 32
5- Audi by All4One p. 33,5
6- Synergy Russian Sailing Team p. 35,5
7- Ran p. 38,5

Audi MedCup Circuit Classification:

1- Quantum Racing p. 120,5
2- Audi Azzurra Sailing Team p. 128
3- Container p. 120

a further five participants follow.

Audi Azzurra Sailing Team website
MedCup website