Azur de Puig and Sagola lead IMS Worlds

by Regatta News on 16 Jul 2005 Azur de Puig, the Spanish B&C49 owned by Marta Mas Borrell, with Jose Maria Torcida at the helm and America's Cup veteran Dee Smith calling the tactics, took line honours in the Offshore Race of the Rolex IMS Offshore World Championship 2005, a 70-mile race around the island of Menorca.

Azur de Puig crossed the finish line at 00:21:54 hours on July 15th, followed by Cam at 02:06:48 hours and Tau Ceramica at 02:10:24. The rest of the Non Corinthian fleet followed in a tight pack, with the last boat of this division crossing the line around 4.30am.

The line honours winner’s time was good enough to enable the Spanish crew to win on handicap as well. Azur de Puig is now leading the series overall in the Non Corinthian division, with a total of 3.5 points and a good margin over the Italian GS42R Movistar (15.75 points total) co-skippered by Lorenzo Bressani and Iker Martínez. Third overall is another GS42R, the Spanish Forum Filatelico skippered by Gonzalo Araujo.

In the Corinthian division, Spain’s B&C52 La Maison de l'Elephant, owned by Jaime Serra Verdaguer, took line honours, having crossed the finish around 2.30am, followed by Finland’s J-125 Airis and the Spanish Farr 42, Valencia Terra y Mar.

None of these boats, however, were able to reach the top spots on handicap and it was the Italian fleet that dominated on corrected time. The First 36.7 Phantomas II (Carlo Potestà) took first place, followed by its sister-ship, Transbunker and then came the Vroljk 37, Squalo Bianco.

Italy is also dominating the overall Rolex IMS Worlds scores in the Corinthian division. Italy’s GS37B Sagola, skippered by Fausto Pierobon, leads with a total of nine points, followed by Transbunker (ITA) on 11 and the X362 Don Alvaro (ITA) with 13.75.

'We had a great time,' commented Fausto Pierobon. 'Throughout the race we battled with Squalo Bianco, the Vroljk 37, which we think is the favourite in the Corinthian division. We crossed the line at the Ciudadella gate only one second ahead of them after sailing for 35 miles.

‘Then we battled our way through the rest of the course in a game of snakes and ladders with Squalo Bianco. We didn't have as much luck as them in the no-wind zones, especially in the last five miles of the course before. We decided to stay close to shore, while Squalo Bianco kept more offshore and was able to gain on us, thanks to a favourable wind shift.

‘It's been a fantastic race, pretty stressful for us, but very exciting. I didn't even realise that we'd been at sea for such a long time.'

The last boat to cross the finish line of the Offshore Race, just after 6.00am, was Spain’s Dinamique 47, Too Much, owned by Corina Seidat.

The race started yesterday at 12.50pm with a south-easterly breeze of 5-7 knots. After a two mile windward leg, the fleet paraded under spinnaker to the Isla del Aire, rounding it to starboard.

Around 6.30pm, the leading yachts reached the gate off Ciudadella, where the breeze started to die. The bulk of the fleet was able to close the gap on the three leaders, Tau Ceramica, Cam and Azur de Puig.

By 9.30pm, the wind had picked up again to 7-8 knots and Azur de Puig was sailing off Cabo Favaritx, approximately three quarters around the island, almost eight miles ahead of the fleet and its crew were able to keep rivals at bay to the finish.

'We are delighted with our two victories at the Ciudadella gate and at the finish line,' commented Jose Maria Torcida, helmsman of Azur de Puig. 'The crew did an excellent job and we sailed a great race, defending well our position throughout the course around the island. We had a good start and rounded in the top group at the first windward mark and at the Ciudadella gate.

‘We made good choices regarding the sails to use during the race. Our winning strategy was to sail close to the coast at the rounding of Cabo Caballerias, where we found some good breeze, while the rest of the fleet opted to stay offshore.'

Today is a lay-day for all the competitors and racing will resume tomorrow at 12.30pm with two or more windward/leeward races.

Provisional overall results after 3 races - handicap

Corinthian

1. Sagola, ITA, Porto Turistico di Jesolo, 9.00 (2.00, 3.00, 4.00)

2. Transbunker, ITA, Transbunkergroup Ltd, 11.00 (4.00, 5.00, 2.00)

3. Don Alvaro, ITA, Francesco Siculiana, 13.75 (8.00, 0.75, 5.00)

4. Squalo Bianco, ITA, Maurizio Michelin, 19.00 (6.00, 10.00, 3.00)

5. Mambo IV, ESP, Martin Aizcorbe, 21.00 (13.00, 2.00, 6.00)

V Non Corinthian

1. Azur de Puig, ESP, Marta Mas Borrell, 3.50 (2.00, 0.75, 0.75)

2. Movistar, ITA, Lorenzo Bressani, 15.75 (0.75, 3.00, 12.00)

3. Forum Filatelico, ESP, Forum Filatelico, 16.00 (3.00, 9.00, 4.00)

4. Zurich, ESP, Santana Race Group SL, 18.00 (7.00, 2.00, 9.00)

5. Synergy, RUS, Gateways Overseas Ltd, 20.00 (11.00, 6.00, 3.00)


Provisional results race 2 (first half of the Offshore Race) - handicap

Corinthian (Pos., Yacht Name, Country, Owner, Points)

1. Don Alvaro, ITA, Francesco Siculiana, 0.75

2. Mambo IV, ESP, Martin Aizcorbe, 2.00

3. Sagola, ITA, Porto Turistico di Jesolo, 3.00

4. Jaime Mascaro, ESP, Jaime Mascaro, 4.00

5. Transbunker, ITA, Transbunkergroup Ltd, 5.00

Non Corinthian

1. Azur de Puig, ESP, Marta Mas Borrell, 0.75

2. Zurich, ESP, Santana Race Group SL, 2.00

3. Movistar, ITA, Lorenzo Bressani, 3.00

4. Tau Ceramica, ESP, Javier Dominguez, 4.00

5. Cam, ESP, Caja Ahorros del Mediterraneo, 5.00


Provisional results race 3 (second half of the Offshore Race) - handicap

Corinthian

1. Phantomas II, ITA, Carlo Potestà, 0.75

2. Transbunker, ITA, Transbunkergroup Ltd, 2.00

3. Squalo Bianco, ITA, Maurizio Michelin, 3.00

4. Sagola, ITA, Porto Turistico di Jesolo, 4.00

5. Don Alvaro, ITA, Francesco Siculiana, 5.00

Non Corinthian

1. Azur de Puig, ESP, Marta Mas Borrell, 0.75

2. Yughtransit, RUS, Kotsiouba Serguei, 2.00

3. Synergy, RUS, Gateways Overseas Ltd, 3.00

4. Forum Filatelico, ESP, Forum Filatelico, 4.00

5. Muzyka, ITA, Claudio Cresci, 5.00

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