Thursday 20 January 2011

RC44: Mascalzone Latino Holds the Provisional Leadership at Key West




Mascalzone Latino RC44. Supplied image.

by Lorenza Priamo

Yesterday it was a fabulous day for Mascalzone Latino, who is taking part in the 2011 Key West Week. Vincenzo Onorato’s team won both races and this achievement granted it the first position on the provisional scoreboard.

The weather conditions were perfect for a regatta, with a Southerly wind averaging 12 knots; conditions that enabled the Regatta Committee to arrange two races: the first one on a four-sided route (two upwind and two downwind legs), the second one on a five-sided route (three upwind and two downwind legs).

Two good starts (the first one better than the second), right tactical decisions and crew hard work let Mascalzone Latino leave behind, in both races, Team Aqua with tactician Cameron Appleton and ORACLE Racing with Russell Coutts calling tactics.

During the whole day the leading positions changed several times at each mark, with Mascalzone Latino always on top of the fleet, making life hard for the competitors.

“It was the case of a hard battle in both regattas, from start to finish – stated Vincenzo Onorato, visibly happy – today was a great day for Mascalzone Latino. Two first places added to the first position on the scoreboard are a good achievement, for the crew’s motivation also, even though we can’t forget we are only at the beginning of this championship. There are still many regattas to race, and the other competitors are at least on the same level as we are; nevertheless we are on the right track and believe to be quite capable to carry on as well as we started.”

Today there are two more regattas on schedule, starting time again at 10H30. The weather forecast is for very light breezes.

Provisional general scoreboard

1. Mascalzone Latino, ITA , (Vincenzo Onorato-Francesco Bruni), 3-2-1-1, 7 pti
2. Team Aqua, UAE, (Don Wilson-Cameron Appelton) 1-1-2-3, 7 pti
3. Oracle Racing, USA, (Chris Museler-Russell Coutts), 2-3-3-2, 10 pti

Mascalzone Latino
RC44