Coutts-Cayard collision

On start line of final TP52 race at the Trofeo de La Reina in Valencia, reports Miriam Torres

After five victories in eight races sailed in Valencia, Pisco Sour-Leche Pascual pulled into the lead in the overall Breitling MedCup result following her win in in the Trofeo de La Reina in Valencia.

In today’s race at the start Lexus got into a collision with Atalanti skippered by Paul Cayard, which had to retire due to damage to her the hull. Despite the disastrous start, Lexus, skippered by Russell Coutts, with Peter Isler and Mark Reynolds in the afterguard, managed to recover and climb to third. Meanwhile, Pisco Sour controlled the fleet from beginning to end, finishing 41 seconds in front of Caixa Galicia, which pulled up to second after a great downwind run on the last leg.

Skipper Vasco Vascotto, expressed his joy after the team´s excellent performance during the whole series. “The boat, a Botin & Carkeek design built by Longitud 0 in Castellon, Spain, has been really fast, but although everything seemed to be very easy it has been hard, and it’ll be harder in the next event. When you start to win it seems you keep winning once more for a roll, but we all know that’s not possible to do all the time.

Jann Neergaard, crewman on Lexus explained their part in the collision. “We were looking for a place to tack and we saw that Atalanti appeared to be tacking, so we thought we had a good spot to tack, and I don’t know if he saw that we were in the manoeuvre, but he didn’t quite get out of the way and we were faced with the only option of getting behind them. But obviously it didn’t work.” Despite the collision, neither Russell Coutts nor Paul Cayard have protested.

Results:

Pos	Sail no	Boat	Skipper	Owner	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Tot
1	CHI2110	LECHE PASCUAL	VASCO VASCOTTO	E. COUSI¥O/B. MATTE	6	5	9	9	8	9	9	9	64
2	ESP7353	LEXUS	RUSSELL COUTTS	JAIME YLLERA	8	8	3	8	9	8	8	7	59
3	ESP7552	BRIBON	S.M.JUAN CARLOS DE BORBON	JOSE CUSI FERRET	7	9	8	7	2	1	4	6	44
4	ESP7452	CAIXA GALICIA	ROBERTO BERMUDEZ	VICENTE TIRADO	3	7	6	4	5	4	3	8	40
5	GRE52	ATALANTI XV	PAUL CAYARD	GEORGE ANDREADIS	2	6	7	3	7	6	7	1	39
6	ITA52	ORLANDA-OLYMPUS	TOMASSO CHIEFFI	ALESSANDRO PIRERA	9	1	2	6	4	7	5	2	36
7	USA52700	BAMBAKOU	JOHN COUMANTAROS	JOHN COUMANTAROS	5	4	5	5	3	2	6	4	34
8	GBR5205	CRISTABELLA	JOHN COOK	JOHN COOK	1	3	4	1	6	3	2	3	23
9	ESP7352	AIFOS	S.A.R. FELIPE DE BORBON	CN REGATAS ARMADA	4	2	1	2	1	5	1	5	21

Breitling MEDCUP positions:

1º Leche Pascual 102 Ptos
2º Lexus 89 Ptos
3º Caixa Galicia 86 Ptos
4º Atalantis 86 Ptos
5º Bribón 68 Ptos
6º Bambakou 65 Ptos
7º Orlanda 64 Ptos
8º Cristabella 23 Ptos
9º Aifos 21 Ptos