Odzala Discovery Camps 52 Super Series V&A Waterfront Cape Town regatta - Day 4
by 52 Super Series 5 Mar 2020 18:56 PST
2-6 March 2020
As predicted, the Cape Doctor, Cape Town's renowned strong, local south-easterly wind came in for the penultimate day of racing at the first event of the 2020 season - the Odzala Discovery Camps 52 Super Series V&A Waterfront Cape Town regatta - to produce some thrilling racing.
With Morgan Larson steering, Jonathan McKee on tactics aided by Alberto Barovier on strategy, Bronenosec won the only race of the day after making the best of a significant wind shift on the first run and choosing the favoured turning mark at the leeward gate.
But while the Russian-flagged team ran out winners ahead of Quantum Racing, a fourth for Hasso Plattner's local favourites on Phoenix ensures the South African team - steered by the hugely experienced Plattner - closes the gap on regatta leaders Azzurra. The defending champions lead into the last day by seven points.
Azzurra could only make a seventh today, their worst score of the event so far. But with the breeze forecast to return to light to medium conditions for Friday's finale, the Italian-Argentine team of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda have a fighting chance of landing the first title of the 2020 season.
Azzurra's new tactician Michele Paoletti was smarting on the dock having not really achieved the result Azzurra team had hoped for:
"We did not have a race that was as nice as the others, but right now we have to cool down and think about tomorrow. The result was not so bad. But right now after that race we are a bit frustrated. We had too many things that were not so good today. We have some confused situations with other boats, we did not manage them properly. We did not have really nice manoeuvres, which is unusual for us. We have a little lead for the last day so we will try not to do anything extreme and sail consistently."
With the wind on the start line at over 20kts, this time the shift and the pressure was better on the right of the course upwind. This was recognised early by Andy Soriano's Alegre, Quantum Racing and Tina Plattner's Phoenix 12, which rounded first, second and third. The race leaders lost out on the downwind shift in direction while Bronenosec gained at the leeward gate rounding, establishing a lead that was never challenged, recording their second win of the week.
Tina Plattner enthused:
"It was fun out there. Obviously this is what people expected from Cape Town that we would have strong breeze at some point. These boats are such great fun when the puff comes on and you are going downwind at 21 or 22 kts, so today was awesome. We have sailed in these conditions before of course but not in this fleet and so the pressure is always higher at the top marks and the bottom. When it is close and everyone is pushing then it gets the heart rate up and the adrenalin pumping."
Phoenix 11 need to replicate the form they showed on the opening day if they are to run out home team winners. Peter Holmberg, tactician admitted:
"I'm happy to be in the top half of the fleet. With that much breeze today you've got to make sure you keep the boat together, and don't make any big blunders. The boat's fast, the crew did a good job, and Hasso did a great job.
I've got a great team around me, I've got Andy Horton - we've got two tacticians on this boat - so we make a strategy each day - look at the weather and we've got some good local input, so we put our heads together and make a plan."
Regatta standings after Day 4:
1. Azzurra (ARG/ITA) (Alberto/Pablo Roemmers) (4,2,2,2,5,2,7) 24pts
2. Phoenix 11 (RSA) (Hasso Plattner) (1,3,1,7,8,7,4) 31pts
3. Quantum Racing (USA) (Doug DeVos) (5,8,4,5,1,6,2) 31pts
4. Bronenosec (RUS) (Vladimir Liubomirov) (2,10,7,1,6,8,1) 35pts
5. Sled (USA) (Takashi Okura) (3,4,RDG6,RDG5.5, RDG5.5, RDG5.5, RDG5.5) 35pts
6. Platoon (GER) (Harm Müller-Spreer) (9,7,8,3,2,1,6) 36pts
7. Alegre (USA/GBR) (Andrés Soriano) (7,1,DNF11+2,4,3,3,9) 40pts
8. Provezza (TUR) (Ergin Imre) (6,6,3,8,9,4,5) 41pts
9. Phoenix 12 (RSA) (Tina Plattner) (8,5,5,9,7,5,3) 42pts
10. Paprec (FRA) (Jean-Luc Petithuguenin) (10,9,6,6,4,9,8) 52pts
Full results available here.
The Cape Doctor arrives but Azzurra holds on to her lead in the 52 Super Series (from Giuliano Luzzatto, Azzurra)
There was just one race run today in Cape Town due to strong winds. Even though she had some technical problems, Azzurra is holding on to her lead overall with a margin of six points over the second placed team. Tomorrow will be the final day of racing at this event.
Just as announced, the "Cape Doctor," the strong south-easterly wind that is so famous in Cape Town, arrived today. It took longer than expected for the Doctor to fill in over the course and racing got under way an hour later than scheduled, at 12:30 instead of 11:30. By then the southerly wind was gusty and shifty and blowing at about 20 knots.
The seventh race at this event saw many changes of position at the head of the fleet because of breakage and technical problems aboard several boats. Azzurra got a good and very accelerated start at the centre of the line and sailed on the left along with most of the fleet.
Alegre chose the right to then cross and capture the lead, just ahead of Azzurra, approaching the top mark from the left side of the course. But an unexpected 15 degree wind shift brought the rest of the fleet close on starboard tack and Alegre closed Azzurra off on the left.
Azzurra was suddenly in sixth place in a very tightly packed group. After most of the teams did a gybe set, Azzurra was slowed down by Bronenosec who had broken a halyard. Azzurra also had a bigger problem with her retriever, the cable used to lower the huge gennaker quickly and the crew had to do it manually in 25 knots.
Not surprisingly, Azzurra dropped back a couple of positions during this manoeuvre. Along the following beat she recovered by sailing on the right, the better side just then, rounding the mark seventh and holding on to that position to the end despite other problems such as a torn gennaker and a broken winch.
Before starting the second race the Race Committee clocked the wind at 27 knots and decided to send the fleet back to port for the day. Tomorrow will see the conclusion of this event and conditions are forecast to be more manageable.
With a provisional total of 24 points Azzurra is still leading Phoenix 11 and Quantum, who placed fourth and second today and who both currently have 31 points each. Bronenosec placed first today and has climbed up the scoreboard with a total of 35 points.
Guillermo Parada, skipper: "Today things didn't go the way we might have expected but I have to point out a couple of positive aspects: we got a good start and our boat speed was excellent. We made a few errors and had a lot of technical problems which is really unusual and is a problem that we have to get to the bottom of. But it could have been worse; we controlled the damage as much as possible and managed to leave two teams behind. It's not the greatest, but today was one of those days. If you let it get to you, you could end up last and suffer a lot more damage aboard. So let's just focus on the positives: there's still a day of racing left in this event and the boat is fast. Now we have to check our equipment carefully and get ready for the gran finale."
Michele Paoletti, tactician: "The seventh place we got reflects how we sailed today just like our first place overall shows how we have sailed the past four days. We were getting too used to placing in the top, today we made a mistake and lost positions and that's just the way it goes with the sport. We got a good start, the boat is fast, but we were penalised by some unlucky coincidences that we didn't manage to control as well as we would have liked. Our manoeuvring wasn't as clean as usual and we paid for it. But placing seventh happens every now and again, it could even happen again, but we'll try and make sure that it doesn't."
Tomorrow, the final day of this event, racing is scheduled to start at 12:30 SAST South African Standard Time (11:30 CET) in conditions that are forecast to be more manageable than today's.