Image copyright Franck Socha/www.francksocha.com/ALL4ONE.
by Stephanie Nadin
The Marseille Trophy finished today with the 9th race finally cancelled due to strong mistral wind, which prevented the race committee from launching this last race of the week.
Audi Sailing Team powered by ALL4ONE finished 7th, and despite the results which don't really show their progress, the team has really improved since the Cascais Trophy, being in terms of boat speed or new boat's handling by the crew.
The team is confident for the future and shows a strong potential after having won a race and finished 3rd of the coastal race.
Next stop for the Audi MedCup will be Cagliari, Sardinia, 19-24 July.
Jochen Schümann, Skipper : "It was a long week for us, with a lot of missed opportunities, but I'm actually happy, not with the results, but with the options we had here. I think we proved that the boat is much better than we thought after Cascais, especially in the breezy conditions we had yesterday in the coastal race. The boat showed great performance downwind, which was one of our strength in the past year. So we're back to that, which is very important because it was the area where we lost the most places in Cascais. We had the chance to do some good races here (twice being in the lead, once winning, 3rd in the coastal race even if we caught a big fish in our rudder), so I think that shows good potential. We're ready for more, because I think there is more to do and we can do better."
Sebastien Col, Tactician : "We will keep in our minds from this week the races where we did a good performance. For sure we still miss some consistency looking at the global picture of an event, but we have proved ourselves and the other teams that we are able to "play" with the rest of the fleet. The modifications that were done on the sails and on the boat between the Cascais and Marseille trophies have been efficient. We're still far from the results we want to see on the scoreboard, and we must carry on working hard to be more competitive in Cagliari in a month. But we leave Marseille with far better team's dynamics than in Cascais, where it had been very tough for us.
Especially after yesterday's coastal race, where we have managed to come back in the top 3 after all that happened to us on that race. We will capitalize on that in order to exchange a maximum amongst each other, in order to take the right decisions to sail the boat faster in Cagliari. We will fight hard again and won't give up on anything, as we are talking about very high level. We are very close in terms of points to the other teams, with a great progression potential in front of us."
Overall standings after 8 races TP52 Series - Marseille Trophy
1. Container - 28,5 points
2. Quantum Racing - 30 points
3. Audi Azzurra Sailing Team - 37 points
4. Bribon - 38 points
5. Synergy Russian Sailing Team - 39,5 points
6. Ran - 41,5 points
7. Audi Sailing Team powered by ALL4ONE - 43,5 points
8. Gladiator - 47 points
Overall ranking Audi MedCup 2011 after 2 events - TP52 Series
1. Quantum Racing - 49 points
2. Container - 60 points
3. Audi Azzurra Sailing Team - 69,5 points
4. Synergy Russian Sailing Team - 76,5 points
5. Ran - 82 points
6. Bribon - 85,5 points
7. Audi Sailing Team powered by ALL4ONE - 101,5 points
8. Gladiator - 132,5 points
Audi Sailing Team powered by ALL4ONE
Audi MedCup
