Azzurra Stick to their Guns as TP52 World Title Beckons
Carrying a 14 points lead going into the final day of the TP52 World Championships, Azzurra need only two solid results Saturday to be sure of collecting the title. But so intense and closely matched is the 12 boats fleet racing in these sea breeze conditions on the Bay of Palma, Mallorca, the outcome is not yet certain, as Azzurra’s skipper-helm Guillermo Parada cautions:
It is not over until it is over.
Guillermo Parada, skipper-helm, Azzurra
Azzurra’s 5,3 for the day held intact the same 14 points margin that they had started Friday with, now having held the overall lead for three days. That they were beaten twice today by the defending champions Quantum Racing’s 4,2 heated up the rivalry which has been on the back burner a bit this regatta, but the American flagged team moved up to second overall having been languishing in ninth overall two days ago. And fiercely superstitious Italian tactician Vasco Vascotto was pleased to ride out Friday 17th (which compares with the Anglo Saxon Friday 13th) with no disasters.
Top performers of the day were Niklas Zennström’s Rán Racing. The winners of the Valencia regatta in May bounced back from Thursday’s painful 21 points stinker to pair together a 2,1 and promote themselves to fourth overall, two points behind Harm Müller-Spreer’s Platoon which won the first of today’s two windward-leeward races which were both contested in 8-12kts sea breezes.
The team which is leading the title charge are resolute that they will change nothing on the final day. Azzurra skipper Parada said they stuck by their ‘blue book’ today, working to their usual, hard wired routines and belief systems that have served so well for them so far, and will stick by their processes Saturday. First race today they did have to recover from tenth at the first top mark to rescue a fifth, even if they were passed by Quantum Racing down the final run relinquishing fourth. And second race Azzurra were again passed by the 52 SUPER SERIES champions battling it out in the wake of Rán Racing over a course which was marked by a big shift in the breeze to the left.
Platoon’s Markus Wieser and Seb Col along with Morgan Larson and Adam Beashel on Rán Racing called the first beat of Race 7 best, working the right hand side closest to the land effect which creates a starboard tack lift. Platoon won handily with Rán second and Allegre third. Key was the choice of the right on the upwind, a decision Rán’s navigator Steve Hayles explained:
We had a long line up and had a long chat about our history here as a team and we have done a huge amount here and on this occasion it was right. But that does not make us smart. We got plenty wrong yesterday but we were strong on that side, we made a good call.
Steve Hayles, navigator, Rán Racing
It is very subtle. It is not about 20 or 30 degree shifts it is about three or four degrees here and there and a little more pressure. But we had sailed a long way up there and looked at the computer track and what people thought. But we are not trying to be clever because we got it hopelessly wrong the day before.
Steve Hayles, navigator, Rán Racing
Of their rollercoaster ride 21pts Thursday and three today he said:
We were ninth overall after yesterday. We had doubled our score in just one day. It is very, very tough here, but we know we are a good team, we won the first event and obviously today was fantastic. But we are a good team at bouncing back. The key is not to change too much. The key is to come out and trust yourselves as a team which is good, which has a history and all the work that has gone into making it good.
For sure everyone will be a bit more upbeat, a bit more chirpy tonight. You can’t change that. It is human nature. Yesterday there was some honesty but really everyone wanted to get to bed and forget about it and start a new day today.
Steve Hayles, navigator, Rán Racing
Meantime as they contemplate what would be their first world title as Azzurra – although many crew won as Matador in 2009, and a world title which would rank as tactician Vasco Vascotto’s 25th major world title, Azzurra’s Parada concludes:
We will stick to our rules to go racing just like it was the first day of the regatta, keeping an eye on our closest rivals not just for here but for the season overall. It is a little bit of a cushion but it is not over until it is over.
Guillermo Parada, skipper-helm, Azzurra
A superstition explained:
Friday the…17th?:
In Italy, some people consider the number 13 to bring good luck, while the number 17 is thought to bring bad luck. The Roman number for 17 is XVII. If you take those same symbols and rearrange them to make the Latin phrase VIXI, it means “I have lived”, which can also be interpreted as “I am dead”……..
