Copa del Rey Mapfre - Mixed bag in Palma for Azzurra

by Azzurra Sailing Team on 8 Aug 2014 Following a good second place in the day's first race at the Copa del Rey Mapfre, Azzurra couldn't find her pace in the second race and finished fifth. The winners of the day are Quantum and Ran, who sit on the two top positions of the scoretable, followed by Azzurra.

The typical Mallorcan southerly-southwesterly thermal breeze between eight and 11 knots, kicked in on time before the 1pm start, allowing for the smooth running of the two windward/leeward races, scheduled for the Barclays 52 Super Series.

In the first race, Azzurra sailed very well, attacking and overtaking Ran and setting themselves as the leaders of Quantum's pursuers, which were in the lead from start to finish.

The second race saw Ran stretch their lead after a perfect start on the pin end. Azzurra and Quantum found themselves in the middle of the fleet, starting with the classic game of bounces to escape from the coverage of their opponents. Azzurra stayed on the left, while the Americans opted for the right-hand side just to get out from their adversaries' coverage. This choice proved to be more effective while Azzurra was no longer able to get back into the race and crossed the finish line in fifth place.

Two more windward/leeward races are in schedule for both tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday. If the original scheduled is followed, which currently seems possible, a total of four races are left useful for recover key points in the championship.

The first warning signal is scheduled at 1:10pm, local time, and like always, racing will be streamed live with English commentary here.

Guillermo Parada, skipper: 'We aren't sailing at our potential and we are, obviously, paying the price for it. We now have to analyze and find out the errors we are making, because we aren't sailing well and we have improve in the two days left at the Copa del Rey.'

Bruno Zirilli, navigator: 'We are pleased with the first race, in particular because we are seeing the results of our work on upwind boat speed. In the second one, we didn't have a good start and we, consequently, suffered a lot from the presence of our adversaries with which we disturbed each other. In fact, we were packed in the group, we were often covered by the sails of other boats and we couldn't pick the side we wanted. This is the reason behind our fifth place, which certainly doesn't satisfy us. '

Standings Barclays 52 Super Series - Copa del Rey Mapfre

Overall after seven races
1 Quantum Racing, USA, (Doug De Vos USA) (2,1,2,2,6,1,2) 16 p.
2 Rán Racing, SWE, (Niklas Zennström SWE) (1,7,6,3,1,3,1) 22 p.?
3 Azzurra, ITA, (Alberto Roemmers ARG) (3,5,4,1,5,2,5) 25 p.?
4 Gladiator, GBR, (Tony Langley GBR) (DNF/8,2,1,5,3,4) 27 p.?
5 Phoenix, BRA, (Eduardo de Souza Ramos BRA) (6,3,3,6,2,5) 28 p.?
6 Paprec, FRA, (Jean Luc Petithugenin FRA) (4,6,5,4,4,7) 36 p.?
7 Provezza 7, TUR, (Ergin Imre TUR) (5,4,DNF/8,DNS/8,7,6) 45p.