52 Super Series Royal Cup - Azzurra third overall in Ibiza

by Giuliano Luzzatto on 7 Jul 2013 In the 52 Super Series, Azzurra showed her stuff today and concluded the Royal Cup in Ibiza with a splendid win in the final regatta. Quantum, Gladiator and Azzurra will take the top three places on the podium respectively.

The final day of the Royal Cup in Ibiza, second Mediterranean event in the 52 Super Series, was sunny with light easterly winds at 7-8 knots. For Azzurra, a boat optimized for slightly stronger winds than we have seen at this event, it has been a difficult week of struggling to keep her historic rival, Quantum Racing- in fine form this past week- close to her ranking in the overall results. Rankings in the 52 Super Series are calculated on the basis of the total of points won in each and every race that are part of the circuit’s events. After the disappointing results of yesterday’s coastal race, where Azzurra’s fifth place finish was due to bad luck rather than to technical errors, recovery was essential.

The first race saw most boats vying for a start off the Committee boat, but the right hand rotation didn’t last long enough to get an advantage from it. Azzurra soon found herself in difficulty at the back of the fleet but she worked her way back up through the positions with excellent tactics and with a textbook maneuver at the second upwind mark. Quantum finished first followed by Gladiator while Azzurra recovered positions up to fifth maintaining her overall point count at a good level.

Azzurra was more aggressive in the second race that she won with a splendid victory even though the wind was shifty. She remounted steadily from fourth at the first upwind mark, second at the downwind gate, first at the end of the second beat and first with a handy advantage at the finish line. Quantum placed second with an imperceptible advantage on Provezza, Gladiator placed fourth.

Overall results see Quantum winner of the Royal Cup and Gladiator in second place with just one point’s advantage overall on Azzurra. The next event in the 52 Super Series will be the Copa del Rey held at Palma de Mallorca from July 29th to August 3rd.

Riccardo Bonadeo, Commodore of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, watched the races aboard the motoryacht that belongs to the Roemmers, Azzurra’s owners: 'We really appreciated the capacity that this team has for bouncing back from difficult moments. Sport is made up of wins and losses and one has to know how to bounce back from a disappointment and show one’s stuff. We well respect our opponents and the especially the winner, but we are here to fight for victory in the 52 Super Series, a championship whose high levels of sportsmanship and technology make it a standout and on which we have put our hopes for the future.'

Guillermo Parada, Skipper: 'We had a great victory in the last race, we were focused on what we had to do. We obviously didn’t have the best week here in Ibiza while Quantum had an almost perfect week. But there are still two events to go and the game is wide open for the season. We’ll take a couple of days to relax, analyze the regattas and come up with a plan and we’ll be even stronger for Palma.'

Vasco Vascotto, Tactician: 'Our victory in the second race comes from a re-found aggressively because for the first time Quantum was ahead of us overall in the championship. We had to prove our mettle and we did. This past week Terry (Hutchinson) has out smarted me, but the team did an excellent job and we’ll just keep the best moments from this past day in mind and stay positive for the upcoming events.'

Royal Cup, Marina Ibiza, Final standings after nine races:

1 Quantum Racing, USA, Doug DeVos 21 pts (1,5,4,1,4,1,2,1,2)
2 Gladiator, GBR, Tony Langley 28pts (2,4,1,3,5,6,1,2,4)
3 Azzurra, ITA, Alberto Roemmers, 29pts (5,2,5,2,1,3,5,5,1)
4 Rán Racing, SWE, Niklas Zennström 43pts (3,3,6,4,2,4,6,8,7)
5 Provezza, TUR, Ergin Imre, 47pts, (6,8,3,5,6,2,8,6,3)
6 Interlodge, USA, Austin and Gwen Fragomen, 51 pts (4,1,8,7,8,7,3,7,6)
7 Rio, USA Manouch Moshayedi, 52pts, (8,7,2,8,3,8,7,4,5)
8 Paprec, FRA, Jean-Luc Petithuguenin 53pts, Azzurra website