Today saw Florida’s southernmost island offer the weather conditions it is renowned for: sunny skies, warm temperatures as well as a wind that dropped from 18 knots at the beginning to 15. It was a day of champagne sailing for 52 Super Series 2013.
Azzurra team - Photo by Jesus Renedo/Azzurra
In the day’s first race, seventh of the event, Azzurra scored a commanding win, dominating her opponents from the onset. It was a uneventful race that showed the crew’s value. The finishing order, on Azzurra’s wake and more than a minute later, was Ran, Quantum, Gladiator, Interlodge and Rio.
In the second race, Azzurra had a good start, but Quantum grabbed the lead thanks to a more favored position, taking advantage of the left wind shift. Still, Interlodge rounded the first weather mark in the lead, followed by Quantum and Ran. Azzurra rounds on the tails of the Swedes and overtakes them soon after the gennaker hoist. The race saw some fierce fights but positions didn’t change. The finish line was however halfway through a third beat: that’s where Azzurra, in second place ahead of Quantum, was closely marked by Interlodge that didn’t give them the opportunity to stay in phase with the breeze.
As a result, Ran climbed back to third place while Interlodge lost the race to Quantum. With a fourth place, Azzurra still hold on to its leadership but the scoretable couldn’t be tighter: Ran is tied on equal points and Quantum trails by a mere point. As Vascotto had already predicted, everything will be up for grabs tomorrow.
Quotes of the day
Guillermo Parada, skipper: “In a day with puffy and shifty conditions like the ones we had today, it’s hard to play the fleet, so you have to take some risks. In the first race everything went well while in the second one we didn’t take into account the fact Interlodge could tack and do us harm in the last beat. They did it in three occasions and that cost us. However, that’s all part of the game, we have strong opponents and we go into the final day tied. We’ll see how this ends up tomorrow but we feel good.”
Tomislav Basic, strategist: “I joined Azzurra this year and I’m the strategist and starting helmsman. It’s a real pleasure being part of this great team. I truly enjoy it. I know Vasco since many years and I like sailing with him. He makes my job easier because, although he takes decisions very fast, he never puts pressure on the people around him. Regarding the first race, there isn’t much I could say about, it’s one of those races that you just enjoy. We were leading and thanks to Vasco that spotted the shifts perfectly our lead increased.
Looking back now, it was an easy race. As for the second race, I knew there would be more boats around the committee boat at the start, so we opted for the middle of the fleet in order to be safe. The boat to our leeward, Quantum, made constant small gains as the breeze was shifting slowly left but we were always very close in the first beat and run. At the bottom mark we were close together with Quantum and Ran. However, we are unhappy with the last upwind leg because Interlodge took on us a few times and we couldn’t stay in front of Ran. With Quantum in the lead we already had one more boat to take care of, so Interlodge made it tough for us. We are quite unhappy with that race.”
The Key West Race Week comes to an end on Friday with the last, and decisive, two races, starting at 11:30am local time (5:30pm CET).
52 SUPER SERIES. Quantum Key West 2013
Overall after 8 races:
1 Azzurra 21pts
2 Rán Racing 21pts
3 Quantum Racing 22pts
4 Interlodge 26pts
5 Gladiator 33pts
6 Rio 45pts
