Audi TP52 World Championship - Azzurra wins in mistral

by Audi Azzurra Sailing Team on 8 Oct 2011 Audi TP52 World Championship - Audi Azzurra Sailing Team showed their ability and won a race held in conditions on the edge of extreme.

This morning the Mistral blew into Porto Cervo at more than 20 knots and proved the Race Committee's decision to move racing forward to 9 a.m. to be an astute one. Audi Azzurra Sailing Team did not miss out on the chance to take home a victory as soon as the conditions became more favourable for the boat's technical characteristics. The TP52 which flies the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda burgee started with perfect timing at the Committee Boat end and led the fleet from the off. Conditions were particularly heavy with gusts of over 30 knots and on the challenging downwind leg Sweden's Ran was forced to retire. Azzurra had a problem dropping their kite when the retrieval system failed but the crew resolved the problem brilliantly and recovered the huge sail manually. Container made the most of the dilemma and briefly took the lead at the start of the second upwind leg but was quickly overtaken by Azzurra. Given the constantly rising winds the Race Committee shortened the course to finish at the second windward mark thereby avoiding a second downwind leg with boats planing at over 20 knots. Azzurra won followed by Container, All4One and Quantum. Paramount Park and Gladiator, more at ease racing in light air than gusting winds, finished well behind.

Tomorrow is the final day of the Audi TP52 Worlds: Quantum leads the overall classification ahead of Paramount Park and Gladiator. Azzurra moves up to fifth place thanks to today's victory.

'We were really hungry for a win,' declared tactician Vasco Vascotto on his return to port, 'we wanted to show that the team works and in such difficult conditions we proved ourselves.'

Skipper Guillermo Parada added: 'As predicted yesterday, as soon as the conditions changed we got a result that shows the team's value, because the results of the past few days really did not do justice to the quality of our sporting performances.'

Today the children of the local Nautical Club visited the boat and met the crew of Azzurra: perhaps in a few years time one of them will be aboard the flagship of the YCCS, just as Vasco Vascotto followed in the footsteps of Mauro Pelaschier - helmsman of Azzurra in 1983. Azzurra website