Audi A1 powered by ALL4ONE, © Nico Martinez/WSM.
by Stephanie Nadin
After a start under a cloudy sky, the sun came through for the coastal race of the TP52 fleet sailing in front of Valencia. In a wind from 14 to 18 knots, the TP52 Worlds contenders did a great show particularly when they crossed the finish line, which was right in the middle of Port America's Cup.
Audi A1 powered by ALL4ONE finished 3rd, which allowed the French-German team to move one more spot up in the provisional general ranking. Two competition days remain in order to try reaching the 3rd place on the podium.
Sebastien Col, Tactician: " We had a long race which almost looked like an old Olympic triangle from the 1980s, with three upwind beats (two of them of 4 miles), two downwind legs, and two long reaching legs, with a finish in the America's Cup harbour, which was really nice. We had a good start in the middle of the fleet, and then we managed to be straight away in the 3-4 leading at the first mark. We kept our advance after that. We went through a difficult moment in the reaching legs, as our spinnaker is a little deeper than the others, so it was not so easy for us to hold our sail, where the other teams had flatter sails. So we shall anticipate that for next year. But we managed to keep our spot and to finish 3rd here in Port America's Cup, just behind Cristabella, which did a very nice race with John Cutler on board (he's our tactician on the Louis Vuitton Trophy). So it was a nice day for ALL4ONE in general."
TP52s sail into the harbour in Valencia, © Nico Martinez/WSM
Christian Scherrer, Trimmer: "this race has been pretty good for us. We managed to secure a third place. We were fighting hard for the second place against Cristabella; Matador was pretty much off on the first beat. They took the right hand side, which was favourable, and then on the reaching leg they extended when we were having some fights with Cristabella, but in the end they took the 2nd place and we took the third place. But overall I think we did a good race. Having the arrival in the harbour of Valencia was really nice; we should do that more often. "
Provisional overall standings after 6 races
1. Quantum Racing - 19,5 points
2. Matador - 20,5 points
3. Synergy - 22 points
4. Artemis - 24 points
5. Audi A1 powered by ALL4ONE - 32,5 points
6. Cristabella - 33 points
7. Bigamist - 37,5 points
8. Pace - 52 points
9. Weapon of Choice - 53,5 points
ALL4ONE
TP52 Worlds
