First blood to Britain's Cristabella in Cascais, 2010 Audi MedCup Circuit leaders after Day 1.

[Source: AUDI Medcup] Three different TP52's won the first three races of the new 2010 Audi MedCup Circuit season today off Cascais, Portugal, but it is Britain's much improved Cristabella which leads the TP52 Series. John Bassadone's Peninsula Petroleum won the practice race for the GP42 Series.

Cristabella, the British flagged TP52 shrugged off any sailing superstitions that it may be unlucky to win a regatta’s practice race when they emerged from a challenging first day of the new 2010 Audi MedCup Circuit season with a very slender lead of just one point over 2008 champions Quantum Racing.

Cristabella, owned by John Cook, skippered by John Cutler and steered by Tim Powell scored a second, eighth and a third from the three races on the bay of Cascais which were contested in moderate wind conditions which were never easy or consistent.

Emirates Team NZ starts the Cascais Trophy with a mediocre performance. Cascais, 12 May 2010. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team NZ

Underlining the strength and depth of the fleet this season, the 2009 Audi MedCup Circuit TP52 Series champions Emirates Team New Zealand could only muster a modest start to their defence, posting a sixth and an 11th before regaining their winning ways, victorious in Race 3 by 49 seconds over Britain’s debutants TeamOrigin.

After the first day of racing of the new it is an easy conclusion to draw that the three teams which are new to the Audi MedCup Circuit, Luna Rossa, TeamOrigin and Audi A1 powered by ALL4ONE, have significantly increased the overall standard, even considering that some have had very little sailing time with their boats. Consistency across the three races was difficult and often teams which were among the vanguard of one race would find themselves slugging it out in the lower reaches of the fleet, unable to gain places.

Emirates Team New Zealand, for whom consistently excellent starting was one of the building blocks of their Circuit title last year, made two consecutive sub-standard starts and were unable to fight back through into the top half of the fleet. When they did conspire to get off the start line in better shape, it was a familiar sight as they extended to take their first win of the season in Race 3.


Cristabella's laconic part Kiwi tactician John Cutler confirmed today that they were happy to take Tuesday’s winning gun for the practice race as much simply because "last year we could scarcely get out of our own way, so anything at all seemed worth taking." Their 2009 season finished inauspiciously when they damaged their rig in the penultimate race of the season, but with a new keel, rudder, rig, sails, and changes to the crew line up, early indications suggest that the British boat could be contenders this season.

Quantum Racing (USA) won the first race of the season, just passing Cristabella on the second downwind leg. Karol Jablonski (POL) then steered the Russian boat Synergy to win the second race of the day, getting the better of Matador (ARG) who took third.

Portugal Trophy, Cascais - Overall – Day 1
1. Cristabella (GBR), 2+8+3= 13 points
2. Quantum Racing (USA), 1+5+8= 14
3. Matador (ARG), 7+2+5= 14
4. Synergy (RUS), 8+1+6= 15
5. TeamOrigin (GBR), 4+9+2= 15
6. Artemis (SWE), 3+6+7= 16
7. Luna Rossa (ITA), 5+3+9= 17
8. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), 6+11+1= 18
9. Audi A1 powered by ALL4ONE (FRA/GER), 9+7+4= 20
10. Bigamist 7 (POR), 11+4+11= 26
11. Bribón (ESP), 10+10+10= 30

Emirates Team NZ starts the Cascais Trophy with a mediocre performance. Cascais, 12 May 2010. Photo copyright Chris Cameron / Emirates Team NZ

Team Origin had quite an average debut in the TP52 class. Cascais, 12 May 2010. Photo copyright Ian Roman / Team Origin

Cristabella leads TP52's in first day of PalmaVela

The race started sharply at 12:00 hours for the Transpac 52. Ten units crossed the starting line in this first race of the Hublot PalmaVela, a 30 nautical miles coastal course, with a light breeze from the land, NE, 9 knots. Peter de Riffer’s Mean Machine-Valle Romano led the fleet at the windward mark followed by Adrian Stead’s Stay Calm and John Coumantaros’s Bambakou. Sailing downwind to the island of Sech, next point of the coastal course, British boat Stay Calm took the first place, while the wind shifted to the right and wind speed began to drop. When beginning to round the island of Sech there was hardly a 2-3 knots breeze shortening the distances between boats. And this brought changes in the mark rounding with Mean Machine-Valle Romano from Monaco dropping down to fourth place and the new leader was Portuguese boat Bigamist 6 followed by John Cook’s Cristabella and Italian boat Anonimo-Audi in third place.


After the island of Sech, British boat Cristabella took advantage of the new breeze to regain the lead while the Italian team climbed up to second place. Mean Machine-Valle Romano also kept the battle and was not far from the first two boats. But nothing could be done against Cristabella’s speed that rounded the next mark with an important advantage over Stay Calm, which was second now. Spanish navy boat Aifos, the only Spanish representative of the class in the Hublot PalmaVela, surprised everyone rounding the mark in third place.

Sailing towards Cap d’Enderrocat, the next leg, the wind dropped and shifted completely bringing finally the embat, a SW thermal breeze, 8 knots. Around Enderrocat Stay Calm tried hard again rounding first but followed closely by Cristabella and Mean Machine-Valle Romano.

And if fact it was John Cook’s Cristabella that clearly took the lead in the last leg, crossing the finishing line near El Arenal first. Second place was for Mean Machine-Valle Romano and Stay Calm was finally third.

The TP52 fleet rounds the islet of Sech. Palma, 19 April 2007. Photo copyright Txema Oliver / Hublot PalmaVela