Royal Cup Marina Ibiza - Racing cancelled on penultimate day

by Azzurra Sailing Team on 21 Sep 2014 Today's racing at the Royal Cup Marina Ibiza was canceled due to the absence of breeze. Tomorrow, the closing day of the 2014 Barclays 52 Super Series starts at 12pm CEST, with the first race counting towards Bart's Bash, which will take place simultaneously all over the world in memory of the British Olympic champion Andrew 'Bart' Simpson. The 2015 calendar has already been announced.

Conditions were even lighter than yesterday's light-wind forecast, making it impossible to start any race. Despite the absence of racing, Azzurra was still out on the water in order to refine the setup under light breeze, equally forecast for tomorrow. These were the positive comments by tactician Vasco Vascotto: 'Today we still went out and we were lucky enough to have a little bit of breeze, up to nine knots. We gathered additional information to improve our setup. We are satisfied and tomorrow we'll see whether these refinements will give us further advantage.'

Tomorrow, the Race Committee has decided to bring forward the preparatory signal by one hour, which will thus be given at 12pm CEST, weather allowing. The first race will be one of the more than 700 races, held simultaneously all over the world for Bart's Bash, in memory of the famous sailor who died in the tragic accident while training on an America's Cup catamaran. Bart's Bash is an attempt to break the record of the biggest race in the world ever held and will be verified by the Guinness Book of World Records. The donations in favor of the Andrew Simpson Foundation will be used towards the development of charitable programs through the sport of sailing.

With the final day of the Zenith Royal Cup Marina Ibiza, the 2014 edition of the Barclays 52 Super Series comes to conclusion. The 2015 calendar has been already announced and five regattas in Europe are on schedule as well as a massive participation of new boats. Nine of them, including Azzurra, are under construction and no less than 12 to 15 boats are expected to take part.

Guillermo Parada, skipper of Azzurra, is very positive on the 2015 edition of the 52 Super Series: 'We have very beautiful venues, great race courses and a range of different sailing conditions, what more could a sailor ask for? We are really excited about the nine new TP52s, one of which is the Azzurra we are building in Valencia. All this confirms that the work done to maintain and grow the class and the circuit has been successful. A mere two years ago, a scenario like this for 2015 was unthinkable, now it is a reality, and this encourages us to always do better, working hard for the future of our team.'

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)