Azzurra wins the Miami Royal Cup, second event in the 52 Super Series

by Azzurra on 12 Mar 2017 Azzurra has won the Miami Royal Cup, the second event in the 2017 52 Super Series, and is currently at the lead of the Series too. The next event will be in May, in Scarlino, Tuscany: the Rolex TP52 World Championship where results will also count for points in the Super Series.

The boat flying the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda's burgee left port this morning at the lead of this event, but she only had the certainty of winning it at the end of the day's first race. She lead the fleet until halfway through the first downwind leg and finished third. At that point, even if for some reason she finished the second race in last place, she still had mathematical certainty of having won the event.

The day's second race got underway in breezes from the north east at 13 knots, a bit stronger than they have been for the duration of the event. Azzurra got a good start and was controlling the fleet but dropped back a bit along the downwind legs. She finished fourth. While her day's placements fell short of the double wins a couple of days ago, it was still time to celebrate when the team got back to port. The boat's fine form is the result of the past few month's hard work on fine tuning, sails and hundreds of other small details.

Platoon placed second in the Miami Royal Cup and proved that she is a tough contender, followed by Provezza, whose team has been getting good and consistent results, but it was already clear in Key West that there are many teams to watch this season. While Quantum was not a podium finisher at the MRC, she is still in third place overall in the Series.

Azzurra will head to the Super Series' next event as overall leader with seven points on the second placed boat, Platoon, and eleven points on the third placed boat, her historic rival Quantum. Over the next couple of months the fleet's boats will be packed and loaded onto ships and brought to the Med while ground crews study new sails and new tuning in the hopes of improving performance as the Series goes on.

Quotes of the day:

Alberto Roemmers, owner and helmsman: 'The first few days of this event we got incredible results , we ended it with a victory that makes us especially happy since it's the fruit of all the hard work done since Key West, where our boat speed wasn't excellent even though our results were fairly good. Here we did better upwind, but seem to have lost a bit downwind. But it has been excellent team work and I am proud to be part of this crew.'

Riccardo Bonadeo, YCCS Commodore: 'I wasn't able to be at this event personally because the YCCS is hosting the Loro Piana Superyacht Regatta at our clubhouse in Virgin Gorda. But I have really enjoyed following the news and add my voice to the many congratulating Azzurra and her crew. This victory comes from a sportsman's mindset and a will to win that has always characterized Azzurra's team along with her owners and our club members, the Roemmers family. We all know how hard it can be to keep on fighting, so an extra thank you to the whole team.'

Guillermo Parada, skipper: “We’re obviously happy to finish this event with two good results and to be overall leaders so far in the season. We’re a little frustrated because we were very quick upwind and rounded the top mark in the lead in both races then somehow we weren’t as quick downwind and lost positions. It’s a little surprising but that’s life. We need to be happy with our win and know that the changes we’ve made from Key West to now have worked well. Now we have almost two months before the next event to analyze everything and improve even more for the Worlds in Scarlino, our next target. The whole fleet will be taking advantage of these next two months, so we need to be prepared and ready”.

Vasco Vascotto, tactician: “We haven't been in the lead of the Series for a year and a half, so I hope we keep this up! I'm really happy, we sailed well, fast and consistently and won the event with one race still to go. The whole team worked well, but we know that there's still room to improve so we won't rest on our laurels. Just to nit-pick, I'm a little sad because today we got two excellent starts and we could have won both races. But still, it was a great day and an excellent win for Azzurra!'

The next event is the Rolex TP52 World Championship that will be held in Scarlino from May 16th to 20th.

Final Standings, 52 Super Series Miami Royal Cup after nine races

1. Azzurra (Alberto/Pablo Roemmers, ITA/ARG), (2,2,1,1,2,1,8,3,4) 24pts
2. Platoon (Harm Müller-Spreer GER,), (3,1,8,2,7,3,4,1,3) 32 p.
3. Provezza (Ergin Imre, TUR) (5,3,3,4,4,5,3,4,8) 39 p.
4. Quantum Racing (Doug DeVos, USA), (1,4,6,7,1,9,5,2,7) 42 p.
5. Sled (Takashi Okura, USA), (6, DSQ12,5,9,3,6,1,5,5) 52 p.
6. Rán Racing (Niklas Zennström, SWE), (4,8,4,3,10,8,10,6,1) 54 p.
7. Gladiator (Tony Langley, GBR) (7, RDG6,2, RDG6,2, RDG6,2,6,7,2,9,7,6) 55,6 p.
8. Bronenosec (Vladimir Liubomirov, RUS), (10,5,2,6,8,2,7,10,10,9) 59 p.
9. Alegre (Andrés Soriano GBR/USA) (8,6,7,5,9,10,9,7,2) 63 p.
10. Sorcha (Peter Harrison, GBR) (9,7,9,8,5,4,6,8,10) 66 p
11. Paprec (Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, FRA) (DNC12, DNC12, DNC12, DNC12, DNC12, DNC12, DNC12, DNC12, DNC12, DNC12) 108 p

Standings after two regattas – Key West and Miami

1. Azzurra, 74 pts.
2. Platoon, 81 pts
3. Quantum, 85 pts
4. Provezza, 88 pts
5. Rán, 103 pts
6. Bronenosec, 109 pts
7. Gladiator, 135.6pts
8. Sled, 121 pts
9. Alegre, 147 pts.
10. Paprec, 194 pts.