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


Quebramar-Chrysler scores double victory on opening day of Trofeo de la Reina

Thursday, 12 July 2007: The opening day of the Trofeo de la Reina and maiden race of the GP42 fleet couldn't have been better. Valencia's sea breeze was blowing between 11 and 15 knots from the southeast (110-120 degrees) and racing was very close. Being the very first regatta for most of the teams, Thursday and in particular the first race, were used as a means of finetuning for both crews and yachts.

Quebramar-Chrysler scored a double victory after being the most consistent team that made the least number of errors. The yacht is crewed entirely by members of the Spanish America's Cup challenger Desafío Español, a fact the certainly contributed to their performance. Still, the first 5 positions were constantly alternating and the preliminary conclusions from the first day were particularly positive.

In the first race, a left shift in the second half of the first upwind leg, clearly tipped the balance, leaving behind the boats that had chosen the right. Still, there was a continuous fight till the end. Quebramar-Chrysler crossed the finish line first and Zurich, Movistar and Roma followed, separated by a couple of seconds from each other.

The left shift became permanent and in the second race, the fleet chose to go to the left but during the rest of the race, the winning strategy was just to in phase with the wind. No major wind shifts took place and apparently, Santi López-Vazquez, tactician on Quebramar-Chrysler, read the patterns correctly and allowed his team to score another victory and lead the score table.

Standings after 2 races

1. Quebramar-Chrysler, 2 points, (1+1)
2. Zurich, 5 points, (2+3)
3. Roma GP42, 6 points, (4+2)
4. Movistar, 8 points, (3+5)
5. Seawonder 007, 10 points, (6+4)
6. Canarias Puerto Calero, 11 points, (5+6)
7. Fermax, 14 points, (7+7)
8. AA-HPB, 16 points, (8+8)

 

Photos

Check all photos from today's two races in the website's section here.

 


Quotes

Jan Santana, owner of Zurich: "Firstly, I'm very happy to see the fleet here with 8 boats, excatly the number we were aiming at. Secondly and without any doubt today's two races were very close and the first five boats were constantly alternating positions. Quebramar-Chrysler were the most consistent and committed less errors than the rest of us and as a result scored two victories. All 8 boats are very competitive and there are hardly any speed differences. Don't forget that for the immense majority of the GP42 class it's the first real race and it was easy to observe that some lacked crew work in the first race. Overall, boatspeed is very equal and this can be observed in the start where all boats power ahead sideby side. In the second race, when crew had gained much more confidence, it was tactics that made the difference. The were harder fights and leadership was constantly changing.

This was our target when the class was designed and I'm convinced the GP42's will play an integral role in the future of professional sailing. They combine lower costs while being very exciting and fun boats. They come at half the cost of a TP52 and if you compare them to the IMS class, it suffices to say that with our older boat we would have been sailing downwind at 8-9 knots instead of 14 as was the case in the second race. The reaction of the crew is also very positive and they greatly appreciate this leap forward."

Jordi Calafat, helmsman of Zurich: "It was a good day, with nice wind and conditions, a high crew level and it will certainly be an exciting season. Due to my America's Cup involvement I hadn't helmed a boat for 3 years now and I was feeling a little bit rusty. Nevertheless, by the end of the season we will have achieved a good level. The two races were carried out with fairly constant conditions, without any big wind shifts. In the second half of the first beat the left side was favored but in general there was no prevailing pattern. In particular, the second race was open and you just had to keep in phase with the wind.

Upwind we are a little bit slower than the other boats but downwind we are equal with the rest. Concerning the other, Quebramar-Chrysler and Movistar seem to be good boats. In gerenal, sailing on a GP42 is fairly similar to a TP52, with the biggest difference being the reduced size. You have to carry out the same tasks but you have 5 or 6 sailors less than a TP52. Our bowman, Pepe Ribes, certainly noticed that. Still, these boats are more affordable and can very well be a great success."

Flavio Favini, helmsman of Seawonder 007: "For us the first day was a tod difficult. We hadn't sailed under these conditions before with this boat and we noticed we suffered slightly because of the waves. We rounded the first buoy in both races second or third but then slipped back. The boat is new, we have to work more on it and it seems we made an error somewhere. Althouhg we already race in Cres last month, conditions were different. There were only 3 boats and the sea was much flatter. We will have to make some changes on the boat. Conserning the othter teams, I noticed Quebramar-Chrysler, Zurich and Movistar are slightly faster than us. Finally, helming a GP42 is very different from an America's Cup Class, but these are very interesting and fun yachts and we had two nice races.

 


Audio files (Press on green button to start the audio file, pause or stop it with the control buttons)

Jan Santana, owner of Zurich, in Spanish:

Jordi Calafat, helmsman of Zurich, in Spanish:

Flavio Favini, helmsman of Seawonder 007, in Italian:

Eloy Herrero, skipper of Fermax, in Spanish: