With one day to go Platoon Aviation have set themselves on a course for the 2026 title

At the end of a long, three race day which was contested in mainly light winds Harm Müller-Spreer’s German flagged Platoon Aviation have built themselves a 20 points lead overall in the chase for the 2026 52 SUPER SERIES championship title whilst the 52 SUPER SERIES Valencia Sailing Week regatta title hangs in the balance with Andrea Lacorte’s Alkedo Cetilar holding a one point margin over Pieter Heerema’s No Way Back.

As expected there were some spirited flurries of match racing, mainly pre start, between circuit leaders Platoon Aviation and their nearest challengers Takashi Okura’s Sled, but Platoon Aviation escaped them after a bruising first race which saw Sled claw back two points as they finished 11th in the 16  boat fleet with Platoon Aviation 13th.

After that the 2023 champions Platoon mostly could sail their own races returning a fifth and a fourth to Sled’s eighth and 11th . With the possibility of two races on Saturday, Platoon Aviation are in  a very strong position.

Platoon Aviation’s tactician Vasco Vascotto reported, “Sled kind of fired some bullets from their gun and we resisted. It can still go either way tomorrow but I think that Harm and the guys on board Platoon Aviation did a fantastic job to stay calm and wit for our moments. At the first start something very unexpected happened, one boat kind of went for us instead of thinking of their own race, but the second and third races are good. And I am happy because we did a difficult job against some of the real legends of this sport. I am very proud of our guys.”

Sled’s Don Cowie and his team are remaining upbeat going into their last day, “Yes, well we brought a bit of fireworks and action into today and it went well at times, we pulled back a couple of points on that first race, the next race we were right next to them at the top mark and they managed to squeeze around it. We had to dip a couple of boats they jumped away and that really was it. But you know we are 20 points behind so we want to get that score down and get back on the podium, which would get us back on the podium for four of this season’s five events.”

Regatta leaders Alkedo Cetilar took the victory in the first race of the day, their third winning gun of the event but though they slumped to a 12th a second behind No Way Back in the third race sees them narrowly ahead of the Dutch flagged boat which has Terry Hutchinson as tactician and Kiwi Hamish Pepper as strategist this week.

At the start of the season Andrea Lacorte’s Alkedo set themselves the target of finishing on the podium – having just missed out last year – and winning a regatta. Right now they are on target to achieve both.

“We gained a place today which is great but to go into the final day of the season with Terry Hutchinson and No Way Back one place behind you is pretty stressful but, hey, we are second owner driver, third for the season, leading the regattas so that could be a lot of podiums tomorrow!” smiled Matteo de Luca the bowman on Alkedo Cetilar.

Terry Hutchinson smiled, “We started very well today. We have a new strategist Hamish Pepper and with Michele Ivaldi our navigator they did a brilliant job. In fact it was a great job by the entire team. The difference today was started well, we started consistently and that made it easier. We won two races at the season warm up regatta but that is the first No Way Back race win. This fleet is hard, it is really, really hard, it is a really, really good fleet.”

Alkedo Cetilar won the first race today, Tony Langley’s Gladiator the second and No Way Back the third.

The final day of racing is scheduled to start with a 1330hrs warning signal.

52 SUPER SERIES Valencia Sailing Week Provisional Standings
1. Alkedo Cetilar (ITA), Andrea Lacorte, 10+1+7+1+1+12+2 = 34
2. No Way Back (NED), Pieter Heerema, 4+7+13+3+3+4+1 = 35
3. Platoon Aviation (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer, 6+6+1+5+13+5+4 = 40
4. Paprec (FRA), Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, 2+3+12+7+9+2+14 = 49 
5. Sled, Takashi Okura, 5+5+3+6+11+8+11 = 49 
6. Trinity Racing (SWE), Joakim Sundberg, 1+14+4+4+14+6+8 = 51
7. Gladiator (GBR), Tony Langley, 3+13+15+9+8+1+9 = 58
8. Provezza (TUR), Ergin Imre, 14+4+14+11+5+3+7 = 58
9. Vayu (THA), Whitcraft Family, 8+2+5+2+12+15+15 = 59
10. Katana (USA), John Huhn, 9+9+2+12+7+11+10 = 60 
11. Alpha + (HKG), Shawn & Tina Kang, 11+11+9+8+10+9+3 = 61
12. Caballo Loco (BRA), Mauro Dottori, 16+15+6+10+2+7+16 = 72
13. Crioula (BRA), Eduardo & Renato Plass, 12+16+8+15+6+10+5 = 72
14. Alegre (GBR), Andy Soriano, 13+12+10+13+4+14+12 = 78
15. Teasing Machine (FRA), Eric de Turckheim, 7+8+16+14+15+16+6 = 82
16. Vudu (ITA), Mauro Gestri, 15+10+11+16+16+13+12 = 93

2026 circuit standings after four regattas and seven races in Valencia
1 Platoon Aviation 211 pts
2 Sled 231 pts
3 Alkedo Cetilar 251 pts
4 No Way Back 269 pts
5 Paprec 277pts