News

Puerto Portals, Mallorca, July 25, 2016. Azzurra finishes the first day of the Puerto Portals Sailing Week, the third event in the 2016 52 Super Series that will run from today to Friday July 29th, in fifth place. Quantum and Sled are tied for first place.

The first day of racing at the Puerto Portals Sailing Week saw the fleet of ten TP 52s fight it out in two windward/leeward races held in south westerly thermal breezes that are typical of Mallorca. The Racing Committee raised the Warning Signal punctually at 1:00 PM and the fleet got its start in 14 knot breezes. Along the first run racing had to be abandoned due to a cruise ship in transit through the race course in the Bay of Palma. 

A second race went better and saw Bronenosec, a Russian boat with several Italian sailors on her team, in first place followed by Provezza and Sled. Azzurra finished the race in sixth place even though she was headed to the first upwind mark side by side with Bronenosec. The Russian team rounded the mark first and took the lead, free of all the other boats. 

The second race saw winds died down to 10/11 knots. Azzurra got a good start on the Committee Boat, cutting off Ran who is currently one of Azzurra’s closest rivals in points in the overall score of the 52 Super Series. Azzurra tacked to the right hand side of the race course and rounded the first top mark in sixth place, recovering positions along the two downwind runs to finish fourth.

Quotes of the day:
Guillermo Parada, skipper: “It was an interesting day. We are still learning about the changes we’re making to the boat and we still aren’t satisfied with our performance, but we’re finding some points to work from. I think that tactically we sailed pretty well. So it was an OK day; as long as we keep learning we’re heading the right direction.”

Vasco Vascotto, tactician: “We came back into port a bit bitter, knowing that we had sailed well, but hadn’t gotten very good results. But on the brighter side, we’re learning new things and we’re counting on being able to catch up soon. We’re doing well downwind, but we still have to perfect things upwind. Just think that in the first race we were upwind on Bronenosec but they rounded the mark first while we were second to last. More or less the same thing happened in the second race where all we needed was half a boat length to be first at the first upwind mark, but we got stuck in the group and held back.”
 

Tomorrow there are two more windward/leeward races scheduled to begin at 1:00 PM. Conditions are expected to be like today’s.

Races with commentary in English can be followed on Virtual Eye thanks to the 52 Super Series’ organizers. As always, fans can follow Azzurra’s progress live from the regatta course on Facebook and Twitter and on the website www.azzurra.it
 

52 Super Series - Puerto Portals Sailing Week
Standings after Day 1
1 Quantum Racing, USA (Doug DeVos USA) (4,1) 5 pts
2 Sled, USA (Takashi Okura JPN) (3,2)  5 pts
3 Bronenosec, RUS (Vladimir Liubomirov RUS) (1,5) 6 pts
4 Provezza, TUR (Ergin Imre TUR) (2,7)  9 pts
5 Azzurra, ITA (Pablo/Alberto Roemmers ARG)  (6,4) 10 pts
6 Platoon, GER (Harm Müller-Spreer GER) (5,6)  11 pts
7 Gladiator, GBR (Tony Langley GBR) (9,3) 12 pts
8 Rán Racing, SWE (Niklas Zennström SWE) (7,9)  16 pts
9 Alegre, GBR (Andres Soriano USA) (8,8)  16 pts
10 Xio/Hurakan, ITA (Marco Serafini ITA) (DNS/11, DNS/11) 22 pts

For further information go to Azzurra website.