The day of the Lexus

Russell Coutts' team win on day two of the TP52 racing at the Copa del Rey-Agua Brava

After a postponement of almost two hours, due to constant wind shifts, the start signal was given for the second day of racing at the 24th Copa del Rey-Agua Brava.

Russell Coutts' Lexus proved the star of the day, achieving a lead of over two minutes ahead of second placed, Movistar-Pisco Sour, who's result have put them at the top of the overall results for the Copa del Rey, also maintaining their lead in the Breitling MedCup TP52 overall championship, thanks to their second place yesterday. Caixa Galicia has moved down to second just one point off the lead, after finishing fourth today.

After a delay, a northeasterly breeze of 13 knots filled in. After the start the fleet divided into two groups. The first stayed right side, led by Lexus although Balearia were even further to the right, but the lack of speed compared with the rest of the boats, that have been under development for some months now, meant that the vessel was not able to keep up with Coutts & co.

Atalanti, with Dean Barker at the helm, was second at the first windward mark, closely followed by Cristabella, Movistar, Caixa Galicia and Balearia. Meanwhile the left hand group were led by Siemens followed by Bambakou and Orlanda-Olympus who had to restat after being OCS. The four TP52s made their first mark rounding almost simultaneously, providing one of the most spectacular scenes of the day. Bribon and Aifos were last to round.

From there on, Lexus sailing in clear air focussed on increasing her lead, getting further and further ahead of the fleet, who were fighting for positions behind them. Movistar and Caixa Galicia were entwined in a ferocious battle in the downwind leg, luffing one another, a few metres away from Atalanti, in second place. Bribon were showed spectacular speed downwind, gaining positions, coming in half a boatlength away from Cristabella, fighting for fifth place. Conversely Siemens dropped to last place while Bambakou, with a broken spinnaker, lost a few positions but recovered in the last upwind stretch, moving up to sixth place.

The amazing similarity in performance between the vessels was more than obvious, yet again at the next mark rounding. Lexus were still first, with Movistar second and Atalanti third, followed by Orlanda, Cristabella, Bribon, who were all battling for positions at the buoy, with scarcely a quarter of a boat-length between them.

The last downwind stretch confirmed Lexus’ lead, as the team finished 2m 13s ahead of Movistar, co-skippered by Vasco Vascotto and Pedro Campos. In third place were Atalanti XV, owned by George Andreadis from Greece, followed by Vicente Tirado's Caixa Galicia, and John Cook's Cristabella, Bambakou, Balearia, Orlanda-Olympus, Bribon, Siemens, and finally Aifos, the Spansih Royal Navy entry.

“This has been a very tactical regatta, and we made the right decisions regarding the wind shifts," said Lexus Quantum Racing's Russell Coutts. "The guys have done a great job, and we are really happy with the boat . We are starting to reap the rewards of the work put in to improve the boat and the sails during the season.”

“We are very happy," commented Vasco Vascotto. "Today’s race was very, very complicated, but the key to winning the Copa del Rey is consistency, as you can see. We’re ahead with two second places in two races. Truthfully, I’d sign up right now for getting second place in all of them.”


The program for tomorrow is an offshore race.

Results Copa del Rey-Agua Brava

MoviStar 10, 10 (20)
Caixa Galicia 11, 8 (19)
Lexus Quantum Racing 5, 11 (16)
Cristabella 8, 7 (15)
Atalanti XV 4, 9 (13)
Bambakou 6, 6 (12)
Siemens 9, 2 (11)
Bribón 7, 3 (10)
Orlanda-Olympus 3,4 (7)
Balearia 1,5 (6)
Aifos 2,1 (3)