TP 52 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, Puerto Portals, Mallorca, After Day 4, Eight Races:
- Azzurra, ITA (Pablo/Alberto Roemmers ARG) (2,7,2,3,2,1,5,3) 25pts
- Quantum Racing, USA (Doug DeVos USA) (3,11,3,9,3,4,4,2) 39pts
- Platoon, GER (Harm Müller-Spreer GER) (1,5,6,12,8,3,1,6) 42pts
- Rán Racing, SWE (Niklas Zennström SWE) (5,4,5,6,11,10,2,1) 44pts
- Alegre, GBR (Andres Soriano USA) (7,2,7,10,1,6,3,10) 46pts
- Bronenosec, RUS (Vladimir Liubomirov RUS) (9,3,10,2,5,2,10,5) 46pts
- Provezza, TUR (Ergin Imre TUR) (11,6,1,1,10,7,6,8) 50pts
- Sled, USA (Takashi Okura JPN) (6,1,12,7,7,8,7,4) 52pts
- Phoenix, BRA, (Eduardo de Souza Ramos BRA) (4,12,4,4,4,12,9,9) 58pts
- Gladiator, GBR (Tony Langley GBR) (DNF/13,10,9,5,6,11,8,11) 73pts
- Xio/Hurakan, ITA (Guiseppe Parodi ITA) (8,8,8,11,12,9,11,7) 74pts
- Paprec FRA (Jean-Luc Petithuguenin FRA) (10,9,11,8,9,5,12,12) 76pts
Quotes:
Steve Hayles (GBR) navigator Rán Racing (SWE): “It is such a tough fleet. People ask what we did differently and the real answer is nothing. We go out with the same mentality and try to do things in the same way but that is just how good the fleet is. Yesterday we put 21 points on the scoreboard and today it was three. And very honestly last night we sat down and everyone was a bit annoyed but nothing changes. The boats is the same, the people are the same and we all do our jobs and sometimes the chips fall your way, sometimes they don’t.
They have chosen the race course well. Sometimes it can be a bit one sided here in Palma but they have made it hard to guess. We had a long line up and had a long chat about our history here as a team and we have done a huge amount here and on this occasion it was right. We got plenty wrong yesterday but we were strong on that side, we made a good call. We did not get a good start and we were strong we wanted to go that way and so got second, and then the second race was just about a really, really good start. It is very subtle.
It is not about 20 or 30 degree shifts it is about three or four degrees and a little more pressure. But we had sailed a long way up there and looked at the computer track and what people thought. But we are not trying to be clever because we got it hopelessly wrong the day before.
We were ninth overall after yesterday. We had doubled our score in just one day. It is very, very tough here, but we know we are a good team, we won the first event and obviously today was fantastic. But we are a good team at bouncing back. The key is not to change too much. The key is to come out and trust yourselves as a team which is good, which has a history and all the work that has gone into making it good.
For sure everyone will be a bit more upbeat, a bit more chirpy tonight. You can’t change that. It is human nature. Yesterday there was some honesty but really everyone wanted to get to bed and forget about it and start a new day today.”
Ed Baird (USA) helmsman Quantum Racing (USA): “In essence this is the first regatta I have sailed this year and this is the first event Ado and I have sailed together in four years, we are starting to get our rhythm down and understand what each other are saying when we speak. But the whole team is smoothing things out and improving. There is so much that goes on, just little subtleties are important. If there is any hesitation or confusion then other teams can get a jump on you so we need to be absolute, solid, really sure of what we are trying to accomplish. When I am driving you don’t see much of what is going on on the race course. So you have to have a picture painted for you. For the start I have to look at the whole process of what is going around me, how the team is working and the sails are being handled and our angles and what is the other boats and understand where we are in that rhythm. But on the race course my job is really to keep the boat at an efficient boat speed.
If the last day goes like today I will be happy and if it goes like two days ago I won’t be happy.”
Guillermo Parada (ARG) skipper-helm Azzurra (ARG): “For sure today was one dangerous day for us, one where we can have a big disaster but we made sure we stuck to the blue book, our routines and tried to avoid risks and to have two solid race, trying to control both corners, but be conservative and I think we achieved that. We still managed to do our target of four points per race. Still, we went through a bit of a situation with a shift to the right which left us in tenth position at the weather mark but we were able to keep our heads cool and recover position by position. But it was a good solid day which is good for tomorrow.
We will stick to our rules, to go racing just like it was the first day of the regatta, keeping an eye on our closest rivals not just for here but for the season overall. It is a little bit of a cushion but it is not over until it is over.”
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