Audi MedCup Circuit- Consistency pays on second day of Audi MedCup

by Sabina Mollart-Rogerson on 24 Jul 2010 With a consistent scoreline across three races today (1-3-2), Emirates Team New Zealand now lead the Camper Regatta - Conde de Godó Trophy - Barcelona. Madrid - Caser Seguros scored an almost perfect day (1-2-1), and keeps a solid leadership in GP42 Series.

The reigning champions won the first race after leading round each mark, finished third in the second race and chased Quantum Racing (USA) across the finish line of the third contest for a second place.

After a morning postponement ashore waiting for sufficient breeze to build, the Garbi sea breeze offered two excellent races under clear skies and sunshine with up to 17 knots of breeze before the wind backed to the left for the third race of a long day on the water.

Quantum Racing and Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) were best placed from the scrabble off the pin end of the line for the final race, fighting to get left. They were rewarded with first and second places as the 2008 champions held off the current Audi MedCup TP52 title holding Kiwis down the final run.

Quantum Racing's 11,1,1 ironically fits the description of the type of inconsistency which skipper-helm Terry Hutchison (USA) recently described them trying to avoid, dropping them to third overall in the event, behind Artemis. Paul Cayard steered the Swedish flagged boat to 5,2,4 for the day to hold second place one point ahead of Quantum Racing.

Almost perfect for Madrid - Caser Seguros

Pacing themselves nicely through a long day of delays, wind shifts and a slowly building breeze into the sunset, the Madrid - Caser Seguros (ESP) team led by helmsman Paolo Cian (ITA) has had another phenomenal day in the GP42 Series of the Audi MedCup on scores of 1-2-1 for the day. This has strengthened their lead to 6 points in the Camper Regatta - Conde de Godó Trophy – Barcelona over runner-up Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (ESP) led by skipper Jose Maria Ponce (ESP), but their lead has increased by only a mere point over the Canarias team near the halfway mark in the overall series scores.

For tomorrow, three races for TP52 Series and two for GP42 Series are scheduled. First start of the day due at 1300hrs.

Camper Regatta – Conde de Godó Trophy - Barcelona

TP52 Series
Day 3
1. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), 1+4+8+1+3+2= 19 points
2. Artemis (SWE), 7+2+4+5+2+4= 24
3. Quantum Racing (USA), 5+5+2+11+1+1= 25
4. Bribón (ESP), 3+3+7+7+5+11= 36
5. Cristabella (GBR), 2+1+11+9+6+9= 38
6. TeamOrigin (GBR), 10+6+3+3+9+7= 38 ?7. Synergy (RUS), 6+10+6+2+7+8= 39
8. Bigamist 7 (POR), 8+7+10+8+4+5= 42
9. Audi A1 powered by ALL4ONE (FRA/GER), 12(DNC)+8+5+4+8+6= 43
10. Matador (ARG), 4+9+9+10+10+3= 45
11. Luna Rossa (ITA), 9+11+1+6+11+10= 48

GP42 Series
Day 2
1. Madrid – Caser Seguros (ESP), 1+1+1+1+2+1= 7 points
2. Islas Canarias Puerto Calero (ESP), 2+4+2+2+1+2= 13
3. Iberdrola (ESP), 3+2+3+3+3+4= 18
4. AIRISESSENTIAL (ITA), 4+3+5+4+5+5= 26
5. Península Petroleum (GBR), 5+5+4+5+4+3= 26

Terry Hutchinson (USA), skipper-helmsman Quantum Racing (USA):
'Lots of ups and downs today, in the first race the top mark deltas were all really good. And we went round the four top marks in 4,1,1. But unfortunately down the first run of the frist race Luna Rossa gybed on us and we were kind of hanging to leeward of them and went to gybe in clear air and a GP42 was coming upwind and we just about hit them and so we had to do a hard turn to back out. We got a little knot in our spinnaker sheet. That compounded a lot of the problems, but mainly it put us back in the traffic fairly quickly. We got to the bottom mark in probably seventh or eighth but really we were in bad shape from there and not going the way that we wanted to go.

'We got ourselves a little bit clear. We got tacked on by Cristabella, tacked on again by Luna Rossa and quickly found ourselves moving backwards, as you'd expect and towards the end of the beat.

'We rounded the top mark tenth and down the last run Adrian and Kevin got us in a really nice spot of breeze and we made a really nice gain in front of Matador but then just couldn't get for the finish line, that was tough. After that we had two good starts and had two solid races which is very reassuring.

Dean Barker (NZL) skipper-helm Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL):
'It was a good day for us, we took our opportunities when we could and stayed out of trouble when we could. It wasn’t easy.

'First race we had a nice start and drag raced out to the right with TeamOrigin and Synergy and got around just ahead of Synergy. We had good speed and had a good solid race. Second one we did not have the best start but we went what we thought was the right way but there was a bit of a left shift at the top, we were looking pretty strong at one stage. And in the last race we had a really good battle with Quantum Racing, so it was a good fun racing.

'We are really happy. It was important to go out and have a good solid day and we did that. Artemis is sailing much better here than they have at the other regattas, but we haven’t seen them all regatta yet, but they are only a few points behind.'

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