by Giuliano Luzzatto
With a first and second today, the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda's yacht has won the Rolex Capri Sailing Week and taken command of the Barclays 52 Super Series.
The wind came back for the final day of the Rolex Capri Sailing Week, allowing two races to be run and confirming Azzurra's clear supremacy over her tough competitors. Before todays racing Azzurra was tied for first with Vesper, the American boat that finished second, four points behind Azzurra. Quantum Racing, direct opponent of Azzurra, finished in third, six points behind.
Azzurra closed the first regatta in second position, after rounding the first windward mark in third behind Ran and Vesper. She then passed Vesper during the first run using different reaching tactics.
For the second race, Vasco Vascotto, Azzurra's tactician, wasn't surprised by a sudden right shift shortly after the start. The best boats came into the windward mark right on each others heels, and Azzurra was the first around. From then on the YCCS yacht extended her lead to win, followed by the newcomer Phoenix, then Quantum and Vesper.
The race committee tried to get a third race off before the time limit, but an unstable breeze didn't collaborate. With her win in the last race, Azzurra took home the Barclays 52 Super Series first event. The second event will take place from the 10th to the 14th of June at Porto Cervo, organised by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, as the Audi TP52 World Championship.
The Rolex Capri Sailing Week was organised by the International Maxi Yacht Association together with the Yacht Club Capri.
Todays quotes:
Riccardo Bonadeo, Commodore of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda: “This is a very important victory for us, the best way to start off the Med circuit after our second place at the beginning of the season in the US. We are serene and optimistic now when thinking about the Audi TP52 World Championship, the circuits home event for us at Porto Cervo.”
Guillermo Parada, skipper and helmsman: “Obviously a great day and it was a great way to finish. After a hard month in USA we didn’t get the results we were expecting, so it was a tough wait, but we worked hard - we knew it was going to be light winds so we prepared ourselves to make sure we were giving ourselves a good chance in the light stuff. Luckily the boatspeed was really, really good and that let us do our job and have a good regatta. We are happy that we had a very good boat to go to Porto Cervo with to try to repeat our win of last year, so I’m really happy for the team, for the owners, for the yacht club, I’m saying thanks. I would like to especially thank my family which always supported me, and a very close friend who helped us a lot with the boat and is going through a not very good moment, so I would like to dedicate this win to him.”
Vasco Vascotto, tactician: "This was an important day, these consistent results are the payoff for our hard work and they give a boost to morale. We won in light air, not our favourite conditions, but Guillermo was perfect at the helm and the whole crew performed magnificently. We're not heroes today, nor were we villans yesterday when we didn't take home the results we expected.”
Final Results: BARCLAYS 52 SUPER SERIES - Capri, Italy
After 6 races
1 Azzurra, ITA, (Alberto Roemmers ARG) (3,3,7,1,2,1) 17pts
2 Vesper, USA, (Jim Swartz USA) (5,2,1,6,3,4) 21pts
3 Quantum Racing, USA, (Doug De Vos USA) (4,1,6,4,5,3) 23pts
4 Rán Racing, SWE, (Niklas Zennström SWE) (2,8,2,5,1,6) 24pts
5 Phoenix, BRA, (Eduardo de Souza Ramos BRA) (1,7,3,8,9,2) 30pts
6 Gladiator, GBR, (Tony Langley GBR) (9,6,5,3,6,5) 34pts
7 Provezza 7, TUR, (Ergin Imre TUR) (6,4,8,2,8,7) 35pts
8 Paprec, FRA, (Jean Luc Petithugenin FRA) (7,5,9,7,4,8) 40pts
9 B2, ITA, (Michele Galli ITA) (8,9,4,9,7,9) 46pts
Barclays 52 Super Series – 2014 Racing Schedule
20- 24 May - Rolex Capri Sailing Week
10 - 14 June - TP52 World Championship, Porto Cervo
4 - 9 August - Copa del Rey, Palma de Mallorca
10-14 September – Royal Cup, Ibiza
AZZURRA
Guillermo Parada - Skipper and Helmsman
Vasco Vascotto - Tactician
Mariano Parada - Strategist
Bruno Zirilli - Navigator
Paul Westlake - Mainsail
Mariano Caputo - Bowman
Juan Pablo Marcos - Midbow
David Vera - Pitman
Maciel Cichetti - Trimmer
Grant Loretz - Trimmer
Gabriel Marino - Grinder
Alejandro Colla – Grinder
Boat Captain: Pedro Rossi
Coach: Guillermo Baquerizas
Coach: Rod Davies
Owner: Mr. Alberto Roemmers
Azzurra
Barclays 52 Super Series
Rolex Capri Sailing Week
