Source: Azzurra
(Monday 8th January, 2017 – Porto Cervo) – Santiago Lange, winner of a gold medal at the Rio Olympics in the Nacra 17 catamaran Class will be tactician aboard Azzurra in 2018. And the Kiwi trimmer, Grant Loretz will once again be a part of the team.
While the latest version of Azzurra is under construction in Valencia to defend their title as 52 SUPER SERIES champions, Azzurra’s skipper Guillermo Parada has announced the arrival – or rather the return – of two new team members: Santiago Lange and Grant Loretz.
After two bronze medals in the Tornado at the Athens and Beijing Olympics, the Argentinian Santiago Lange won a gold medal at the age of 54 years old, at the 2016 Rio Games where he sailed with Cecilia Carranza on a Nacra 17. Their coach was Mariano Parada, strategist and trimmer aboard Azzurra.
Santiago Lange’s feat has become a part of Olympic history, when his victory came after a bout with cancer in 2015 that cost him his left lung. Following this victory in 2016, Lange won World Sailing’s Sailor of the Year award. During his acceptance speech he called his sailing partner, Cecilia Carranza, to the stage to highlight that the win was the result of teamwork.
Aboard Azzurra, Santiago will be sailing with a group that he knows from the past, having been tactician aboard Matador in 2010.
Grant Loretz, a key member of Team New Zealand up until 2013, will also be a welcome returner to Azzurra, having raced with the team from 2014 to 2016. Loretz will once again be a trimmer for the upcoming season.
“I’m very happy to be part of this incredible Italian/Argentinian team,” said Santiago Lange. “I have known this group for years, and in my heart I have always felt close to their projects. Today, it’s an honour to be a full-blown member of the Azzurra team.”
“We want to welcome back two old friends, and great champions,” said skipper Guillermo Parada. “I’m sure they’ll make a large contribution to assuring that we are the winning team. We will find Vasco and Cicho sailing against us on other boats, but they are and always will be friends, above all, for us.”
Parada’s words were echoed by Riccardo Bonadeo, the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda’s Commodore:
“On behalf of the YCCS I wish to welcome Santiago Lange and Grant Loretz; we are happy to have them as sporting members along with the rest of Azzurra’s team. The upcoming season will be even tougher than the past years because Azzurra will be defending her third title as [current] winner of the 52 SUPER SERIES, while her adversaries are getting ever more competitive. We wish to thank our club members – and Azzurra’s owners – the Roemmers family, and skipper Guillermo Parada, for their choices that will help form a winning team.”
The latest version of Azzurra, the fourth TP52 version of this famous yacht, will debut during PalmaVela in the first week of May. The 2018 edition of the 52 SUPER SERIES circuit will kick off on May 23 in Sibenik, Croatia.
2018 Crew List
Pablo and Alberto Roemmers – Owners
Guillermo Parada – Skipper, Helm
Santiago Lange – Tactician
Bruno Zirilli – Navigator
Giovanni Cassinari – Mainsail
Mariano Caputo – Bowman
Juan Pablo Marcos – Midbow
David Vera – Pitman
Grant Loretz- Trimmer
Ciccio Celon – Trimmer
Mariano Parada – Trimmer
Gabriel Marino – Grinder
Alejandro Colla – Grinder
Nicola Pilastro – Grinder
Pedro Rossi- Boat Captain
Coach: Guillermo Baquerizas
Coach: Marco Capitani
Click here to view the 2018 52 SUPER SERIES calendar.
Header Photo Credit: Damien MEYER / AFP / Getty Images
