Final Event AUDI MedCup starts today

Will Quantum keep her seemingly comfortable lead, or will we see a last event surprise?

Many have travelled to Portimao to find out. Yesterdays practice race, if anything showed it is not going to be a walk in the park for the US entry. The practice starts were heavily fought. Teams are still working to improve performance, till yesterday rating certificates were still being adjusted.

A few interesting crew changes to note, John Kostecki is back on the Artemis, on Tau Ceramica Andalucia they have Luis Doreste as strategist to his brother Manuel but also new Domingo Manrique is trimming the spinnaker. Manrique trimmed the spinnaker for three seasons with Tau Ceramica Andalucia helm Pichu on the IMS Azur de Puig. Francesco Bruni is billed to be back on Matador as tactician. Ray Davies joins Cristabella tomorrow but has not arrived back from San Francisco where he was sailing with Michael Ilbruck. Valars III are having a first outing in their new boat, the ex-Mean Machine and have Matteo Ivaldi as tactician and Joey Allen.

It is not the end of the season however. From Portimao the fleet will travel by ship to Puerto Calero, Lanzarote, for the 2008 TP52 World Championship and the Trofeo Puerto Calero, functioning as the Pre-Worlds. They will be joined there by Fram, the TP52 of King Harald of Norway. At the moment there are 14 TP52’s expected on the starting line at the Worlds. Possible late entries still expected of 1 or 2 teams.

Photos are of yesterdays practice race.