The talent saturating the TP52 Super Series makes a foregone conclusion of any debate about the world’s premier grand prix sailing circuit of 2017. Among those backing up owner-driver Vladimir Liubomirov on Bronenosec (to windward) are multiple Cup-veterans Ray Davies, Tommaso Chieffi, Paul ‘Flipper’ Westlake, Simon Daubney and Steve Erickson. Among the similarly gold-plated crew on Ergin Imre’s Provezza you will find Peter Holmberg driving this season, plus Tony Rey, Nacho Postigo, Daniel Fong and with former Cup skipper John Cutler in the coach boat… Not the class to turn up to after a late night
Phoenix, helmed by father and daughter Plattner, finished in 4th after a week of being on and off the podium.
As a distant observer, but on the other hand so close, having observed all these boats when racing under their first owners, it was great to hear the feedback from the teams about how much they enjoyed racing their boats and sailing the 52s in close competition. To see Andrés Soriano and his team win in such confident style, after losing a brand new rig in June (issue 451) and having a consequently tough week in Puerto Portals, certainly pleased me too. Their win with a full TP52 class rule-compliant boat in a fleet of mainly IRC-optimised 52s almost made me feel somewhat confident we are not doing that badly. Copa del Rey is a good barometer for sailing in the Med. For sure the event, with 138 boats competing this year, is back with record numbers of competitors taking up all available dock space. From the clubhouse the trend towards class and level racing was very visible – just looking at the rigs forming groups of masts of the same height. It was never before as obvious as this year. If I count the 10 TPs in IRC1 as level rating and see the large number of class boats, like Swan 45s (4), 42s (3), X-35s (4) and Dufour 34s (5) racing in ORC, below the 50ft mark the one-off hand- icap racer appears to be on the way out, even for events of this level. On the other hand, quite a few owners still prefer the vagaries of handicap racing above being somewhat restrained by class rules and management. I just observe there is room for both tastes and, well-ruled and well-managed, both will continue to fare well. With the grand finale of the 52 Super Series 2017 coming up in Mahón in Menorca, we will soon know the outcome of this year’s TP52 competition. We seem to be heading for quite an exciting 2018 with new teams, new boats, well-known names returning, new locations. New opportunities for sure. For the first event and for the first time 52 Super Series will travel to Croatia and race from D-Marin’s new Marina Mandalina in Sibenik (22-27 May). Hope to see you there.
Rob Weiland is TP52 and Maxi72 class manager SEAHORSE 25
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