Consistency pays for Siemens

As Mutua Madrilena heeds a false recall signal on day two of the TP52 racing at the Copa del Rey Camper Audi

A second, third and fifth proved the level of consistency required today for Alberto Roemmers' Siemens to take the overall lead in the 22 boat TP52 class on the second racing day of the 26th Copa del Rey Camper Audi on the Bay of Palma.

With Paul Cayard making the tactical decisions aboard the Argentinian flagged, Spanish-sponsored boat, Siemens tops the table by a margin of 12 points after the Vasco Vascotto skippered Mutua Madrilena scored a 14th in the day's third race after they answered a recall signal on the start line.

Vascotto was later disputing that the call was correctly signalled and the jury later accepted Mutua Madrilena's evidence in support of their protest over the start of Race 5, alleging a general recall signal was shown for between four and six seconds before an individual recall was signalled. They were given redress of 20% places, giving them tenth in Race 5, rather than the 14th. They remain second overall but their points tally drops to 22 points, giving them five points of breathing space on Artemis going in to Thursday's coastal race.

Nonetheless the incident proved costly for Vascotto's Italian/Chilean crewed TP after their day 1 leaders' winning impetus looked set to continue when they composed a comfortable win in the first race of the day, staying abreast of the changeable conditions. Although the breeze was a promising nine knots at the start, by the windward mark it had faded, and with an awkward chop at the turning buoy, a clean air mark rounding was essential. On the second beat Mutua Madrilena read the wind shifts well and pulled out an impressive lead, going on to win by one minute and one second from Siemens.

After a difficult first day, Russell Coutts was back into his stride today calling tactics on Torbjorn Torqnvist's Artemis. The Swedish TP52 posted bullets in both the second and third races today hoisting her up to third place overall ahead of Stuart Robinson's Stay Calm.

The breeze had built for the second and third races. The third was the best of the day, with the late afternoon wind staying above 10 knots throughout, and puffing up to 12 knots on the first leg.

Artemis led Bribon and Stay Calm around the first windward mark. With Adrian Stead calling the tactics, Stuart Robinson's new Judel Vrolijk design squeezed inside of Artemis to lead down the final run. But, in a thrilling finish in the warm glow of the Mediterranean evening sunshine, the Swedish TP was able to block them out to the right as they approached the finish line, while Balearia shot in from the left carrying speed to steal second, just four seconds behind Artemis, with Stay Calm in third, four seconds behind the 2005 vintage Balearia.

" We are just hanging in. Top five results are good," summarised Cayard after a long day out on the water. "In the first races we had really good starts and in the third race we just hung, and were patient in a lane which was not so good. Artemis were to leeward of us and had a little better start and they were hurting a little. But we hung there and were able to drag our way to the left which is always the place to be.

"And we got out of there a little early - people will let you out if you are early, instead of waiting - and so we were maybe a little on the bad side of the shift on the way up to the weather mark, but that is what you have to do when you maybe don't get such a good start. But, overall it is about managing the race course a little bit, mostly in the last race when we did not have a lead spot. The second race was a real shame because we should have had been first, us and Bribon, but the wind went 30 degrees left."

He did not think the race should have been abandoned: "It happens, it wasn't ridiculous."

And, on leading the regatta: "It is nice to be in the position but there is so much racing, all it means is that we have sailed well so far, and our boat has pretty good speed, and we can sail well and we just need to keep doing it."

America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race Navigator Juan Vila, racing on board Artemis commented: "We have had some good starts and the racing is going really well. Today the wind really was stronger on the left-hand side of the course, and a good start and winning the left were both important in all three races today. We also go well in this wind range and we have done a good job in a fleet that is extremely close.

"It was important to start well. In this kind of level if you don't get a good start, get the better side – which in the last couple of days has been on the left - or find the right lane, then you can drop a lot of positions very quickly. I think that is what made the difference today."

Tomorrow is the coastal race on the Bay of Palma carrying double points.

Positions:

Pos	Boat	Owner	Nat	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Tot
				W/L
1	SIEMENS	Alberto Roemmers	Arg	3	1	2	3	5	14
2	MUTUA MADRILEÑA	Vasco Vascotto	ESP	1	2	1	8	10 RDG	22
3	ARTEMIS	Torbjorn Torqnvist	SWE	11	9	5	1	1	27
4	STAY CALM	Stuart Robinson	GBR	7	6	6	7	3	29
5	BRIBON	Jose Cusi	ESP	9	3	10	5	4	31
6	CxG CORPORACIÓN CAIXAGALICIA	Vicente Tirado	ESP	2	13	9	4	6	34
7	PLATOON	Harm Muller-Spreer	GER	4	4	3	18	9	38
8	VALLE ROMANO - MEAN MACHINE	Peter de Ridder	MON	6	11	4	19	7	47
9	BIGAMIST 6	Peedro Mendonca	POR	14	5	12	11	8	50
10	BALEARIA	Adolfo Utor	ESP	8	17	11	15	2	53
11	ANONIMO Q8	Riccardo Simoneschi	ITA	16	8	8	9	13	54
12	PATCHES	Eamon Conneely	IRE	5	12	17	6	15	55
13	CRISTABELLA	John Cook	GBR	20	7	13	10	11	61
14	ONO	Inaki Castaner	ESP	13	20	7	13	16	69
15	CAM, CAJA MEDITERRÁNEO	Fernando Leon	ESP	23 OCS	15	18	2	12	70
16	GLORY	John Buchan	USA	10	19	22	12	10	73
17	AIFOS	Jaime Rodriguez-Toubes	ESP	19	10	15	17	22	83
18	C-QUADRAT - ASTRO	Rainer Wilhelm	AUS	15	16	14	22	17	84
19	TAU CERAMICA-ANDALUCIA	Javier Banderas, Rafael Diaz	ESP	18	18	16	14	18	84
20	VALARS	Serguei Shevtsov	RUS	12	14	19	20	21	86
21	FRAM XVI	King Harald of Norway	NOR	17	21	20	16	19	93
22	RUSAL - Synergy	Alexey Nikolaev	RUS	23 OCS	22	21	21	20	107
23	BAMBAKOU	John Coumantaros	USA	25 DNC	25 DNC	25 DNC	25 DNC	25 DNC	125
24	WINDQUEST	Doug de Vos	USA	25 DNC	25 DNC	25 DNC	25 DNC	25 DNC	125