Rolex TP52 World Championship - Azzurra attacks the leaders

by Azzurra on 20 May Over today’s two races in the Rolex TP52 World Championship, Azzurra closed with the best totals, but the leaders are still in position with Platoon on top, followed by Quantum and Alegre. Tomorrow is the last day of racing.

Today’s races, the fourth day of the Rolex TP52 World Championship, were run in a 10 to 12 knot breeze, in rotation from south to southwest, with scattered holes.

Azzurra had good starts in both races but was unable to capitalize on them, finishing both races in fourth place, for a total of eight points. Alegre, with a sixth and a second, also scored 8 points. In the first race Azzurra had a perfect pin-end start and went left along with Quantum. But about halfway up the beat, the pressure increased on the right where Sled, Ran and Alegre were favored. Azzurra was the best of the following pack and was the first to escape from the left hand corner. During the rest of the race she handily defended her position against Provezza’s attacks, while Platoon and Quantum finished sixth and seventh respectively.

The second race saw Azzurra start in the middle of the line, to windward of Quantum, and take an early lead. This time the left was favored and Gladiator, with a pin-end start, won the race, followed by Quantum. Azzurra was nicely in sync with the shifts and worked up to third, but on the second beat Quantum drove her over the left lay-line, letting Platoon in from the right and around the windward mark in third. This was the situation for the last downwind leg, despite a dangerous attack by Azzurra and a sprint with Platoon to the finish, closely followed by Provezza.

Guillermo Parada, skipper: “I think today was an important day because we needed to stop losing points to our main competitors. Somehow we managed to do it, and that was the first objective. The second objective was to confirm that our speed was still ok, and it is. We got two average results on a very complicated day, so I think we had a positive day. Now we have our last day tomorrow; we will sail again as hard as we possibly can. We will have to improve a few little details and hopefully we will be very close to the top at the end of the regatta.”

Vasco Vascotto, tactician: “Even though our results from today were better than Platoon’s and Quantum’s, we aren’t happy as we lost a few points that we shouldn’t have. A couple little mistakes and a right hand shift in the first race cost us more than they should have. And when we have boats using “Q” sails ahead of us it’s rather difficult for Azzurra to go it against them alone. Regarding the season so far and what’s to come, I’m optimistic because we are constantly improving and no longer shedding points to our adversaries.”

Tomorrow’s racing will start at 1pm, with a 20 knot northerly forecast. Live streaming with commentary in English thanks to the regatta organization will be broadcast on www.52superseries.com and www.azzurra.it, with updates posted on Azzurra’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Rolex TP52 World Championship – Day 4 after seven races:

1. Platoon (GER, Harm Müller-Spreer), (2,3,2,2,2,6,3) 20 points.
2. Quantum Racing (Doug DeVos, USA), (1,2,8,1,1,7,2) 22 p.
3. Alegre (Andrés Soriano GBR/USA), (5,6,4,4,3,2,6) 30 p.
4. Azzurra (Alberto and Pablo Roemmers, ITA/ARG), (3,1,6,8,6,4,4) 32 p.
5. Gladiator (Tony Langley, GBR) (6,10,1,3,8,10,1) 39 p.
6. Provezza (Ergin Imre, TUR) (RDG6.3,8,10,6,4,5,5) 44.3 p.
7. Sled (Takashi Okura, USA), (4,9,7,9,7,1,8) 45 p.
8. Rán Racing (Niklas Zennström, SWE), (10,5,5,7,9,3,7) 46 p.
9. Sorcha (Peter Harrison, GBR), (7,4,3,10,10,8,10) 52 p.
10. Bronenosec (Vladimir Liubomirov, RUS), (8,7,9,5,5,9,9) 52 p.