52 Super Series Royal Cup - Azzurra in third after day 2

by Azzurra Sailing Team on 4 Jul 2013 On day two of the 52 Super Series Royal Cup, Azzurra is now in third place behind Gladiator and Quantum. The weather forecast called for very light winds and it was exactly right. The fleet was called on to dock out an hour earlier than usual in the hopes that winds would pick up between noon and 2 PM, but breezes stayed very light.

Maria Torrijo, Principal Race Officer, attempted a first start at 2:30, but all attempts to get a decent start were scrapped until 3:30PM. Breezes that had been blowing at six to seven knots died down to 3.5 or four and the course had to be shorted with an arrival line at the end of the second upwind mark. Azzurra started well on the pin but air this light is not ideal for the newer boats like her. Azzurra began to fall behind, rounding the first mark fifth and almost contemporaneously with Quantum.

Gladiator, as always unbeatable in light air, held on to the lead, followed by Provezza, a Turkish team with British Olympian Nick Rogers at the helm. Ran was third. Azzurra gybed before Quantum and Ran, who continued on their course. It was an unlucky choice. Rio caught a winning breath of breeze on the run and began to recover positions up to an unexpected second place. On her second upwind tack Azzurra too managed to recover a few positions sailing in imperceptible air on the left side of the regatta field. She arrived at the finish upwind, again in tandem with Quantum. Her port tack didn’t allow her to edge out the Americans however.

At the end of a very tense day Azzurra is in third place just two points from Quantum, her most direct competitor in the 52 Super Series. The costal race planned for tomorrow has been moved to Friday. Tomorrow the organisers will try to recover part of the races with windward/leeward courses starting at noon.

Paul 'Flipper' Westlake, mainsail trimmer: 'Today was a tough day because we should have started at midday but there wasn’t enough air until hours later. We did some testing with Ran and Quantum with a different light air set up and we felt like we were going well. When the wind speed gets down to four knots - and I think the max was seven today- it’s a tough race course and tough competitors. Gladiator showed that they are the boat that has the legs in these conditions but all in all it was really close. I think it’s always going to be really close between us Quantum and Ran. The three of us ended up right next to each other at the finish, so we’ll go and do some more tomorrow.'

Royal Cup Marina Ibiza, Standings after day two:

1 Gladiator, GBR, Tony Langley 7pts (2,4,1)
2 Quantum Racing, USA, Ed Baird 10 pts (1,5,4)
3 Azzurra, ITA, Alberto Roemmers, 12pts (5,2,5)
4 Rán Racing, SWE, Niklas Zennström 12pts (3,3,6)
5 Interlodge, USA, Austin and Gwen Fragomen, 13 pts (4,1,8)
6 Provezza, TUR, Ergin Imre, 17pts, (6,8,3)
7 Rio, USA Manouch Moshayedi, 17pts, (8,7,2)
8 Paprec, FRA, Jean-Luc Petithuguenin 20pts, Azzurra 52 Super Series website