Rán win 1.5-point scoring coastal race off Cascais

It has taken seven races of its first regatta, but there was huge satisfaction for the crew of Rán and its owner helmsman Niklas Zennström as they won the 1.5-point scoring coastal race off Cascais in the Audi MedCup.

Rán led pretty well from start to finish of the four-hour race, only briefly headed by the American boat Quantum for a matter of seconds as they worked their way through a patch of light wind.

Second place for Quantum consolidated the overall lead by the American 2009 champions, now skippered by Ed Baird and with British Olympian Adrian Stead as tactician.

Taking over second place overall from Udo Schutz of Germany’s Container, was Italy’s Azzurra, helmed by the Argentinian Guillermo Parada, who held off the Russian team Synergy, skippered by Eugeniy Neugodnikov.

In the Soto 40 class, Spain’s Iberdrola, which started so strongly what is the debut regatta for the class on the Audi MedCup circuit, returned to winning ways, and maintained their overall lead, in the second of two inshore races and Britain’s Ngoni, owned by Tony Buckingham, grabbed their best place of the regatta so far with a third.