Palma de Majorca August 8, 2015. The TP 52 that carries the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda’s burgee has continued to consolidate her lead in the 52 Super Series at the 34th Copa del Rey Mapfre and now has 35 points advantage in the overall standings. In the only race that was held today Azzurra placed fifth while Quantum won the race and the event.
Today Azzurra docked out from the Real Club Nautico de Palma with just one point’s advantage over Platoon and Quantum, while Bronenosec was trailing the other leaders by just two points. The final day of racing of the 34th Copa del Rey Mapfre was suspenseful, but Azzurra could concentrate on consolidating her comfortable lead in the overall 52 Super Series standings.
Today the breeze was never stronger than 11 knots and kicked in later than usual in the Palma Bay. The first race was called off just 10 seconds before the start and the fleet only began racing at 2:35 PM, too late for running the two races that were originally scheduled because the last race had to be called by 3:45 PM.
Azzurra went for and gained the left side of the course while other boats, Quantum included, chose to start off the Committee boat. It was hard to say which side would be better, the only good choices were radical, lateral ones to stay in clean air. During the first upwind leg the wind was better to the right so Quantum Racing won the race and the event, while Azzurra finished fifth. It was a tough day for both Platoon and Bronenosec and neither could repeat their earlier strong performances. Today’s poor placements put them third and fourth respectively in the Copa del Rey.
The next and final event in the 52 Super Series will be the Cascais Cup scheduled to be held in Cascais, Portugal from September 16th to 20th.
The Copa del Rey Mapfre prize ceremony was officiated by King Felipe VI, who personally presented the prizes to the winners of the eight Classes racing.
Alberto Roemmers, owner and helmsman: “No complaints at all about this second place; I think it was a very good week for us. Maybe we could have done a little bit better, but today we were going for the pin, got it and then it turned out that the right side would have been better. Quantum got it and the game was over. It was a good week anyway, good spirit, good work, good teamwork. Our advantage now is very high and I’m looking forward to the next event.”
Guillermo Parada, skipper: “If you look at the big picture it’s a good result for us because we stretched our lead in the circuit overall by one point and we have a 35 point lead now heading into the final event in Cascais. We fought to the end and finished second in the Copa. We’re are a little bit disappointed to lose in the final race and not have another race to recover, but after leading for the whole week we can’t complain. Obviously, Quantum kept fighting to the end and they did a good job, so they win the Copa. It was very, very close in Porto Cervo and in the end we won, so we can say that we’re tied now.”
Grant Lorenz, trimmer: “It has been a pleasure to sail on Azzurra again. It has been a bit of a tough week in tricky conditions. We came in second and are pretty happy with that. We’ve maintained our points lead overall so we’re done our jobs. We still have some races so we’re happy with where we are. Nobody ever gives up in this sport, we have a comfortable lead heading into Cascais, but we can’t be complacent and must push on. The conditions will be quite different and it’ll be interesting to see what happens.”
Vasco Vascotto, tactician: “Clearly we would have rather won the Copa del Rey, but we can’t complain about how this 4th event in the 52 Super Series has gone. We’re closing it with a 35 point lead on the second placed team in the overall circuit results, a point more than we had before the event started. When we started today it was hard to say if the wind would have been better on the right or the left hand side, We chose the left and got it at the start while Quantum chose the other side and made the right choice. Too bad there was just one race today because we could have recaptured the lead with another race, but Quantum was just one point behind and we were expecting them to have a come back. We’re heading into the last event of the season with a healthy advantage, we have to look at our weaknesses- for example I myself was a bit too conservative- but we still have consolidated our leadership in the 52 Super Series.”
52 Super Series at 34th Copa del Rey Mapfre, Palma de Mallorca
1 Quantum Racing, USA (Doug DeVos USA) (3,4,2,9,5,2,1,1) 27pts
2 Azzurra, ITA (Pablo/Alberto Roemmers ARG) (1,1,5,3,4,6,5,5) 30pts
3 Platoon, GER (Harm Müller-Spreer GER) (6,3,3,1,1,4,8,10) 36pts
4 Bronenosec, RUS (Vladimir Liubomirov RUS) (10,5,1,4,2,3,2,11) 38pts
5 Alegre, GBR (Andres Soriano USA) (2,2,6,5,10,9,3,7) 44pts
6 Sled, USA (Takashi Okura JPN) (5,7,8,2,9,5,4,4) 44pts
7 Provezza, TUR (Ergin Imre TUR) (4,11,10,6,11,1,9,6) 58pts
8 Spookie, USA (Steve Benjamin USA) (7,10,4,11,8,10,7,2) 59pts
9 Paprec FRA (Jean-Luc Petithuguenin FRA) (8,9,11,7,3,11,11,3) 63pts
10 Xio/Hurakan, ITA (Marco Serafini ITA) (9,8,7,10,7,8,6,8) 63pts
11 Gladiator, GBR (Tony Langley GBR) (11,6,9,8,6,7,10,9) 66pts
52 SUPER SERIES Overall standings after 4 events
1.Azzurra, 140 p.
2.Quantum Racing, 175 p.
3.Sled, 188 p.
4.Bronenosec, 189 p.
5.Alegre, 199 p.
6.Platoon, 204 p.
7.Provezza, 219p.
8.Rán Racing, 267 p.
9.Gladiator, 296 p.
10.Paprec, 305 p.
11.Xio Hurakan, 328 p.
12.Interlodge, 375 p.
13.Phoenix, 380 p.
14.Spookie, 402 p.
2015 Calendar 52 SUPER SERIES
18 to 23 May: Valencia (Spain)
8 to 13 June: Porto Cervo (Italy, Sardinia)
13 to 18 July: Puerto Portals (Spain, Mallorca)
3 to 8 August: Palma de Mallorca (Spain)
15 to 20 September: Cascais (Portugal)
AZZURRA
Pablo and Alberto Roemmers - Owners
Alberto Roemmers- Helm
Guillermo Parada - Skipper
Vasco Vascotto - Tactician
Bruno Zirilli - Navigator
Giovanni Cassinari - Mainsail
Mariano Caputo - Bowman
Juan Pablo Marcos - Midbow
David Vera - Pitman
Maciel Cichetti - Trimmer
Grant Loretz - Trimmer
Mariano Parada - Trimmer
Gabriel Marino - Grinder
Alejandro Colla – Grinder
Nicola Pilastro- Grinder
Boat Captain: Pedro Rossi
Coach: Guillermo Baquerizas
Coach: Marco Capitani
Contact:
Giuliano Luzzatto
Media Relations
Tel. +39 348 5966160
www.azzurra.it