Cup team leads the way

El Desafio ahead on the first day at GP42 Quebramar Cup

The Spanish teams stole the spotlight on the opening day of the GP42 Quebramar Cup 2008 in Santa Margherita Ligure, on the Italian coast. On Thursday the weather forecasts were not rosy, but the day opened with a bright sun and a breeze that was unable to go over 8/9 knots and progressively died down, allowing the eight GPs to finish two windward/leeward races of about 10 miles each.

The crew of El Desafio, coming all from the Iberian America’s Cup challenger with helmsman Laureano Wizner and Santiago López-Vasquez calling tactics, are leading the provisional standings of the international GP42 circuit opening event. In the first race, Madrid was the undisputed leader of the fleet, finishing more than 4 minutes ahead of the rest, second place was awarded to Canarias Puerto Calero after a thirlling photo finish between them and El Desafio. When the two Spanish boats crossed the finish line, they were separated by a mere 15 centimeters and less than a second. The key to the first race was to go as close as possible to the coast and the team sponsored by the Spanish capital city went to the extreme, almost entering into the Portofino harbour.

Yet if the Spanish started attacking, the Italians reacted counterattacking, namely the team of Roma GP42.2, led by the couple Paolo Cian and Sébastien Col, who promptly reacted after a mediocre first race and won the second one. The Italian boat helmed by Paolo Cian sailed well and together with Desafío and Airis they held a tough battle for the three top spots. They crossed the finish line first after Airis got tangled with a small boat 200 meters before the end.

Cameron Appleton, AIRIS helmsman said: “It’s the first time I have sailed on a GP42 and the first time we race our brand new boat and so far so good. We are satisfied with our performance today in some ways but also unsatisfied in others. We are satisfied because our boat performed very well but we were unlucky in the second race as we got tangled with a small boat from another class, the guy got right into our way and completely ruined our day. We were leading in the last stretch but finished third. These things are disappointing. At the same time we were in good shape under these light conditions and other people’s actions took away a good result. It was a tricky day and you needed luck. Unfortunately, it seemed we didn’t have one piece of luck but we sailed well and tomorrow we need to keep working on the level we achieved today and see whether we can build from our successes outside of our results”.

The results of the second race were significantly altered after Roma GP 42.2 and Near Miss were finally found OCS.

After these changes, the Spanish teams now claim the three top positions, just one point from each other, third place is held by Canarias Puerto Calero, led by José Maria Ponce with the only woman sailor of the fleet Alicia Ageno in navigator role that despite being a boat of the “old generation” showed an excellent consistency.

Friday’s schedule calls for two or three upwind/downwind race that will count towards the Quebramar Cup general standing, after a unanimous decision by the boat owners.

Provisional standings after two races:
(Name of team, race results, points)
1) El Desafio, 2,2 – 4 points
2) Madrid, 1,4 – 5 points
3) Canarias Puerto Calero, 2,3 – 5 points
4) Airis, 6,2 – 8 punti
5) MC Seawonder 007, 7,5 – 12 points
5) Near Miss, 4,9 – 13 points
7) Roma 42.2, 5,9 – 14 points
8) Roma Roma, 8,6 – 14 points