Azzurra is fighting to hold on to her top position in Portugal

Azzurra is fighting to hold on to her top position in Portugal

Azzurra is fighting to hold on to her top position in Portugal

Sport

By Azzurra
17/07/2019 - 14:20

With two third place finishes in today’s two races, Azzurra is tied for points with Provezza and Bronenosec for second place behind the first placed team, Quantum, provisional leader of the Cascais 52 Super Series after one day of racing. The event will end Saturday, July 20th.

The weather forecast was right today in Cascais with a classic “Nortada” blowing from the north-northwest at 18 knots that built to 22. With winds expected to be even stronger in the late afternoon, Principal Race Officer Maria Torrijo wisely moved the starting time up an hour as she will tomorrow too. In the day’s two races the fleet of 52s put on an excellent show, with close crosses, long surfs and frequent changes of position. Azzurra finished the first race in third place after having dominated the first beat, while in the second race she got the same placement after starting from the back of the fleet. But most importantly, there are three teams tied for points in second place. Tomorrow a clearer picture of the overall results will begin to emerge, but the fleet is expected to stay tight.  

Azzurra got off to a good start in race 1: central, with just Provezza on the Committee Boat in a slightly better position. Azzurra tacked to the right side of the course that was better given the morphology of the coastline and arrived at the mark alongside Provezza in a very tight fleet. It was spectacular, but things began to go wrong. Azzurra was covered by Provezza on her gennaker hoist and had to do a gybe set that in the end didn’t bring results: the wind was too shifty near the coast on the right side of the course. Second at the gate, Azzurra couldn’t get the right hand side that went to Quantum who went on to pass Azzurra along the second beat. 

Santiago Lange, Azzurra’s tactician, comments: "Two races and two third places: it’s going to be a long, hard week sailing in a fleet were all the teams are top level. That's why the most important thing right now is to navigate well, not like today where we have made a couple of mistakes that we can’t repeat again. The important thing is that in the second race we were able to recover because it could have been much worse. In race 1 we didn't make a mistake along the first run because they (Provezza) had already passed us at the mark. I would have liked to pass but we couldn’t in that situation. The error was along the first beat where we wanted to cover the fleet instead of going to the layline and there we lost a few important meters. In the second race we got a poor start and coming back from behind was complicated, but at least we were able to recover positions. But Quantum is always there, at the top of the scoreboard."

The second race saw Azzurra struggle at the start, but she managed not to drop too far back from the rest of the fleet. She fought to recover positions right up to a masterpiece along the final run: after rounding the final mark fifth she did a gybe set, this time finding better air than in race one because the course was set farther from the shore. She recovered two positions by passing Provezza and Platoon and finished the race third, just a puff behind Bronenosec.

Skipper Guillermo Parada had these words: “It was an OK day for us, but nothing more. In the first race we wasted a chance to win by putting ourselves into a difficult position and in the second race we didn’t get a good start. We felt like another team fouled us, but the umpires didn’t so we forged ahead fighting every step of the way, passing a team on every leg until finally on the last run we managed to pass both Provezza and Platoon. We saved ourselves with a third place finish, but the fleet is very tight and we have to be careful of every minimum detail.”

The first warning signal will be tomorrow, July 17th at 12 PM local time, 1 PM CEST. 

Cascáis 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week dopo due prove
1. Quantum Racing (USA) (Doug DeVos) (2,1) 3 ps.
2. Provezza (TUR) (Ergin Imre) (1,5) 6 p.
3. Bronenosec (RUS) (Vladimir Liubomirov) (4,2) 6 p.
4. Azzurra (ARG/ITA) (Alberto/Pablo Roemmers) (3,3) 6 p.
5. Platoon (GER) (Harm Müller-Spreer) (5,4) 9 p.
6. Phoenix 11 (RSA) (Hasso Plattner) (6,6) 12 p.
7. Alegre (USA/GBR) (Andrés Soriano) (7,7) 14 p.

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