Trofeo Pirelli-Copa Carlo Negri
Santa Margherita (ITA), May 1-4

Giraglia Rolex Cup
Saint Tropez (FRA), June 8-10

Rolex Trofeo de la Reina
Valencia (ESP), July 10-13

Copa del Rey AUDI Mapfre
Palma (ESP), July 26 - Aug 2

Trofeu Quebramar-Chrysler
Cascais (POR), Aug 28-30

Trofeo Cesar Manrique
Puerto Calero (ESP), Oct 16-18

News

Roma extends leadership in second day of Trofeu Quebramar-Chrysler in tricky conditions

Friday, 31 August 2007: Roma, the Italian GP42 boats helmed by French America's Cup sailor Sébastien Col, continued their strong performance and extended their leadership at the Trofeu Quebramar-Chrysler. Conditions during the second day of the event were completely different from the opening day and the extremely shifty and variable winds put tacticians under pressure, especially in the second and third races. Unfortunately, the initial weather forecast proved wrong and instead of the constant breeze at around 20 knots, the bay of Cascais was dominated by unstable and patchy winds varying from 11 down to 3 knots and constantly shifting, sometimes by 25 degrees.

After 6 races, Roma is leading the event with 13 points followed by Portuguese Quebramar-Chrysler and Spanish Canarias Puerto Calero. Concerning the overall 2007 circuit, Quebramar-Chrysler extended their lead and now have 73 points. Seawonder 007 is always second with 98 points while Roma further secured third position with 110 points, 12 less than Zurich. Unless a major mishap takes place on Saturday, the Italians will have their two boats on the podium for the 2007 season.

Despite the postponement that lasted an hour and a half, the first race went according to the form book. Quebramar-Chrysler lead the fleet since the beginning, followed by Canarias Puerto Calero and Seawonder 007. This order was kept in all mark roundings and none of the remaining boats threatened to break the top-3 order. The Portuguese boat finally crossed the finish line more than 40 seconds ahead of Canarias Puerto Calero.

When the second race started it was becoming clear that tacticians would have to be very knowledgeable and read wind patterns to perfection. Any error on the choice of the side of the course would lead to disaster. That was what took place after a big shift to the right. Quum and Roma went all the way to the right side of the course and lead the race from the beginning. Quum scored their first victory in 2007, after having overtaken Roma in the first run. The rest of the fleet crossed the finish line more than a minute after the two leaders.

If conditions in Valencia during the Louis Vuitton Acts last spring were sometimes called "casino-like" then what we witnessed in Friday's third race was truly Las Vegas. The race committee had to move the starting line a mile further to the north in search of better conditions, since wind had dropped to 5 knots. At that time of the day (5:30pm) winds tend to usually shift to the right, towards the land, but in that case the change was exaggerated. Roma went very close to the shore and managed to climb from 6th to 1st. Quebramar-Chrysler was steadier and always in pahse with the breeze and finished second. Fermax was third, their best result so far in this event.

Three more races are scheduled for Saturday, closing day of the event, but most probably just two will take place given the 4pm limit.

 

Quotes

Thierry Péponnet, tactician of Zurich: We are not happy with the performance of our team. We are fifth in the provisional classification and so far we have been unable to reach our potential. We considerably improved our starts compared to yesterday but we are still handicapped by our boat speed. We still have a lot of things to improve, definitely we are not the fastest on the water and tactically we have been on the wrong side of the course quite a few times. So, it's a combination of factors that caused us to be ranked lower than our potential.

We have excellent people onboard but it's the first time we all sail together. We have to get to know each other and we still lack the team factor. We could be better and I hope we reach that tomorrow. Cascais has been very tricky so far, I didn't expect so many wind shifts. In reality there are two opposite winds that cancel each other and I still haven't understood what is happening. You have to be in phase with the wind and today after two days sailing here, I still feel I was not in phase. I still have a lot of things to learn about this race area.

Compared to the TP52, the GP42 boats are much more dynamic and accelerate faster. As a tactician in both classes, the main difference is the size of the fleet. In the latest TP52 races there were almost 25 boats taking part while here we only have 8. As a result, race management is different but I think that next year when this class has around 15 boats, races will become very interesting.

 

Photos

Check the photos from the second day of the Trofeu Quebramar-Chrysler here.

 

Provisional Classification after 6 races

1. Roma 2+1+2+5+2+1 13 points
2.Quebramar-Chrysler3+3+4+1+5+218 points
3.Canarias Puerto Calero5+2+3+2+3+722 points
4.Seawonder 0071+5+1+3+7+623 points
5.Zurich4+4+5+4+6+427 points
6.Quum Marketing7+6+6+7+1+532 points
7.Fermax6+9+9+6+4+337 points
8.AA-HPB8+7+9+8+8+848 points