52 Super Series: We have lift off, Platoon Aviation extend regatta lead

For the second successive day of racing at Puerto Portals 52 SUPER SERIES Sailing Week, the 2023 circuit champions Platoon Aviation were boat of the day, top scorers among the 13 boat fleet from nine nations.

With a fourth and a first Harm Müller-Spreer’s German-flagged team extend their margin at the top of the standings to 11 points as their high level of consistency starts to bite, suggesting they now really do have the measure of their potent new boat which they launched in the spring.

From the four races sailed in good sea breezes on the Bay of Palma Platoon Aviation have now won two contests and so head into the middle phase of the ten race regatta in good shape with their boat going faster and the much more confidence among the crew which last year won both the Rolex TP52 World Championship and the overall 2023 52 SUPER SERIES title.

Platoon’s Palma based strategist Jordi Calafat thinks their successes here are a sign they have turned a corner, “I think we are finally getting some momentum. It has taken us three events. The two last events in Newport were not bad but the first regatta of the season at PalmaVela was terrible. And then now everything working a little bit better and a little bit of luck on the race course, hopefully we can keep on and fight for something in the end. I think we started the season very rusty and with problems with some of the systems on the boats. It was a big change for us from a Vrolijk design to a Botin which is for sure harder than from a Botin to a new Botin or a Vrolijk to a new Vrolijk. It was a big change but honestly we were not sailing well, we were not finding good lanes and there was stress everywhere and when it looks like everything is over now we can find our way, we are learning the boat, it is quite a different animal compared to our old boat. And now here we are picking some good lanes and know the boat better and that is making the big difference.”

Whilst they maintained their record of all finishes inside the top four – usually a regatta winning formula – nearest rivals Gladiator and Quantum Racing powered by American Magic had less prosperous days. Tony Langley’s recently crowned world champions had an ordinary day with a tenth and fifth holding second by 11 points now, whilst Quantum Racing felt the full brunt of mistakes in the bigger, 13 boat fleet when they got a 12th in the second race to drop to sixth overall.

Second best boat of the day were Jean Luc Petithuguenin’s Paprec who paired a second and a fourth together to now lie third overall. Mainsheet trimmer Stephane Névé confirmed, “It is a long time since we had a good day like that. We are happy with the boat which is going fast and with the crew work. We have been able to pull together after what happened to the team. It is good. It is easier when the wind was a bit stronger, even yesterday when we have 10-11kts we find it easier and so that is good in 13-14kts. We have good speed, we had to work on the starts as we were nearly always behind off the line, so now we are closer to the line. The first start was very good but also Loïck is putting us in a good place all the time.”

Whilst Tina and Hasso Plattner’s Phoenix sailed to a comfortable win in Race 3, the first of today, Platoon overhauled a very fast looking new Provezza XI on the second beat of Race 4. As the wind turned inside out on the last run the 2023 champions were first to douse their kite and sail through to win with Provezza securing a second on just their second ever day of racing.

Provezza’s Palma based navigator Nacho Postigo said, Nacho Postigo:
“The truth is that we didn't expect to be so close to winning a race in this first regatta with the new boat. There is a lot of work to be done, a lot to learn, but the boat is already performing well. In these conditions, it has behaved quite well; after the start of the second race we went very, very fast.
Such a big fleet changes the dynamics a lot and puts more weight on the start; the boats and the crews are so good that none of them have enough speed to recover from a bad start and overtake the whole fleet. Tomorrow there's a bit of a north-easterly, it should be similar to today, which took a while to come in but should give a good Xaloc, a good left wind like today.”

PUERTO PORTALS 52 SUPER SERIES SAILING WEEK STANDINGS AFTER DAY 2

1. PLATOON AVIATION (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer, 1+2+4+1 = 8
2. GLADIATOR (GBR), Tony Langley, 3+1+10+5 = 19
3. PAPREC (FRA), Jean-Luc Pethuguenin, 6+8+2+4 = 20
4. INTERLODGE (USA), Austin & Gwen Fragomen, 8+3+9+3 = 23
5. PHOENIX (RSA), Hasso & Tina Plattner, 11+7+1+6 = 25
6. QUANTUM RACING POWERED BY AMERICAN MAGIC (USA), Doug DeVos, 4+6+3+12 = 25
7. SLED (USA), Takashi Okura, 5+9+8+11 = 33
8. ALEGRE (GBR), Andy Soriano, 10+10+5+8 = 33
9. PROVEZZA (TUR), Ergin Imre, 7+13+12+2 = 34
10. CRIOULA (BRA), Eduardo & Renato Plass, 2+12+13+7 = 34
11. VAYU (THA), Whitcraft Family, 9+5+11+9 = 34
12. ALPHA+ (HKG), Shawn & Tina Kang, 12+4+7+13 = 36
13. TEASING MACHINE (FRA), Eric De Turckheim, 13+11+6+10 = 40