Marazzi Sailing trials against two other TP52s. Image copyright MarazziSailing Team.
by Sabina Mollart-Rogerson
Star campaigner Marazzi, who finished fifth in 2008 in Qingdao and fourth in Athens and is looking ahead to 2012 the Olympic regatta at Weymouth and Portland, England has formed the Audi MedCup Circuit’s first Swiss team, sailing under the flag of the Gstaad Yacht Club, forming the biggest Swiss sailing project since America’s Cup winning Alinghi.
Marazzi will skipper and helm the TP52, which finished fourth overall last season as Geneva based Swedish businessman Torbjorn Tornqvist’s Artemis. The team, under the guidance of Schuemann and Finn Olympic bronze medallist John Cutler, includes well known Swiss sail trimmer Christian “Blumi” Scherrer, an America’s Cup winner with Alnghi in Auckland, and Marazzi’s Star crew Enrico de Maria.
Since taking on the boat the team have managed to complete six days of intensive training off Valencia prior to final training before the first Audi MedCup Circuit event, the City of Alicante Trophy regatta starts next week.
Jochen Schuemann, who won the America's Cup twice with Alinghi, said: “During the last couple of months we have worked very hard to get this young and ambitious project under way. I’m very happy to help Flavio Marazzi to establish a new Pro Team and to share my experience in sailing and in managing a sailing team. MARAZZISAILING combines the experience and professionalism of established America's Cup sailors with the “freshness” of Olympic talents. I’m very much looking forward to participating again in the Champion’s League of Sailing.”
Private individuals are backing this new Swiss TP52 project from the Gstaad Yacht Club. The team’s ambitious objective is to generate further interest and backing from this first event with a top finishing place as the catalyst to secure the future participation of the highly motivated Swiss team through additional partners and sponsors.
Flavio Marazzi commented: “I’m very proud to sail the Audi MedCup together with Sailing Legends like Jochen Schümann and John Cutler. For me the MarazziSailing TP52 Project is an important step on my way to the Olympic Games 2012. As a Star boat sailor sailing within a team of 14 people is a real new challenge and I am convinced that our team will show a good performance in Alicante already.”
RIGHT TO PLAY is the social partner of the MarazziSailing team. It is an international humanitarian organisation, which uses games and sports programmes around the world to help children suffering from war, poverty and illnesses, in order to promote their health and education and to improve their quality of life in a sustainable way.
Flavio Marazzi, who has children, has been an ambassador of RIGHT TO PLAY for several years.
Audi MedCup
No comments:
Post a Comment