Takashi Okura’s 2021 Sled, the 2021 world champions, made the best start to the 2024 Rolex TP52 World Championship Newport today as they posted two second places from the first challenging races which were contested on a Newport, Rhode Island race track which changed subtly through the day, offering the afterguards options for gains and losses from start guns to finish guns.

With Kiwi legend Murray Jones and Brit Ado Stead as tactician and strategist respectively, the owner Mr Okura steering and Italian Andrea Visintini navigator, Sled made a good gain on the second beat of the first race which promoted them up to second, finishing close behind race winners Team Vayu. In the second contest, siled in a slightly lighter 9-19kts, they played the risks nicely to chase runaway victors Gladiator through the line.

Sled lead with their four points aggregate, ahead of Andy Soriano’s Alegre which went 3,4 for the day whilst the team which one month ago today won the XS Trophy 52 SUPER SERIES Newport regatta, the Whitcraft family’s Team Vayu lies third. With the return to the hot seats of double Olympic silver medallist Nick Rogers as tactician and Miles Seddon as navigator who both missed the last event, Vayu seemed to carry on where they left off. In 12-14kts of SW’ly wind and sunshine, starting off the pin end of the lift, they stuck to the left side of the course – following their winning strategy of last month – to take first blood at this Rolex TP52 World Championship.

As they returned to the dock Stead and the Sled team shared a quiet sense of contentment, coming out of top of an opening day which sees the defending champions Platoon Aviation in fifth overall and Quantum Racing powered by American Magic – seven times world champs – not getting the start to the championship that they wanted. They were slightly unlucky to finish sixth on the first race but they then lost two boats on the finish line of the second resulting in a very weighty tenth place. Days like these cannot be repeated if Quantum Racing powered by American Magic have aspirations to leave Newport still holding the circuit lead.

The leaders Sled’s Stead cautioned, “We know what this fleet is like and so it is just day 1. It is so easy to get a poor start in this fleet and get two wrong shifts and so you have to keep pushing hard. As ever this is such fantastic racing, 8-16 knots today, waves great fleet and a little bit of sunshine, it is just great!”

He outlined, “We had a pretty solid day all in all. Mr Okura arrived last night, we did a few tacks and gybes this morning and got straight into it. And so we are really pleased with how it has gone. There is certainly a lot going on that race course and you are always trying to work out what is working best. Sometimes you think you have to go straight out of the top mark downwind and someone gybe sets and gains seven places. So you really have to back yourself and try and keep yourself on what you think is the right shift. And really it is about trying to minimise your tacks and keeping out of trouble, let the boat do the work. We are sailing the boat well. We have worked hard on how we are going I think we believe in our settings and how we sail the boat.”

2024 Rolex TP52 World Championship Newport RI, Standings after Day 1
1. SLED (USA), Takashi Okura, 2+2 = 4     
2. ALEGRE (GBR), Andy Soriano, 3+4 = 7      
3. VAYU (THA), Whitcraft Family, 1+7 = 8 
4. GLADIATOR (GBR), Tony Langley, 9+1 = 10      
5. PLATOON AVIATION (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer, 7+3 =  10      
6. ALPHA+ (HKG), Shawn & Tina Kang, 5+5 = 10 
7. PAPREC (FRA), Jean-Luc Pethuguenin, 4+8 = 12    
8. PHOENIX (RSA), Hasso & Tina Plattner, 10+6 = 16   
9. QUANTUM RACING POWERED BY AMERICAN MAGIC (USA), Doug DeVos, 6+10 = 16     
10. INTERLODGE (USA), Austin & Gwen Fragomen, 8+9 = 17