Rob Weiland
Most satisfactory
Looking back on two hot and steamy weeks in Mallorca where we held the Puerto Portals 52 Super Series and the Copa del Rey, there is every reason to be pleased. In Puerto Portals we saw the fifth different winner from the five 2017 Super Series events we have completed so far: Quantumin Key West, Azzurra in Miami, Platoon
in Scarlino, Ránin Porto Cervo and Provezzain Puerto Portals. Three owner-driver and two pro-driver wins. The Provezza win was special, not just because it was the first
time Ergin Imre and his pro-am team took the highest stage at a Super Series event, but also because they had been close to a win twice before this year and seemed to have developed a depressing talent for sailing themselves off the podium on the final day. Not this time, however, much to their own delight of course but
noticeably also to the delight of all the other teams. This was very visible at an emotional prizegiving ceremony; Ergin is the archetypal passionate boat owner as well as a strong believer in creating time for the social aspects of our sport, like bringing family and friends to events, good crew and owners dinners, or just a decent conver- sation. And as such he is truly liked. Let’s say if anybody had to win this one and it is not to be ‘us’ then it should be him. A more ‘technical’ observation I can make is that for the first
time since we saw nine new TP52s built for the 2015 Super Series it seems the Vrolijk-designed boats are now on a par with the Botín designs. With statistics one can prove anything, but if we look over the past three years we saw four Vrolijk podium places in 2015 and 11 for Botín; three Vrolijk and 12 Botín in 2016; this year for the first five events we’ve had seven Vrolijk and eight Botín. There is some bias in this as the two teams who have competed
the longest in the MedCup and Super Series and are generally considered the most professional outfits, Azzurra and Quantum, both campaign Botín-designed boats. To illustrate my point, in the past three years Azzurra and Quantum
24 SEAHORSE
were good for 23 podium places out of a total of 45. For the overall Super Series trophies in 2015 it was Quantum 1st and Azzurra 2nd, in 2016 the roles were reversed and for 2017 it is still wide open between Azzurra (182pt), Platoon (185pt) and Quantum (188pt). I put my money on Platoon. A big responsibility for Harm Müller-Spreer, John Kostecki and friends of course not to make me look silly but with two dogs fighting for a bone… With no easy explanation (or excuse) in the equipment any more –
whether we’re talking the boats, the sails (nobody will deny Quantum is on a par with the big blue now in 52 racing, even I can see that), or the rigs (all Southern) – we can agree it is down to how one manages equipment optimisation and tuning, the team, the sailing and the expectations and emotions. Plenty to improve still, in all departments. Equipment develop-
ment will never stop. The new boats for 2018, now being designed, will undoubtedly have more potential than the 2015 generation. Possibly not straight away but they will be faster sooner or later. Sail development never stops, crews will get better. How many new boats? More than a handful but not yet close to
two hands full. Running out of building space and equipment suppliers already scratching their heads. Our industry is clearly very small if six to eight TP52s can push the limits of production… At the (open) Copa del Rey regatta in IRC1 we saw 10 TP52s
completely dominate in a 16-boat start. Other than Alegre and Paprec Recyclage these were not battle-hardened 52 Super Series teams but a good variety of pro and am sailors in a fleet of TPs and IRC52s spanning 10 years of age and with all kinds of variation in term of TP52/IRC optimisation. Once the dust had settled the first non-TP52 was the 63ft
Reichel/Pugh-designed Lucky finishing in 8th overall. The podium was made up of the 2015 Botín-designed TP Alegre in first with one race to spare, the 2008 build (ex-Artemis) Reichel/Pugh-designed Team Vision2nd and then the 2011 build (ex-Rán) Vrolijk-designed Paprec Recyclage. The recently acquired Botín-designed 2014 build
NICO MARTINEZ
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