52 Super Series - Azzurra earns back-to-back wins on last day

by Azzurra Sailing Team on 24 May 2015 Azzurra, the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda’s sporting symbol, finished off the first event in the 52 Super Series with a fabulous double win. The second event on the calendar is the Settimana delle Bocche that will be held from June 9th to 13th in Porto Cervo, Sardinia.

Azzurra was the star of today’s races in the waters off Valencia, with two first place finishes that leave her just one point behind the third-placed boat and put her in very close competition with the other top-placed boats. In the 52 Super Series it’s the sum of the season’s points that decrees the overall winner so winning single events is not as important as consistently good scores in the over fifty races scheduled during the course of the Series.

The first race was run in thermal breezes at about eight to ten knots and Azzurra dominated right from her perfect start on the pin. Throughout the race she continued to lengthen her distance from Quantum, placed second, and Sled, placed third. The second race of the day and the last one in the Ford Vignale Valencia Sailing Week, was in breezes up to 15 knots.

Azzurra dominated even though the second win was harder fought than the first. Azzurra’s sistership Bronenosec, flying the St. Petersburg Yacht Club burgee but with a team that counts several Italians, was in the lead for more than half of the race. Tactician Vasco Vascotto’s calls during the second leg let Azzurra arrive first at the mark, and she held on to her lead on the downwind leg. Third place in this race went to Alegre who is second overall behind the event’s overall winner: Ran Racing.

The next appointment in the 52 Super Series is in two weeks in Porto Cervo, at the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, where the TP52s will compete both windward/leeward races and in spectacular coastal races through the Maddalena Archipelago and along the Costa Smeralda. The first race in this famous event, known as the Settimana delle Bocche, will be on June 9th. The 52 Super Series’ current leader, Ran Racing, will be unfortunately absent from the Bocche but will be back at the 52 World Championship at Puerto Portals, Mallorca in July.

Quotes of the day

Skipper Guillermo Parada: “Finally we were able to get our game together and had a good solid day which is something we were looking for very much. I think that we deserved a day like this as a team and obviously the christening helped us and played in our favor. The only regret is that we didn’t have the christening before.”

Tactician Vasco Vascotto: “Today went really well, too bad we threw away some points in the first few days but today’s double win shows everybody, including us, that we can repeat our performance at Palmavela, and that winning that event wasn’t a fluke. It was important for us to finish this first event in the Series with a decent overall score, not too far behind the leader and we’re happy and still have room to improve. We want to be on the top of our game in Porto Cervo.”

Results: Ford Vignale Valencia Sailing Week
Overall after 11 races

1 Rán Racing, SWE (Niklas Zennström SWE) (2,1,2,2,10,5,7,4,1,6,5) 45pts
2 Alegre, GBR (Andre Soriano USA) (1,3,1,5,2,9,2,8,9,5,3) 48pts
3 Sled, USA (Takashi Okura JPN) (7,11,3,3,3,1,11,1,3,3,7) 53pts
4 Azzurra, ITA (Pablo/Alberto Roemmers ARG) (6,5,5,9,1,8,5,5,8,1,1) 54pts
5 Bronenosec, RUS (Vladimir Liubomirov RUS) (8,6,6,1,9,6,1,6,5,4,2) 54pts
6 Quantum Racing, USA (Dalton DeVos USA) (4,7,8,6,6,11,3,3,10,2,8) 68pts
7 Platoon, GER (Harm Müller-Spreer GER) (3,8,11,4,7,2,12,7,7,10,4) 75pts
8 Provezza, TUR (Ergin Imre TUR) (5,2,7,8,8,7,6,12,2,7,12) 76pts
9 Interlodge, USA (Austin/Gwen Fragoman USA)(10,4,4,10,11,12,4,2,4,12,6) 79pts
10 Paprec FRA (Jean-Luc Petithuguenin FRA) (9,10,12,12,4,3,9,11,12,9,10) 101pts
11 Gladiator, GBR (Tony Langley GBR) (11,9,9,7,12,4,10,10,11,8,11) 102pts
12 Xio, ITA (Guiseppe Parodi ITA) (12,12,10,11,5,10,8,9,6,11,9) 103pts

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2015 Calendar 52 Super Series
18 to 23 May: Valencia (Spain)
8 to 13 June: Porto Cervo (Italy, Sardinia)
13 to 18 July: Puerto Portals (Spain, Mallorca)
3 to 8 August: Palma de Mallorca (Spain)
15 to 20 September: Cascais (Portugal)