The 52 SUPER SERIES Barcelona Sailing Week starts today, and it looks set to be a fitting climax to the most competitive season of the circuit’s first decade. Doug DeVos’ Quantum Racing lead the season standings by just five points ahead of the Plattner family’s Phoenix. 2021 champions, Takashi Okura’s Sled and Harm Müller Spreer’s Platoon are not far behind.
We have faith in SA team Phoenix to lift the season’s trophy! Stepping into the hot seat on Phoenix is owner-driver Tina Plattner who returns to steer Phoenix for the first time since she raced in her home city of Cape Town in February 2020. If she feels rusty she did not show it today in the practice races, and was steering the boat quickly, according to tactician Tom Slingsby.
Slingsby enthused, “It is great to have Tina back. She may not have steered in a few years but she is picking it up again very quickly and sails the boat very fast in a straight line. In the first race today we sailed around people upwind and so that is a good sign. Quantum Racing are the favourites here and they have won the title many times. We won our first event in Portals a couple of regattas back and now we are in with a shot to win the overall. But we are the underdogs we have nothing to lose and will just give it everything and see how it stacks up. We are excited as a team.”
Closer than ever before
Quantum Racing are aiming to make 52 SUPER SERIES history by becoming the only team to win five 52 SUPER SERIES season titles. As victors in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2018 they have never won any of their four circuit titles to date by less than 22 points. Their biggest margin was 59pts in 2016 and their most recent season win, back in 2018, was by 37pts.
DeVos’s US flagged Quantum Racing have won three of the four regattas contested this season, all of the victories secured with the charismatic American owner steering. But although this record might suggest they have enjoyed a certain edge, every event this season has gone to the wire. And it’s very likely to prove a tricky venue to close out the 2022 championship title with shifty, awkward offshore breezes some of the time and perhaps faltering sea breezes.
But can any team stop the well-oiled machine that Quantum Racing have proven themselves to be this year?
Tom Slingsby, tactician on Phoenix has every faith that his team can beat Quantum Racing and win the circuit title which narrowly eluded them last year. “They can be beaten but it won’t be easy. Quantum are a slick team and very fast but this is yacht racing and I have a lot of faith in our team. Last event we started well but I didn’t do well enough on the first beats of each race. We need to round mark 1 in better shape if we want a shot. And I think we are definitely still improving as a team. For sure we have stepped up our game this year to be contenders but we need to keep up that consistent improvement if we want to win this title.”
Rod Davis, Sled’s renowned coach remarks, “Even at 15 points or so they can be picked up. I think with Azzurra we picked up a ten points deficit and then put on ten points in a final regatta. We were ten points down and went on to win the season. Remember, we are really late in the season in Barcelona and if there is a land breeze it can be a roll of the dice. I think it can be like that. But the sea breeze is a little more straightforward where Quantum Racing can use their boatspeed, but remember Phoenix are going very well too.”
Jordi Calafat, Platoon’s strategist believes Quantum Racing have the edge – in part due to a new keel fin this season – and that edge could carry them to the 2022 title, “The changes they have made, and they are sailing very well, they don’t make mistakes and have the talent on board to do it. But the nature of the class just now is everyone has their ups and downs. Phoenix won in Portals and then were down in Scarlino recently. They are sailing well and obviously feel comfortable with their speed.”
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- Rolex TP52 World Championship CASCAIS
A target on their back?
Their record this season means Quantum Racing are favourites in Barcelona, but does that mean they feel the pressure?
Quantum Racing’s team director Ed Reynolds responds with a smile, “I see that at every event in the last ten years we have gone in with a target on our backs. But you would not have it any other way. It is easy to be an underdog, you have nothing to lose but teams which have established a level of proficiency, and are expected to be there at the end, that takes a whole different mindset. It is hard to win when everyone expects you to win. I love that. You see it throughout sport. It is about being able to respond to the added pressure of being favourites and I back this team every time. I would not have it any other way.”
Reynolds concludes, “But it would be really special to win in Barcelona. Not just because it’s where we started with the 52 SUPER SERIES, but it is Quantum’s European headquarters where we have been here for 25 years. And I love the culture of this team and the way they step up and rally when there is a setback. Scarlino was incredibly emotional for us with Warwick Fleury (long time mainsail trimmer) not being able to be with us because of his health, and Rodney Ardern having to go home due to a family emergency. It took us a little while to get ramped up but everyone stepped up and rallied. We were really rolling at the end. And now we would love to win it with Doug steering. There is a real element of pride in that if, and I say ‘if’, we could win this event Doug would have steered and won at four events of five.”
A tougher ask
Winning the 2022 season title would be tougher for 2021 champions Sled and Platoon. The German flagged team are 28 points behind the leader whilst Sled are 32.5 points behind in fourth place. Platoon finished strongly in Scarlino as the new afterguard line up started to work well.
Looking to win their first regatta of the season Platoon’s strategist Calafat is positive, “Now we have to prove this can work. It is another learning process and we have to make it better a every event. Vasco is a very positive guy, and it is good to go through the down moments with a positive guy around you. We all have our downs. It is easy when you are sailing well but it is always difficult when you have bad day. Having someone positive with lots of energy like Vasco is great.”
Sled, second in Scarlino, are also looking to finish on a high having come close to winning Tuscany.
Coach Davis says,“We have done two very solid regattas now back to back, and the second half of the Worlds in Cascais was very solid. So we could win in Barcelona, for sure we can. We need to capitalise on the four main things; the first beats, starts, speed, wind structure and where you go and fleet management. Where you go on the race course is the hardest, and we will concentrate more on that as the other things, we feel, are rolling along quite nicely.”
A full racing fleet
A full ten-boat fleet will race in Barcelona as the French Paprec team return with the Petithuguenin family’s Spirit of Malouen XI. This latest Paprec TP52 is now the fleet’s most recent Botin Partners design. Next season Sébastien Petithuguenin will be steering. But Hugues Destremau will drive with a well established French crew in Barcelona.
52 SUPER SERIES 2022 Provisional standings after four of five regattas
- QUANTUM RACING (USA), Doug DeVos, 19+33+44+34 = 130 pts.
- PHOENIX (RSA), Hasso & Tina Plattner, 27+42+25+41 = 135 pts.
- PLATOON (GER), Harm Müller-Spreer, 26+40+51+41= 158 pts.
- SLED (USA), Takashi Okura, 43,5+44+36+39 = 162,5 pts.
- ALEGRE (GBR), Andy Soriano, 43+41+52+46 = 182 pts.
- PROVEZZA (TUR), Ergin Imre, 61+54+42+46 = 203 pts.
- VAYU (THA), Whitcraft Family, 45+54+79+54 = 232 pts.
- INTERLODGE (USA), Austin & Gwen Fragomen, 39+71+50+75 = 235 pts.
- GLADIATOR (GBR), Tony Langley, 60+73+71+77,5 = 278,5 pts.
Five days of LIVE TV
For the first time ever all of the action on all five days of racing will be broadcast live from the race courses. Expert commentary from four times 52 SUPER SERIES champion, Guille Parada will be informative and interesting.
Follow the racing LIVE, streamed every day on the 52 SUPER SERIES website and social network channels.
52 SUPER SERIES Youtube channel
