For a crew which have only two full-time paid professionals on board and a budget which committed mainly to buying the 2007 MedCup champion boat Artemis to which they only added two new sails and practised only three days prior to coming to Alicante, today was a fairytale start to the season for Jose Maria Torcida and the crew of Tau Ceramica Andalucia. Winning both races leaves the Andalucian boat four points clear of Vasco Vascotto and the crew of Mutua Madrilena who share the same points tally as Jose Cusi’s Bribon.
Racing got under way after a 40 minutes postponement waiting for the sea breeze to settle. Through the day it blew no more than nine knots and by late afternoon had faded at times to just four knots making for a gentle, but mentally challenging start to the Audi MedCup Circuit.
While Tau Andalucia, steered by Torcida, who won the 2007 J80 World Championship, made good starts to both races and was second round the first turn in the first race and lead the second race from start to finish, some of the newer, fancied boats in the fleet proved that they have some work to do to get up to speed in the light conditions.
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