As the New York Yacht Club and the historic waters off Newport, Rhode Island host the Rolex TP52 World Championship Newport RI next week for the very first time there may seem to be the chance that it will be a team which has never won the world title before which stands on the top step of the podium next Saturday at the prizegiving at the NYYC’s beautiful Harbor Court.

Ten teams from seven different countries are set to compete at this, the third regatta of the 2024 52 SUPER SERIES season, and after the dream victory by the Whitcraft family of Thailand’s Team Vayu three weeks ago on the same waters, lifting the XS 52 SUPER SERIES Newport Trophy, hopes of winning are high all the way through the fleet.

Three teams have won the world title before but nothing in the 2024 form book – such as it is – suggests any of Doug DeVos’ Quantum Racing Powered by American Magic (USA), Harm Müller-Spreer’s Platoon Aviation (GER) or Takashi Okura’s Sled (USA) have any inherent advantage.

The defending Rolex TP52 World Champions Harm Müller-Spreer’s Platoon Aviation. The German flagged crew are ready to put behind them the troubles are that have afflicted them so far this season and fight for their fourth world title. At the first regatta of the season in Palma, Mallorca they suffered from having had an acute lack of time with their brand new boat.

Positive Platoon  

Last month, at the first of these two regattas in Newport, the current 2023 52 SUPER SERIES champions were just finding a vein of potentially winning consistency when they dramatically hit something in the water in Race 6 and lost most of their rudder.

Owner-driver Müller-Spreer emphasises: “I am very positive. We have a real fighting spirit in this Platoon Aviation team, we have been together so long we know what it takes to win and I very much believe we will be contenders here. It has taken time to get to know this new boat and in Newport last month we felt like we were really getting there when we damaged the rudder. But here we are, we are fighters. We are confident and that is so important in sport, as it will be at these world championships.”

Dream big or back to reality?

There is no doubt that Team Vayu’s win last month, their first ever, highlights how any team can find and ride a wave of consistency to victory, but even the Thai flagged team acknowledge that their success will be hard to replicate at the Rolex TP52 World Championship where the level always rises a notch or two and crews are often prepared to push the risk-reward equation in search of the top title.

“Right now any team can win a race, a good number of boats can string wins together and this time we did very well at bouncing back from the bad results. But that will be very, very hard to replicate. We are under no illusions that we will kick off where we left off.  Every break went our way, it was like a regatta of the decade, in this fleet if you don’t make the cross at the windward mark you go from first or second to seventh or ninth. This time we got those breaks and suddenly you are 15 or 18 points to the good. I believe you make your own luck, I really do, but it all worked for us .” recalls Vayu’s project manager and mainsheet trimmer Pom Green.

Of the teams teetering on the cusp of winning a regatta – in this case the worlds – ready to turn dreams to reality, are the likes of Tony Langley’s Gladiator. The British flagged crew, led by Argentine helm, three times TP52 World Champion Guillermo Parada, were only two points shy of winning at last month’s XS 52 SUPER SERIES Newport Trophy.

Parada believes they have the credentials and all the ‘tools in their toolbox’ to now emulate Vayu’s success and win the Rolex TP52 World Championship.

“Why not?” Parada smiles, “We like the venue, we need to be a little more consistent through the week. That is what we are missing. Hopefully we can now make it happen at the right time. I think if we look at the results and our performance we have a chance to win. How big that chance is down to how well we do our jobs. I think Vayu proved to us all that the fleet is so close now that with a good week most of us have a good chance to win an event. We need to focus on being consistent. Right now we are winning races but we have not had the perfect week, yet. We need to erase the avoidable mistakes.”

Will the weight of expectation trouble Quantum Racing powered by American Magic?

Racing on their home waters, representing the host club the NYYC, Doug DeVos’ Quantum Racing powered by American Magic faltered at just the wrong moment at last month’s event. After leading all week, when they only needed a solid final day to win, the US favourites messed up and landed 19 points from the last two races,  XS 52 SUPER SERIES Newport Trophy slipping from their grasp.
The American team know how to win TP52 World Championship titles.

They have won more than anyone. Since they first won the worlds in 2008 in Lanzarote, DeVos’ team have collected six more, most recently in Cascais in 2022. And when the young afterguard get over their last day hoodoo they too will be winners.

“We have identified that over these last two regattas we have had a hard time on the last day. We are probably trying too hard as a young afterguard to make it happen, with the excitement of having a chance of winning. We have revised that and we will be more disciplined. If we are in that privileged position again we will stick to the processes which clearly working. On these last days we are pushing too hard to try and be perfect.” Evaluates Quantum’s young skipper Victor Diaz de Leon.

Contenders, get ready to rumble.

The first Newport regatta was universally hailed as a success. The race course area is new to the fleet and proved to be very open with many different features to be taken into account, not least the elements of current and the changes as the wind transitions to the sea breeze. As such there is a high degree of excitement among the fleet and among those teams which must harbour hopes of winning making that step out of the tightly packed mid-fleet are Andy Soriano’s (Alegre), the host club’s 2021 world and circuit champions Sled and Hasso and Tina Plattner’s Phoenix which has three times TP52 World Champion Ed Baird calling tactics.

The official practice race is Monday 15th July, points racing runs Tuesday 16th to Saturday 20th July.