Alicante - Photo Lyn Hines

Source: www.medcup.org

SIEMENS LEADS BUT ONLY TWO POINTS SEPARATE TOP THREE BOATS GOING INTO FINAL DAY OF COPA DEL REY TP52 CLASS.

A battle royal is on the cards for the final day of racing for the 22 strong TP52 Class at the third event of the 2007 Breitling MedCup TP52 Circuit, Palma Mallorca's prestigious annual Copa del Rey.

While a consistent day, posting a third and a fifth, was enough to return
Alberto Roemmers' Siemens to the overall regatta lead again, a standout pair of
victories by Stuart Robinson's Stay Calm elevated them to third overall.

The British boat is now tied on points with second placed Mutua Madrilena,
sailed by Vasco Vascotto and crew, two points adrift of Siemens which has Paul
Cayard as tactician.


In the stronger breezes today, up to 22 knots in the first race, and with the
wind blowing cross offshore out of the NE, tactician Adrian Stead kept
owner-driver Stuart Robinson on the right bit of water to capitalise on a pair
of well timed starts and good first beats.


Stay Calm lead at all but one mark on the first breezy race, overhauling
Torbjorn Tornqvist's Artemis on the final downwind when they tracked into a
better gust pattern.


In the second race the British boat was chasing Jose Cusi's Bribon hard on the
approach to the final leeward gate.


But the Bribon crew had misheard or misread the course instruction and did not
realise that it was a five leg windward leeward, and one final beat to the
upwind finish remained.


With SM Juan Carlos perhaps quietly relishing his first race win aboard the new
Bribon, they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, dropping a narrow lead to
a 23 seconds deficit as they hastily turned at the final buoy.


" We didn't pick up on the course change at the start of the race. Unacceptable
and that's about all you can really say about it." Said Bribon's tactician Terry
Hutchinson, " The guys battled away all day and to make a mental mistake like
that is hard, but that's life. Despite all that we actually got closer to the
lead today, so its quite a little battle shaping up for tomorrow. We are
hopefully saving our best for last."


Bribon lie fourth overall.


"We feel really confident chucking the boat about a bit in the breeze."
Explained Adrian Stead, Stay Calm's tactician, "We are sailing the boat
aggressively downwind and Stuart (Robinson, owner-helm) was really nailing it
downwind with Andy Hemmings trimming and we were going really well."


" I think that Andy has made a difference on the boat, we sailed 470's together
way back in 1986 and he works really well, Andy's manner on the boat the way he
works with Stuart downwind really gets the best out of both. It is very
positive. We feel very strong downwind. All round we had out de-brief on the
boat and it was definitely a real team effort. When you have 15 people on the
boat giving absolutely 100% then it is amazing. And it is interesting to see the
four new Judel Vrolijk boats all doing well in the heavier airs. In the first
race it was really us and Artemis, and in the second us and Bribon. Siemens got
a little boxed in in traffic at the windward mark first race, but they were
going well too."


"And it is all on for tomorrow. It just could not be better. I think that
everyone really does try to peak for the Copa del Rey, all the boats now are
pretty much optimised now and the standard has gone up and up. It is fantastic."


"I don't think we will approach tomorrow any different to any other day."
Commented Siemens' Paul Cayard, "We just aim to do a good job and sail smart and
sail clean. The confidence that we have is that we have a good boat and we ha ve
a good crew. The Vrolijk boats have been good, but so have the Botin boats Mutua
Madrilena and Caixa Galicia. The wind is likely to be in the SE so a little less
shifty and the starts will be important."


"Today we sailed badly in the second race. We sailed badly at the start. We
sailed badly in the middle and we sailed badly at the finish. It will be an
exciting day. But tomorrow will be an exiting day. We would like it a little
lighter because I think we are more optimised for the usual Mediterranean
conditions, but overall in speed we are all quite similar. We can all win or
lose just as easy." Mutua Madrilena's Vasco Vascotto concludes.




2007 Breitling MedCup TP52 Circuit.


Regatta 3 of 5, 26^th Copa del Rey Camper Audi.


Palma, Mallorca.


Standings after Day 4: 1 Siemens (A Roemmers, ARG-Judel Vrolijk 2007) 47pts, 2
Mutua Madrilena (V Vascotto, ESP-Botin Carkeek 2007) 49pts, 3 Stay Calm (S
Robinson GBR-Judel Vrolijk 2007) 49pts, 4 Bribon (SM Juan Carlos ESP-Judel
Vrolijk 2007) 55pts, 5 CxG Corporacion Caixa Galicia (R Bermudez de Castro ESP)
58pts, 6 Artemis (T Torbjorn, SWE-Judel Vrolijk 2007) 61pts, 7 Patches (I
Walker, IRL-Reichel Pugh 2007) 68pts, 8 Platoon (H Muller-Spreer GER-Judel
Vrolijk 2007) 69pts, 9 Valle Romano Mean Machine (P de Ridder , MON-Judel
Vrolijk 2007) 85pts, 10 Balearia (G Aurajo, ESP Botin Carkeek 2005) 87pts.