Azzurra is in the lead of the Cascais 52 Super Series
by Azzurra 20 Jul 2019 21:56 BST
16-20 July 2019
Day 5 - Cascais 52 Super Series Sailing Week © Martinez Studio / 52 Super Series
The boat flying the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda's burgee, here in Cascais for the final day of the third event in the 2019 52 Super Series, is in the lead overall of the world's most competitive professional monohull sailing circuit. The next event will be the Rolex TP52 World Championship that will be held in Puerto Portals, Mallorca in August.
The final day of racing at the Cascais 52 Super Series Sailing Week saw two races run in fresh breeze from 18 to 27 knots. Azzurra sailed well and her team showed style and class whether it was helming, deciding tactics or manoeuvring all together in unison.
This morning Azzurra and her team docked out determined to recover the five points that separated them from Quantum, the event's provisional leader. It was going to be tough seeing how strong the adversary was, but not impossible seeing how well and consistently Azzurra has been sailing in the final part of this week. The first race saw a match race between the two rival teams in the pre-start, then Azzurra got a fast start on the Committee Boat leeward of Quantum whose team was slowed down by Azzurra's move and had to fight back to recover positions. Quantum finished this race third behind Bronenosec, the winner, and Azzurra who came in second.
The second race, started in winds at 25 knots with gusts at 27, was a thriller, both complicated and wonderful. The pin looked best from the start, but overall it was better sailing to the right. Azzurra started fast on the Committee Boat, upwind from Quantum. Provezza came in from the left and crossed in front of the fleet, forcing Platoon and Azzurra over the lay line approaching the top mark. Very fast along the first run, surfing well over 20 knots and with Quantum catching up from behind, it was the final run that had everyone holding their breath: Azzurra finished second just five metres behind the winner, Platoon, after having passed Provezza thanks to some excellent tactics. Quantum, from fourth place slipped back to fifth, passed by Bronenosec. If Azzurra had won this final race she would have won the Cascais 52 Super Series; instead the event was won by Quantum Racing by just one point.
Guillermo Parada, skipper: "The good way of looking at this is that if we miss winning an event by one point but are leading the Series overall, that's OK. The bad way is that we have lost the last two events both by just one point and that's kind of painful. We have nothing to regret though: we planned the day well, we sailed well and missed winning by just a point. On the final run we knew that we had a chance and we talked about gybing early and going straight to the lane. The pity was that we didn't have a lot of breeze so Platoon extended their lead. We were catching up but weren't able to cross and we had to gybe closer to the pin. Maybe if we had been able to cross on port it would have been different, but there you have it. I think that Quantum had a solid week, but so did we. This time the win went to them and losing for the second time in a row by one point is painful, but overall we are happy with the way we sailed. We do well in the breeze, but now we have to think about Puerto Portals where we have a lot of new equipment for light air. Thank you to the Roemmers family for their great support and naturally to the YCCS too as we fly their burgee."
"I followed the sailing this week on Virtual Eye," said Riccardo Bonadeo, Commodore of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. "Even though I wasn't there on the water it was a real thrill to watch. I saw refined tactics and a winner's outlook. On the part of the YCCS I want to thank our club members the Roemmers family and all of team Azzurra for their hard work and excellent results. Leading this Series halfway through shows that tis is a good team, especially in a fleet at this high a level."
Santi Lange, tactician: "It was absolutely beautiful racing today. It felt good to fight back but I also want to congratulate Quantum. Too bad we didn't win this event, but we came close, it came down to the final gybe in the final run. We took a chance and almost won, we missed it by just a second I think. The next event will be the World Championship so I'm going to be thinking about every mistake we ever made and hoping to make fewer of them."
Bruno Zirilli, navigator: "It was a wonderful race, obviously everyone is focusing on that one little point that cost us the victory here, but I think we should look at the week as a whole where we were more constant in strong winds and difficult conditions. Even though the conditions were potentially dangerous, everyone sailed well and without accidents, I think we have all improved over the years. Overall we're in the lead, eight points ahead of Quantum so we shouldn't think about those 5 meters that separated us from the win here."
Azzurra's next event will be from August 25th to 29th in Puerto Portals, Palma di Mallorca. This fourth event in the Super Series will also be the TP52's World Championship.
Cascais 52 Super Series Sailing Week
Final results after 9 races:
1. Quantum Racing (USA) (Doug DeVos) (2,1,2,2,1,4,3,3,5) 23 p.
2. Azzurra (ARG/ITA) (Alberto/Pablo Roemmers) (3,3,1,3,6,2,2,2,2) 24 p.
3. Platoon (GER) (Harm Müller-Spreer) (5,4,3,1,7,5,5,4,1) 35 p.
4. Bronenosec (RUS) (Vladimir Liubomirov) (4,2,4,7,3,3,7,1,4) 35 p.
5. Provezza (TUR) (Ergin Imre) (1,5,7,5,2,7,6,6,3,) 42 p.
6. Phoenix 11 (RSA) (Hasso Plattner) (6,6,5,4,5,1,4,7,DNS8) 46 p.
7. Alegre (USA/GBR) (Andrés Soriano) (7,7,6,6,4,6,1,5,6) 48 p.
52 Super Series Overall standings after 3 events
1. Azzurra (ARG/ITA) (Alberto/Pablo Roemmers) 95 p.
2. Quantum Racing (USA) (Doug DeVos) 103 p.
3. Platoon (GER) (Harm Müller-Spreer) 103 p.
4. Provezza (TUR) (Ergin Imre) 108 p.
5. Bronenosec (RUS) (Vladimir Liubomirov) 112 p.
6. Alegre (USA/GBR) (Andrés Soriano) 136 p.
7. Phoenix 11 (RSA) (Tina Plattner) 154 p.
8. Sled (USA) (Takashi Okura) 164 p.