You have to kiss a few frogs to meet your prince and so with today’s peerless TP52 fleet it took a long time and a lot of pain to get to the inch-perfect level of racing you see in the modern Super Series fleet. In the early days of the Audi MedCup sights like the broaching Cristabella (opposite) wrestling in Porto Cervo with one of those quaint old spinnaker poles were not uncommon. Cristabella would later leave the fleet when her cradle blew over ashore. There was also plenty of mano-a-mano between boats with collisions not infrequent as the new TP52 crews – professionals and mixed pro-am teams – got used to close racing in big, fast keelboats, many of which were similar in performance. Few were spared… this is multiple gold medallist Jochen Schümann (left) wondering just where his bowsprit went
Series, and the many races and events in which TP52s and IRC52s race on corrected time. Rebuilding the photo library I notice the sailors ageing over the years and that this is in a funny but encour- aging contrast to the boats. These stay in tune with their time and if anything look fresher and in better shape than 20 years ago, giving me a bit of confidence that we can do things that change our world in a positive way… even though I am the first to admit I could have chosen many things of potentially more impact to achieve a better world than upgrading the TP52 rule over 15 years or so. I hope I will be forgiven for that choice one day. In general I see
happy faces on the shore and intense ones on the water. I see much emotion, great prizegivings and great parties. A few angry faces too, but I remember all of them and remember how we struggled forwards to understanding and smiles. Talking about trophies, anything else but a decent watch soon is a problem… One of the more obscure details of our trophy history is the quite
outrageous trophy that was presented at the 2006 TP52 Global Championship. In the words of Tom Pollack, the first TP52 class president: ‘My idea was that we needed to have a trophy for the event that was unlike any other sailing trophy in the world at the time. Talking to my good friend and college roommate Jim Deme- triades, who by then had sold his TP52 Yassou to have more time raising their five young kids, we came up with Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, rising out of a silver wave, trident and all, looking down on a TP52. ‘We then contracted the Gentle Giant Studio in Burbank, California
who specialised in making Hollywood movie props (including bringing King Kong to Times Square). They brought the idea to life and con- structed the first TP52 Global Championship Trophy with a sophis- ticated 3D sculpting machine. ‘We also had a beautiful 7ft 6in tall LED trophy case with glass
sides that allowed the huge trophy to spin silently to be seen from all sides. When it was relocated it then required flying in a team of two guys to set it up and take it down!! ‘The Poseidon trophy was unveiled at the Gianni Versace Mansion
during the 2006 Rolex TP52 Global Championship in Miami, Florida. People looked a bit stunned. The press ate it up and it was in every sailing magazine all over the world, no smartphones with cameras back then and not much social media. ‘Eamon Conneely, the owner of Patches, won the event and we
shipped the trophy to his place of business in Ireland, from where it got paraded around the country! Then the plan was to ship it to Porto Cervo for display at the YCCS. Because the trophy weighed 125kg (lots of silver and gold plating) it did not just cost a small fortune, near US$100K, to make but also to ship it around the world. Eventually Jim and I brought it back to Los Angeles. ‘In 2007 it was repurposed with new design elements for the
2007 Transpac race where Roy and Leslie Disney were making the Morning Light movie featuring the TP52 Morning Light. The new “First TP52 to Finish Transpac Race” trophy was won by John Kilroy in Samba Pa Ti with the young Morning Light crew taking second. ‘Since the TP52 Poseidon trophy proved too large and heavy to
ship back and forth to Hawaii it got retired and now sits in Jim Deme- triades’s library at his home in Beverly Hills. The Poseidon trophy served its purpose garnering media and new owner attention for the TP52 class and like an old racehorse who won every graded stakes race he entered it was put out to pasture.’ When I became class manager, back in 2006, discussing the
2007 TP52 Worlds with our sponsor, it was soon made clear to me that paying for shipping the Poseidon trophy was not going to be a sound basis for longtime partnership. Thinking back, a return trip of the trophy from and to California was not much different in cost from shipping a TP52 across the Atlantic. I then got a new trophy made by a well-known Dutch glass artist…
which did not survive its first trip from Holland to Porto Cervo. However, we continue to use its plexiglass base (which maybe did cost 300 euros!) mainly to sandblast the plate with text, which now has the names on it of all previous winners and as such is priceless to hold and possess for a year. Well, priceless… Let’s say it costs a small fortune to get your
name on it, but for 14 years now as a crown on one’s sailing career it continues to be worth every cent. May it be battled for for many more years! Another memorable Tom Pollack Trophy was the Beretta Silver
Pigeon IV shotgun, which Tom awarded as the first-place TP52 class trophy to Makoto Uematsu, the owner of Esmeralda III, the all- conquering Farr-designed and Goetz-built TP52 masterminded by Ken Read and project managed by Bob Wylie, when his team won the 2004 Chicago to Mackinaw Race. As the story goes Mr Uematsu got stopped at Tokyo Airport
attempting to pass customs with a US$3,500 shotgun without the appropriate paperwork! Perhaps he thought it was a reproduction? Oops! Always good for a smile later on. Rob Weiland, class manager TP52 and Maxi72 classes
SEAHORSE 37 q
CARLO BORLENGHI/STEFANO GATTINI
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