Azzurra stays in the lead at the Puerto Sherry 52 Super Series

Azzurra stays in the lead at the Puerto Sherry 52 Super Series

Azzurra stays in the lead at the Puerto Sherry 52 Super Series

Sport

By Azzurra
21/06/2019 - 23:48

With first and fifth place finishes today Azzurra, the boat flying the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda’s burgee remains in the lead but just one point ahead of the second placed team, Bronenosec. In third place overall the winner of the day, Provezza, with two second place finishes today. The event will end Saturday, June 22.  

It was another spectacular day of sailing and racing in the Atlantic Ocean off Cadiz in winds from the southwest that went from 11 to 14 knots. Frequent shifts and changes in direction made tacticians’ job tough but guaranteed an excellent show from this tightly packed fleet of top professional teams. 

With her fifth and first place finishes today Azzurra remains in the lead of the Puerto Sherry 52 Super Series after 6 races, but she hasn’t lengthened her advantage over the Russian team Bronenosec, who got first and fifth place finishes today. Boat of the day was Provezza who got two second place finishes, which goes to show how any team can shine at this event. Azzurra sailed well in both races even though her final results were different. The second race, which she won by establishing an advantage along the first beat, saw Azzurra fight with great determination after difficult start where she was surrounded by competitors. A risky but excellent choice was to tack off to the right behind the fleet where she was in free and clean air.  

Skipper Guillermo Parada recounts the day: “In the end we had another good day even though Provezza is winner of the day with two second places. Thanks to the bullet we got in the second race we limited the damage caused by our fifth place finish in the first race. We got a good start in that race but we didn’t manage to get the boat up to its target speed in the first few minutes. This let Quantum tack on us over and over again even though it didn’t really make sense for them to do it: on top of slowing us down they wasted their own time covering us and forgot all about the rest of the fleet. We kept on fighting and managed to find an opening at the top mark by coming in from the left and in the end we finished fifth. It could have been worse. In the second race we got a better start and tacked off right immediately.

This choice let us pass everyone in clean air and we also had a bit of luck since the wind shifted a little to that side. Santi (Lange, tactician) and Cole (Parada, strategist) did a great job in positioning us in control of the fleet and calling the wind shifts and along the run we consolidated our leadership. Along the next beat I passed the helm to our owner, Alberto Roemmers and we won. But like I’ve already said, the fleet is tight and the race course is complicated: we have to push but also wait patiently for the right opportunities and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Azzurra’s owner Alberto Roemmers had these words: “We didn’t have a good first race. We got a good start, but after that we wanted the right but had problems with the mainsail that we couldn’t set properly so we had to go left. Then when we tried to tack back to the right there was always another boat in front of us, Quantum especially. So it was our fault but things didn’t go well. In the second race we got a bad start, but after that we got the right side like we wanted and everything went great: no mistakes and a win. So we’re still leading, still by just one point like yesterday because we got a fifth and a first and Bronenosec got a first and a fifth. The competition is still on.” 

Santiago Lange, tactician: “The second race was lucky, no one tacked on us, we got a clean lane and we had that little bit of luck you sometimes need. We didn’t get lucky in the first race but in the second all the boats were locked while we managed to escape to the right like we wanted and we got free. Racing like this is good fun, even if another team tried to cover us, we got away. That’s what makes sailing interesting, you never know how the other teams are going to play their cards.” 

Tomorrow June 21th the first warning Signal is scheduled for 2 PM CEST.  Fans can follow live streaming with commentary in English there will be on the websites www.azzurra.it and www.52superseries.com. Updates live from the course will be posted on Azzurra’s Facebook page and the best shots will be on www.instagram.com/azzurrasailing. The weather forecast calls for breeze from the west at 10 to 16 knots. 

Puerto Sherry 52 SUPER SERIES Royal Cup after six races
1. Azzurra (ARG/ITA) (Alberto/Pablo Roemmers) (5,1,2,5,5,1) 19 p.
2. Bronenosec (RUS) (Vladimir Liubomirov) (4,3,4,3,1,5) 20 p.
3. Provezza (TUR) (Ergin Imre) (1,4,7,7,2,2) 23 p. 
4. Sled (USA) (Takashi Okura) (8,2,3,4,4,4) 25 p.
5. Platoon (GER) (Harm Müller-Spreer) (3,6,5,1,3,8) 26 p.
6.Alegre (USA/GBR) (Andrés Soriano) (2,8,6,2,8,6) 32 p.
7. Quantum Racing (USA) (Doug DeVos) (7,7,1,6,6,7) 34 p.
8. Phoenix 11 (RSA) (Tina Plattner) (6,5,8,8,7,3) 37 p.
 

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