Paul Cayar
Rob Weiland
Not bad!
No doubt about it, this year’s Rolex TP52 World Championship in Cascais was a real test of men and machine, certainly the final two days in 25kt+ conditions. All nine races were broadcast live; a mix of images from cameras onboard the TP52s, drones and RIBs brought the action live to com- puters all over the world and was widely watched
with peak views of near 5,000 and total views of near 400,000. In itself this is small fry compared with other sports but as the
images are also picked up for broadcast by well-known channels like CNN MainSail, Euro News, the World Sailing Show and the Nau- tical Channel a potentially massive audience saw and will see one or more reports on the event. Coupled with that all 52 Super Series outings on Facebook, Twitter and the 52 Super Series website are measured and this ‘audit’ tells us that these have been displayed or viewed 2.8 million times in July 2018 alone. That cannot be just family watching their beloved… In the end the winning display of sailing skill was produced by
Quantum Racing and its battle-hardened team directed by Terry Hutchinson. Dean Barker on the helm is not a bad asset in these conditions, as was the boat and sails staying in one piece throughout all nine high-octane races. With the Azzurra team equally in their element it was never going
to be an easy victory, however. Just compare the numbers, Quantum with 2,1,3,4,1,5,1,5,1 for 23pt with a strong start and finish by Azzurra going 1,2,2,7,6,1,5,1,2 for 27pt… simply dropping too many points in races 4 and 5 to grab gold.
30 SEAHORSE Where these two pro-driver teams were showing great composure
clearly Luna Rossa are still battling imperfection, mainly caused by launching their boat late, as well as not being the collective yet that it takes to match a team like Quantum. Tony Rey, Peter Holmberg and all onboard Provezza had a tough
old week – not much went their way and quite frankly most of it is self-inflicted. Too many small equipment failures do not help but the team have not yet been even close to the team they were and which we loved so much last year. Also, Platoon made life very difficult for themselves but I bet that for the 2017 TP52 World Champion this is a one-off slip of concentration. A big slip, however, costing them joint 2nd overall to drop to 5th. But the frustration when things go wrong is easily matched by the joy of those who get it right. Azzurra I guess are relieved to claw back on the overall podium
after two disappointing events. Certainly Alegre and Sled look back at a great championship. Both boats owner driven, Alegre by Andy Soriano and Sled by Takashi Okura, fighting till the final race in Cas- cais to be in bronze position as well as for the owner-driver trophy. In the end it was Andy Soriano who drew the long straw with a
margin of 1pt over Tak Okura. But for Team Sled this was the third solid performance of the series and so after three events they are firmly in 2nd overall with 115pt. Behind Quantum (96) and in front of Azzurra (125). Some might disagree but to me 52 Super Series is foremost the
most prestigious sailing opportunity for owner-drivers to match their skills with high-level pro-drivers, not just at the end of the joystick but also when it comes to planning and managing and motivating the
NICO MARTINEZ
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